Breastfeeding Mama Workout Guide-Exercising and Breastfeeding

Congrats on your baby. Your child is very lucky! You had a safe delivery and your baby is healthy. Thinking about how to get back in the gym and get in shape again? You’re not alone, we’re all have the same thought! Make sure that you give the once-over to this post before you hit the gym in order to make sure you’ll be taking a fair balance between exercising and breastfeeding.

Going to the gym few times a week, love doing some high-intensity workouts, therefore you must be a very energetic woman. In other words, you would like to get back to your normal routine as soon as you can as you feel tough and content when exercising. You also want to lose the extra weight you have put on while pregnant.

As a breastfeeding mama, you’ll enjoy many benefits of exercise including toning and improving muscle strength, losing pregnancy weight, and improving your energy and overall mental well-being. Your body just went through a major transformation and it takes time to get your body back to your desired shape.

Thus, you should take baby steps when you are presenting workout back again to your life. Before moving to high-intensity workouts, it would be better for you to begin with some low impact workouts. This is because low impact workouts could help you to avoid from injuring your body, feeling drained and changing your milk supply.

Start slow and find what will work for your lifestyle. If working out is a priority to you, put it on your daily schedule. But, if your body refuses to take it, just rest. Be kind to yourself and your body.

Losing weight while breastfeeding can be safe as long as you maintain a nutritious and balanced diet. Many people eat less because they are too worried about gaining weight. However, most breastfeeding mums need to consume at least 1,800 calories per day. You will require extra energy if you are breastfeeding and exercising, therefore foods you eat are vitally important.

As a breastfeeding mum, hydration is key when you’re exercising and if you are dehydrated and you milk supply has dropped, your body has to cling to something to work the other pathways and water is the primary source of that. Thus, don’t forget to drink plenty of water before, during, and after your workouts. Drinking enough water and limiting your caffeine intake is crucial to maintain a good milk supply as well.

Staying active while breastfeeding is so important for mums to make sure they are taking care of themselves. However, you have to ensure that you are gaining sufficient electrolytes in your diet too. Nausea, fatigue, cramps and higher heartbeats are some symptoms that you are having not enough electrolytes.

Hence, you must rest and consume more electrolytes when you are feeling super duper tired. Some electrolyte-rich beverages you may want to add to your health and wellness tool kit are coconut water, milk and fruit juices and you could even blend them all together with to make smoothies.

In order to replace the electrolytes lost in sweat, it is recommended that you drink electrolyte-enhanced water over regular drinking water before or after exercising.

Strenuous exercise can cause lactic acid to build up in your body and enter your breast milk, giving your usually sweet milk a bitter taste. Sweat can also change the taste of breast milk making the breasts taste salty. Some babies are not bothered by these changes, but others may refuse to breastfeed.

If this happens consistently, you could try decrease your workout intensity a bit in the future. You also could try expressing a little milk before nursing your baby or postponing feeding your baby for a half hour in order to let the lactic acid levels subside. Other than that, you could remove the sweat and salty taste away by wiping your breasts before nursing your baby.