The Season of Rebuilding

You spent nine months growing a baby. Your nutrition needs don't suddenly disappear when your baby is born.

If anything, postpartum is when your body needs to be nourished more intentionally than ever.

In the midsts of pregnancy, most women are pretty comfortable with the idea that they need to eat more. You're growing a baby, your blood volume is increasing, your body is building the placenta, and you're preparing for birth and breastfeeding.

But once the baby is here, suddenly it feels like moms are in a rush to cut calories to lose the “baby weight” as quickly as possible. 

We quickly forget that our body just did something extraordinary. It needs to be rebuilt, not restricted.

One of the most important places to start is protein.

Your Protein Needs Don't End When Your Baby Is Born

Protein needs increase during pregnancy because your body is building new tissue for you and baby.

Here’s some data: 

The official Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) increases from 0.8 g/kg per day for the average adult to about 1.1 g/kg during pregnancy 

And then it increases to 1.3 g/kg during lactation.

Let's break down what that actually looks like. For a 120-pound woman, the official guidelines would translate to approximately:

• Average adult: 0.8 g/kg = ~44 g protein/day

• Pregnancy: 1.1 g/kg = ~60 g protein/day

• Breastfeeding: 1.3 g/kg = ~71 g protein/day

It doesn’t take much to see that as your body continues to support and grow your baby, your nutritional needs increase. We'll get into some other opinions of what an optimal protein goal should be shortly.

Just in case you forgot, you're building your baby's tissues and organs, supporting the placenta, increasing your blood volume, preparing your body for breastfeeding, and building new maternal tissue. After birth, your body has to repair and recover while potentially producing breast milk around the clock. 

Giving birth doesn't mean your body's nutritional demands are over. It marks the beginning of your rebuilding phase.

So How Much Protein Do You Actually Need?

This is where there can be a lot of confusion.

You may see the RDA recommendations of 60-70 between pregnancy and breastfeeding and assume that's what you should aim for.

And to be clear, those numbers may work for you. But, it's important to understand what those numbers actually represent.

The RDA is designed to meet the basic needs of the general population. It's not necessarily an optimal target for someone who is trying to build or maintain muscle, recover from a physically demanding season, or support a highly active lifestyle. Given the incredible demands pregnancy and postpartum place on the body, there’s good reason to consider whether a higher protein intake may be more optimal than the current RDA suggests.

Venison Breakfast Porridge from Restorative Roots

An Argument For More Protein: 

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, author of Forever Strong, takes what she calls a muscle-centric approach to nutrition, meaning she views skeletal muscle as a key driver of metabolic health, strength, and healthy aging. Her recommendations are approximately 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight per day.

So, for example, if your healthy goal weight is around 120 pounds, that framework would put you at approximately 120 grams of protein per day. She specifically uses ideal body weight rather than current body weight so that protein needs aren't unnecessarily inflated by excess body fat.

For most women that is probably a big jump in protein compared to what you’re currently consuming. The higher protein recommendation is based on research showing that protein intake above the RDA can better support muscle protein synthesis (MPS), particularly when protein is divided up throughout the day and contains enough essential amino acids such as leucine. 

Leucine is an essential amino acid that your body can’t make on its own. You have to get it through nutrition. The reason why Leucine is so important is because Its primary function is to trigger muscle protein synthesis and is essential in order to build and repair skeletal muscle.

The National Academies specifically notes that the existing pregnancy/lactation protein estimates were based on older methods and that alternative methods have suggested higher requirements.

So, if you’re looking to lose “baby weight” and want to focus on losing fat, NOT lean muscle, then enough leucine is key during this period. 

Some Caveats

Eating more protein may be a huge help in rebuilding your body post birth and losing the baby weight while building lean muscle, however, your individual needs will vary, so this shouldn't replace individualized medical or nutrition advice.

If you’re just starting to increase your protein intake, start small! Adding 60 grams overnight probably won’t feel great. Focus on adding a little more protein to each meal and paying attention to what makes you feel your best. You don’t need to force-feed yourself to hit a number.

What About Losing the Baby Weight?

Wanting to feel comfortable and confident in your body again isn't something you should feel guilty about. Trust us, we’ve been there. This is where increasing your protein, like we talked about above, can really help. Because when most women say they want to “lose the baby weight,” what they usually mean is: I want to feel good in my clothes again. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

But aggressively cutting calories, especially in early postpartum, isn't the answer. Your body is still healing, rebuilding tissue, and recovering from pregnancy and birth. You need to fuel that process, while giving your body time to adjust.

