Fitness entrepreneur Kayla Itsines has revealed exactly how much she exercised while pregnant with her daughter Arna, her daily eating habits and what she thinks about supplements and protein shakes.
The 28-year-old mother and owner of the internationally acclaimed Bikini Body Guide (BBG) gets asked a lot of questions about her diet and training habits from more than 11million followers.
So the South Australia-based gym lover decided to address some of the most popular queries on her website, offering helpful tips for those embarking on a weight loss journey or returning to exercise after a baby.
Kayla Itsines has revealed exactly how much she exercised while pregnant with her daughter Arna (pictured before she got pregnant)
Kayla, 28, with her newborn daughter Arna
Firstly, Kayla wasn’t able to train for the first 16 weeks of her pregnancy because she was suffering from morning sickness, something many of her fans didn’t realise.
‘After that I was able to be a bit more active. I did a lot of workouts at home and my exercises were all modified for pregnancy,’ she said.
‘I walked as much as I could but I also had restless leg syndrome and sciatica [pain along the sciatic nerve from your back down your legs] which made me a lot more uncomfortable in the last few weeks of pregnancy.’
The first type of exercise Kayla tried six weeks after giving birth was walking on the treadmill, something she would have done just to warm up for her regular BBG session pre-pregnancy
She quit the gym again in the last four weeks before Arna was born in April 2019 and didn’t start again until six weeks postpartum.
The first type of exercise Kayla tried was walking on the treadmill, something she would have done just to warm up for her regular BBG session pre-pregnancy.
‘I was thinking that it would be no problem for me but I was wrong. I only lasted 14 minutes and felt completely exhausted after,’ she said.
She heavily modified the exercises in her BBG Stronger workout app and completed rehabilitation classes with her physiotherapist and obstetrician to rebuild her core after the c-section.
It wasn’t until Arna was 16 weeks old that Kayla finally felt ready to return to her normal training routine.
The only other time the business mogul skips her sessions is the few days she’s on her period and feeling ‘unwell’ each month.
Many of her fans asked how she manages to stay so motivated in between travelling to promote her apps, including SWEAT with was co-founded with her fiance Tobi Pearce, a juggling a newborn.
On her blog Kayla said it’s not pure bursts of motivation that help her get into the gym five days a week, but rather establishing a routine – like meal prepping every Sunday.
She doesn’t use supplements or pre-workout shakes to garner extra energy, believing the vast majority of them have artificial additives.
For breakfast during her busy working weeks Kayla will opt for eggs on toast with spinach, or smashed avocado on toast to indulge on the weekends
Instead she relies on wholefoods to keep her body in check, preferring not to follow a ‘specific diet’ but eating in a ‘Mediterranean-style’ that reflects her Greek-Australian roots.
For breakfast during her busy working weeks Kayla will opt for eggs on toast with spinach, or smashed avocado on toast to indulge on the weekends.
Her go-to snack is a blueberry, banana and green tea smoothie followed by vegetable sticks with dips like hummus.
Vietnamese rolls are the best lunch option when she’s feeding Arna or walking into a business meeting.
Her go-to snack is a blueberry, banana and green tea smoothie followed by vegetable sticks with dips like hummus
Kayla tends to indulge at dinnertime with share plates cooked by her entire family.
She continued the detailed Q&A by saying she gets a lot of questions about ways her followers can ‘spot reduce’ fat, but sadly, there isn’t an easy answer.
While there are things you can do to lose fat overall there is no one way to make your waist smaller or legs slimmer.
Kayla and Tobi have built a fitness empire worth $487million in the six years since they met in an Adelaide gym.
The couple have made almost half a billion dollars through Sweat with Kayla, a workout app based on Kayla’s personal exercise routine which she calls the ‘Bikini Body Guide’ (BBG).
The first-time parents have been ranked numbers 206 and 207 on Australia’s Rich list, making them the youngest people ever featured.
They announced their engagement in April 2018 but are yet to marry.