75 Hard While Pregnant or Breastfeeding
Why the official 75 Hard rules clash with pregnancy and breastfeeding, what ACOG and the CDC actually say, and how to build a gentler custom challenge.
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This article is educational and is not medical advice. Pregnancy and the postpartum period are individual, and so is the right amount of exercise, food and fluid for you. Talk to your OB-GYN, midwife, or a lactation consultant before you start or change a training routine, a diet, or a hydration target. Nothing here is clearance to begin.
Can you do 75 Hard while pregnant or breastfeeding?
No, not the official program, in either window. 75 Hard is built to be non-negotiable, and pregnancy and lactation are exactly the periods when food, exertion, fluid and recovery all have to stay negotiable. Four of the five rules collide with that physiology, and the restart rule makes every collision worse.
75 Hard, created by Andy Frisella, is a registered trademark of 44Seven Media, LLC. This article discusses that program. It does not offer a version of it.
No trial has ever tested 75 Hard in pregnant or nursing bodies, so the accurate word is untested, not proven harmful. The case against it is structural: the rules forbid the adjustments that pregnancy and breastfeeding guidance asks you to make.
Movement itself is not the villain. ACOG’s Committee Opinion 804 (2020) puts it plainly: “In the absence of obstetric or medical complications or contraindications, physical activity in pregnancy is safe and desirable.” The discipline you are after is available to you. It just does not have to come from two-a-days and a Day 1 restart.
What the official 75 Hard rules actually require
The official rules page lists five daily tasks for 75 consecutive days:
- Follow a structured diet “with zero deviations, zero excuses, zero alcohol, and absolutely NO CHEAT MEALS.”
- Complete two workouts, each “a minimum of 45 minutes long,” at least three hours apart. One “MUST BE OUTSIDE.”
- Drink one gallon of water.
- Read 10 pages of nonfiction (“audiobooks DO NOT COUNT”).
- Take a daily progress picture.
Two framing rules matter more than the five tasks. The program is sold under the banner “ZERO COMPROMISES & ZERO SUBSTITUTIONS,” and if you fail to complete a task, you restart the whole 75 days from the beginning.
Every accommodation a pregnancy or a newborn will ask of you (a rest day, a smaller meal, a bigger meal, an indoor session in a heat wave, a different hydration target) is defined by the program as failure.
The official position: there isn’t one
Nobody else writing about this topic seems to have checked. The official 75 HARD help center publishes no pregnancy or breastfeeding guidance at all. Its fifteen FAQ entries cover food, water additives, splitting workouts, bad weather, books and religious practice. None mention pregnancy.
Its only medical language is generic, and it appears as a footnote to an answer about altering the program: “You should consult your physician or other health care professional before starting 75 HARD or any other fitness program to determine if it is right for your needs. Do not start 75 HARD if your physician or health care provider advises against it.” That is the whole of it. The rules page itself carries no disclaimer.
Notice what that footnote hangs off. The question is “I struggle with ‘xyz’, can I alter the program?” and the answer is no: the tasks “must be done with 0 compromise and 0 deviation.”
A 2021 episode of Frisella’s Q&AF podcast is titled around the question, so people have clearly asked. We could not verify the content of the answer, so we are not going to characterize it. No written guidance exists, and the internet has filled the gap with anecdotes.
Where the rules collide with pregnancy
Exercise volume
You will see people claim that ACOG recommends 150 minutes a week and 75 Hard demands 630, so the program is four times over the line. That argument does not hold, and a well-read reader will spot it. ACOG’s 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week is a floor, not a cap. Committee Opinion 804 says directly that women “who habitually engaged in vigorous-intensity aerobic activity or who were physically active before pregnancy can continue these activities during pregnancy and the postpartum period.”
The real objections to 90 minutes a day, every day, are more specific:
- Intensity is meant to be monitored, and the rules do not monitor it. ACOG states that “an upper level of safe exercise intensity has not been established,” and that women who exercised regularly before an uncomplicated pregnancy “should be able to engage in high-intensity exercise programs, such as jogging and aerobics, with no adverse effects.” There is no published ceiling to point at. What ACOG gives you instead is a way to gauge moderate intensity: a rating of perceived exertion of 13 to 14 (“somewhat hard”) on the Borg scale, or the talk test, since “as long as a woman can carry on a conversation while exercising, she likely is not overexerting herself.” It also says exercise should be “adjusted as medically indicated.” A program built on zero substitutions has no mechanism for adjusting anything.