Getting enough protein can help support your goal of losing body fat while preserving lean muscle. And that's ultimately what helps create that “I feel confident in my clothes again” feeling, not simply watching the number on the scale go down.

Protein also has a higher thermic effect of food (TEF) than carbohydrates or fat, meaning your body uses more energy to digest and process it. Roughly 20–30% of protein’s calories are used during digestion and processing, compared with about 5–10% for carbohydrates and 0–3% for fat.

And remember: muscle matters.

It’s what helps you feel strong carrying your baby, getting up off the floor, climbing stairs, pushing the stroller, and eventually getting back to the activities you love. Your goal postpartum shouldn't just be to weigh less, it should be to feel strong, nourished, and confident in your body again.

Think Protein First

One of my favorite ways to make this simple is build your meals around a quality protein source first. Then add your carbohydrates, healthy fats, vegetables, and fruit around it.

For example:

Breakfast

Instead of coffee and toast:

• 2 Eggs + Yogurt + potatoes + fruit (protein = 28g)
• Coffee + quality protein powder + 2 eggs (protein = 32g)
• Venison Breakfast Porridge  - view here!  (protein = 17g)

Lunch

Instead of cheese and a banana:

• Chicken + rice + cooked vegetables + bone broth (protein = 33g)
• Hearty Sausage Stew view here! + Cottage Cheese (protein = 26g)

Snack

Instead of a granola bar:

• Greek yogurt + berries (protein = 15g)
• A simple meat stick (protein = 12g)
• Equip protein shake - try our fav clean protein with 10% off here! (20g)

All about 12 grams of protein

Dinner

• Chicken, beef, lamb, or fish + rice or potatoes + vegetables + a nourishing fat (protein = about 30 grams)
• Primal No-Bean Chili or Creamy Chicken Congee (protein = about 20 grams)

This puts you at around 90-100 grams of protein for the day.

A Simple Postpartum Protein Goal

If you're overwhelmed by all of this, keep it simple. You don't need to calculate every bite. Try working toward:

25–40 grams of protein at each meal

Quality Protein Matters, Too

One more thing we have to mention is that high protein has become a bit of a fad. There are protein chips, ice creams, pretzels, poptarts…pretty much every food seems to have a “protein” option now!

Keep in mind there's a big nutritional difference between eating ultra-processed “high protein” food and eating natural foods rich in protein. Here’s a quick list of clean simple protein to base your day around:

• Eggs
• Pasture-raised chicken
• Grass-fed beef
• Lamb
• Wild-caught fish
• Cottage cheese
• Plain Greek yogurt
• Kefir
• Bone broth
• Simple meat sticks
• Occasional quality protein shake or bar - view our top protein bar list here!

These foods provide protein alongside other nutrients your postpartum body needs. And this is something I think we sometimes miss when we become overly focused on macros.

Food is more than its protein grams.

A slow-cooked meal like our Mongolian Beef Stew, made with grass-fed, organ-blend ground beef, fresh ginger, garlic, and earthy mushrooms, isn't just high in protein, it's a nourishing, nutrient-dense meal designed to support your body from the inside out.

The Restorative Roots Approach

At Restorative Roots, we believe postpartum food should do more than simply fill you up.

It should be deeply nourishing, nutrient-dense, comforting, and easy to digest, because the last thing a new mom needs is another complicated task on her list.

That's why our meals are built around things like quality proteins, bone broth, nourishing fats, slow-cooked meats, and whole-food ingredients.

You can view our postpartum menu here and get your very own nourishing meals for whatever stage of motherhood you’re in.

Sources & Further Readings: 

• Dr. Gabrielle Lyon & Dr. Andrew Huberman. “The Truth About Protein.” YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwHlyLEZJYY
• Institute of Medicine. (2000). Dietary Reference Intakes: Applications in Dietary Assessment — Summary Table: Recommended Intakes for Individuals. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9956.
• Tang, M., et al. (2020). Protein Requirements of Healthy Lactating Women Are Higher Than the Current Recommendations. The Journal of Nutrition, 150(6), 1428–1436. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7257931/