It’s important to maintain a workout regime during pregnancy, but you need to also ensure that you’re eating enough to gain the necessary baby weight. During pregnancy, most women gain between 15-30 lbs depending on how tall they are. To gain the necessary weight to keep you and your baby healthy, you need to eat about 350 extra calories every day. However, if you’re also exercising, you need to eat about 500 extra calories.

What to Eat
Especially if you’re working out several times a week, you need to make sure that the extra calories you get are not empty. The calories you burn while exercising need to be replaced by a balanced diet so that you don’t find yourself with a vitamin deficiency or low energy because you’ve eaten high-sugar foods or skimped on your protein and carbohydrates. 

Whether you’re pregnant or not, there are some things you should eat before and after exercising. However, there are some foods that are better for pregnant women. Ideally, you should eat lean proteins, quality carbohydrates, and heart-healthy fats before working out. For pregnant women, this means appropriate amounts of chicken and beef, preferably organic or grass-fed beef because this will have the omega 3 fatty acids pregnant women severely need. You can also have walnuts and whole grains. These foods promote muscle mass and a healthy cardiovascular system.

After working out, you need to eat low fat foods, a moderate amount of carbohydrates, and low amounts of fiber. To accomplish this, pregnant women should eat some light protein and perhaps some yogurt, which would fulfill part of the dairy requirement for pregnancy and it would also be low-fat and easy on the stomach, which is also crucial.

Exercise and Pregnancy
Though exercising is usually meant to help people lose weight, that’s not the goal of exercising during pregnancy. The goal of exercising during pregnancy is to gain strength and retain flexibility and movement. Pregnancy can be hard on your body and it will only break your body down more if you don’t take care of your muscles, joints, and tendons.

Your diet might be more restricted during pregnancy, but you need to make sure you’re eating enough of the right foods to help you gain baby weight without gaining unhealthy amounts of fat. Exercise will help keep you limber and reduce back pain and joint pain. It will also help you sleep better, and after giving birth you can rebound faster and keep your strength up.

Berardi, J. (n.d.). What to eat during pregnancy. Precision Nutrition.