- Length, and the fuel it needs. ACOG is specific about long sessions: “High-intensity or prolonged exercise in excess of 45 minutes can lead to hypoglycemia; therefore, adequate caloric intake before exercise, or limiting the intensity or length of the exercise session, is essential to minimize this risk.” Read that against the 75 Hard rulebook and two rules fight each other. The workout rule sets 45 minutes as the floor, twice a day. The diet rule forbids you from changing what you eat around it.
- Progression. ACOG says previously sedentary women “should follow a more gradual progression of exercise.” Starting at 90 minutes a day on Day 1 is the opposite of a gradual progression.
- Rest. No rest day across 75 days. Pregnancy already changes sleep and recovery, and nothing in the rules leaves room for that.
The mandatory outdoor workout
ACOG’s guidance for exercising while pregnant: “stay well hydrated, wear loose-fitting clothing, and avoid high heat and humidity to protect against heat stress, particularly during the first trimester.”
It also says that “prolonged exercise should be performed in a thermoneutral environment or in controlled environmental conditions.” A rule that sends you outdoors every day for 75 days, with no cover allowed and no weather exemption, will eventually point you into a July afternoon.
The diet rule: the problem is rigidity, not restriction
The rule does not mandate a calorie deficit. It says to follow a diet “geared toward YOUR GOALS.” What it mandates is that once you have chosen, you cannot adjust: zero deviations, no cheat meals, zero substitutions, restart on any miss.
Pregnancy requires exactly the flexibility that rule forbids. Nausea and food aversions rewrite your week without warning. Appetite swings. A midwife changes her advice at the next appointment. A gestational diabetes diagnosis changes the plan entirely. Under the official rules, following your clinician’s new advice is a failure that sends you back to Day 1.
There is a practical wrinkle too. The program is marketed around physical transformation, so most people pick a weight-loss style diet by default. Pregnancy is a period of intended weight gain, with ranges your clinician sets based on your circumstances. Locking in a goal-driven diet for 75 days without the ability to revisit it is a poor fit for a body that is supposed to be changing.
The gallon
A gallon is one number applied to every body. Hydration needs vary with size, climate, sweat rate and stage of pregnancy. We are not going to assert an upper limit, because no primary source supports one at the level of evidence the consumer blogs claim. Your fluid target is an individual number, and your clinician should be the one who sets it. Our water intake calculator and the gallon-of-water guide cover the variables involved.
Contraindications are a conversation, not a checklist
ACOG notes that “most pregnant patients can exercise” and that “there are few maternal medical conditions in which aerobic exercise is absolutely contraindicated.” It also calls for “a thorough clinical evaluation” before an exercise program is recommended.
Committee Opinion 804 does not publish a list of disqualifying conditions. It says that “when questions exist regarding safety of aerobic exercise in pregnancy, consultation with relevant specialists and subspecialists” is advised, and that “in women who have obstetric or medical comorbidities, exercise regimens should be individualized.”
There is no table you can check yourself against to get a yes. The evaluation is something a clinician does with your chart in front of them.
Where the rules collide with breastfeeding
Calories: you need more, and the number has to move
The CDC states that “an additional 330 to 400 kilocalories (kcal) per day is recommended for well-nourished, breastfeeding mothers, compared with the amount they were consuming before pregnancy.” You will still see 450 to 500 quoted all over the internet. That is an older figure, and the CDC’s current page (updated August 2026) says 330 to 400.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics adds a caution in the other direction: “women who eat less than 1,800 calories per day may reduce the amount of milk their bodies make.” It also notes that stress, anxiety and fatigue can decrease production, which lands differently when you are considering a demanding program during newborn life.
None of that is a plan, and this article is not going to give you one. Those numbers belong to you and your clinician, and they have to be allowed to move. A diet rule with zero deviations cannot do that.
Exercise is not the problem
This is where most of the internet gets it backwards. The evidence on exercise while nursing is reassuring.
ACOG: “Regular aerobic exercise in lactating women has been shown to improve maternal cardiovascular fitness without affecting milk production, composition, or infant growth.”
The landmark trial here is Dewey 1994 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Thirty-three previously sedentary women whose infants were exclusively breastfed were randomized at six to eight weeks postpartum to supervised aerobic exercise, 45 minutes a day, five days a week, for 12 weeks. There were no significant differences in milk volume or composition, infant weight gain, or maternal prolactin. The exercising group’s maximal oxygen uptake rose 25 percent against 5 percent in the controls.
A second NEJM trial, Lovelady 2000, tested exercise plus a supervised reduction in intake starting at four weeks postpartum, and found infant weight and length gains were not significantly different between groups.
So moderate exercise while nursing has randomized evidence behind it. What those trials tested was 45 minutes a day, four or five days a week, starting four to eight weeks postpartum, supervised, with the diet measured. That is not 90 minutes a day for 75 consecutive days with no rest day, no oversight, a diet you are not allowed to adjust, and a newborn deciding when you sleep. The evidence covers the gentler version and does not stretch to the strict one.
Hydration, and a numerical coincidence
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests that nursing mothers need about 16 cups of water per day, “which can come from food, beverages and drinking water.”
Sixteen eight-ounce cups is exactly a gallon, which is why you will see the two numbers treated as the same target. They are not. The 16 cups is total fluid, including what you get from soup, fruit, milk and coffee. The 75 Hard rule is a gallon of plain water that counts none of those things, on top of everything else you drink. ACOG also advises nursing parents to feed their infant or express milk before exercising, and to be well hydrated before they start.
When you can start again
ACOG: exercise “may be resumed gradually after pregnancy as soon as medically safe, depending on the mode of delivery (vaginal or cesarean birth) and the presence or absence of medical or surgical complications,” and “some women are capable of resuming physical activities within days of delivery.” Pelvic floor exercises can begin in the immediate postpartum period.
The six-week visit is a common checkpoint in practice, not a rule handed down by ACOG. Your timeline is your clinician’s call, and it depends on your birth.
Build a gentler challenge your clinician signs off on
If you got this far, the structure is probably what appealed to you. You can keep that and drop the parts that fight your physiology.
Bring the idea to your OB-GYN, midwife, or lactation consultant first and let them set the parameters. Then use a tracker to hold you to their parameters rather than to a stranger’s rule book.
A custom challenge you could take to an appointment:
| Task | Suggested setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Walk | 6,000 to 8,000 steps (editable) | Moderate and self-pacing, meets ACOG’s intent |
| Yoga or stretching | 20 to 30 minutes | Mobility, plus pelvic floor work if you have been cleared for it |
| Drink water | The target your clinician sets, not a fixed gallon | Hydration is individual |
| Protein and greens | Additive | Adds food instead of removing it |
| Supplements | Prenatal or postnatal vitamins as prescribed | Consistency with what you already take |
| Journaling or breathwork | 10 minutes | Mood support in a demanding window |
| Read | 10 pages | The one original rule that transfers cleanly |
Then set the mechanics so a hard day stays a hard day instead of becoming a reset. Run it in forgiving mode, so missing once costs you a checkmark and nothing else. Pick a duration you can actually see the end of (30 days is a reasonable first block, and you can run it again). Mark the optional tasks as optional. For most postpartum readers, leave progress photos and the weigh-in off entirely. And set per-task reminders around feeds and naps, because a newborn owns the calendar.
That is the shape of a custom challenge in Reset75: you choose every task, you choose the length, and forgiving mode is the default, so one rough night does not erase two months of work. Our custom challenge tracker and 30-day kickstart are free places to sketch one out before your appointment, and how to build your own 75-day challenge walks through the task selection in more detail.
A naming note, since precision matters here: this is a custom wellness challenge, not a modified 75 Hard, because the official program has no modified version. If you are weighing the softer templates, read the easier alternatives comparison with one thing in mind. 75 Soft still has a diet rule, a fixed water target and a 75-day streak, and gentler is not the same as postpartum-appropriate.
When to stop, and who should skip a streak challenge for now
Stop exercising and contact your clinician
ACOG lists these warning signs to discontinue exercise while pregnant: vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, regular painful contractions, amniotic fluid leakage, dyspnea (shortness of breath) before exertion, dizziness, headache, chest pain, muscle weakness affecting balance, and calf pain or swelling.
If you are nursing, add a noticeable drop in supply, fatigue beyond the ordinary newborn kind, and dizziness to your own list of reasons to call.
Skip streak-based challenges entirely for now if
- You have a history of disordered eating. The all-or-nothing restart rule, the daily progress photo and the daily weigh-in are the wrong tools right now, and that deserves a straight answer rather than a workaround.
- You are being treated for, or have screened positive for, a postpartum mood disorder. A daily pass/fail scorecard carries extra weight in that context.
- Your clinician has flagged a condition, a complication, or a recovery that needs the front seat.
None of that is about your discipline. It is about the fit between one rigid format and one demanding period of life.
This article is educational and is not medical advice. Pregnancy and the postpartum period are individual, and so is the right amount of exercise, food and fluid for you. Talk to your OB-GYN, midwife, or a lactation consultant before starting or changing a training routine, a diet, or a hydration target, especially if you have had a cesarean birth, pregnancy complications, a history of disordered eating, or are being treated for a postpartum mood disorder. Nothing here is clearance to begin.
The women posting “I did 75 Hard pregnant and I was fine” are not lying, and they do not deserve a lecture. They are one person’s outcome, and one outcome is not guidance when the stakes are two bodies. For more on the physiology, our cycle-aware guide for women and the post on whether the 75-day challenge is healthy go deeper.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can you do 75 Hard while pregnant?
Not the official program. ACOG supports physical activity in pregnancy and says an upper level of safe exercise intensity has not been established, so the objection is not that 75 Hard is too hard in the abstract. It is that ACOG advises a gradual progression if you were not already active, and says to avoid high heat and humidity, which conflicts with a mandatory daily outdoor workout. The bigger problem is rigidity: 75 Hard allows no rest day across 75 days and no adjustment to your diet, and pregnancy needs both. Talk to your OB-GYN or midwife about a gentler custom challenge instead.
Can you do 75 Hard while breastfeeding?
Not as written. The diet rule is the problem, and not because it demands restriction, but because it forbids adjustment. The CDC recommends an additional 330 to 400 calories a day for well-nourished breastfeeding mothers, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics warns that eating less than 1,800 calories a day may reduce milk production, so your intake has to be able to move. The exercise side is better supported: a randomized trial found regular aerobic exercise did not affect milk volume or composition. But 90 minutes a day for 75 straight days with no rest day is a different proposition.
Does the official 75 Hard program say anything about pregnancy?
No. The official 75 HARD help FAQ contains no pregnancy or breastfeeding guidance. Its only medical statement is generic: you should consult your physician or other health care professional before starting the program to determine if it is right for your needs, and you should not start if your physician or health care provider advises against it. The rules page carries no disclaimer at all and describes the program as zero compromises and zero substitutions.
Will exercise reduce my milk supply?
Current evidence says moderate exercise on its own does not. A randomized trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that supervised aerobic exercise five days a week, starting six to eight weeks postpartum, had no adverse effect on milk volume, milk composition, or infant growth, and improved the mothers' cardiovascular fitness. ACOG says the same. Under-eating, stress and fatigue are separately linked to reduced production.
Is 75 Soft safe while breastfeeding?
75 Soft is gentler: one workout a day, an active recovery day, and a looser diet rule. But it still includes a diet rule and a fixed water target, and it is still a 75-day streak. It is a reasonable starting point to discuss with your clinician or a lactation consultant, not something that is automatically postpartum-appropriate. A custom challenge, where you and your clinician choose every task, gives you more control.
How long after giving birth can I start a challenge?
There is no single number. ACOG says exercise may be resumed gradually after pregnancy as soon as it is medically safe, depending on the mode of delivery and the presence or absence of medical or surgical complications, and notes that some women can resume physical activity within days of delivery. The six-week visit is a common clinician checkpoint, not an ACOG threshold. Your clinician sets your timeline.
Do I really need a gallon of water a day while pregnant or nursing?
The gallon is a fixed number applied to every body, and hydration needs vary with body size, climate, activity and stage. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics puts nursing parents at about 16 cups of total fluid a day, and that total includes water from food and other beverages, not 16 cups of plain water. ACOG advises staying well hydrated during exercise and drinking before you start. Ask your clinician for your number.
What should I do instead of 75 Hard?
Build a custom challenge from tasks your clinician approves: a daily walk, gentle stretching, a hydration target they set, prenatal vitamins, protein and vegetables, journaling, and reading. Run it in forgiving mode so a missed day does not erase your progress, pick a duration you can live with, and leave progress photos and weigh-ins off if they do not serve you.