Why You Should NOT Complete the 75 Hard Challenge
The 75 hard challenge is a mental toughness program that when used as a diet can have negative effects.
Have you heard of the 75 hard?
While scrolling on social media you may see people attempting the 75 hard challenge. The 75 hard challenge is 75 days following a diet (no cheats allowed), no alcohol, two 45-minute workouts daily (one has to be outside), drink 4 liters of water a day, read 10 minutes of non-fiction a day, and take progress photos daily.
The first time I heard about the 75 hard challenge I wanted to jump on board and do it too!
I am all for bettering yourself, building healthy habits, and I love a challenge. However, the more I looked into the 75 hard the more red flags I noticed.
10 Reasons not to complete the 75 Hard Challenge\
1. Too many changes at once
Starting a diet is a consistent predictor of future weight gain. Slowly adding in sustainable healthy habits works long term. Diets don’t work and can set you up for future weight gain.
2. Do you really need that much water?
Water is good for you, but everyone’s body and activity level is different. You may not need 4 liters of water daily.
3. All or nothing mentality
The all-or-nothing mentality can make you feel like a failure even when you have made progress. If you mess up even on day 74 you have to start over again at day 1.
4. Too much focus on physical progress
The focus is only on physical progress. How do you feel? Are you sleeping well? Do you have energy? Is your stress level low or high? Learning to connect to your body allows you to learn healthy habits and is essential for long-term health and weight loss.
5. Restrictive Diets
Diets and challenges that severely restrict food can create a negative relationship between a person and food. This can lead to eating disorders and binge eating. When you label food as a cheat it can cause cravings, guilt, and shame.
6. No rest days
Working out twice a day could lead to injury, fatigue, burnout, and added stress on your body. How much did you work out before? Where are you getting your workouts from are you working with a coach or professional or just picking random workouts that are not a good fit for your body or lifestyle.
7. Stress
Prolonged stress leads to inflammation, inflammation leads to weight gain and health issues. By working out twice a day and setting high standards to complete daily can put unwanted stress on your body.
8. Your health!
The 75 hard could be harmful to your mental or physical health. There are no professionals or accountability making sure you are making diet and fitness choices that are good for your body. Excessive exercise and restrictive dieting can have harmful effects including adrenal fatigue and your hormone health.
9. Strict Rules
You can get results without these extremes! You can get results with a plan that fits into your lifestyle instead of changing your life to fit the challenge.
10. Not a long-term plan
There is no plan for when you complete the 75 hard challenge. And if you don’t complete it then your confidence could suffer. Either way, it is not a win.
I’m all for getting outside, drinking more water, eating healthier, and reading to learn. However, I would not recommend the 75 hard challenge.
The best way to have sustainable weight loss is to create healthy habits that become a part of your lifestyle. The 75 hard challenge is not a way of life most people can keep up long term. Besides, who wants to train your body to need two workouts a day to lose weight or maintain weight loss?
Conclusion
I understand the 75-hard is supposed to be a mental-toughness program and not a diet or weight loss program. However, it seems to focus a lot on physical progress and I have seen many attempts for physical reasons rather than mental toughness.
As with any diet or lifestyle change, you can succeed in doing the 75-hard in a healthier way. However, I would recommend doing a program that is more personalized to you, your needs, and your lifestyle.
*This content is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other medical providers.
Thank you for writing this. I’ve been having hesitations about doing the 75 Hard with my friends because of these kinds of reasons. I might be doing some kind of modified version that works better for my body and mental health, but I feel better now about doing that and not committing to something so regimented!
I agree that 75 Hard is not for everyone. Also, it’s not meant to keep with the regiment after 75 hard. There are multiple phases after the program and after some research I understood the base purpose of the program. I choose to modify some of this program (even though he says don’t) because my body doesn’t need 1 gallon of water, so I opted for 64oz. I still lost 20 lbs, gain muscle, feel healthier, rest better and over all feel better at 43 than I have ever felt in my life. It was hard and stressful at times. Use caution and don’t be so hard on yourself.
I’m currently on Day 49 of the 75 Hard challenge and have done it one other time successfully! I agree it can be tough, stressful and strenuous but that’s the purpose. It allows you to prove to yourself that you’re capable of more than you realize. That’s something huge I took away, along with the ability to structure my days/schedule so much better! I think in order to get the full concept you have to do a lot of research and be creative and openminded. The “diet” doesn’t have to be some fad, restrictive diet. You choose your diet so if you prefer to not be so “restrictive”, don’t. There are no “rest” days but you can have “light” days. A good stretch and walk are considered a workout and can both be easily done indoors/outdoors. It can be as strenuous as you choose. They don’t give you some crazy workout routine to follow. You are right about the all or nothing mentality, however, but I can’t say that I agree it’s a bad thing. Personally, I needed the push and the drastic change. I was coming close to hitting 200 pounds for the first time in my life, I was feeling depressed, I was taking short cuts at work, and I wasn’t practicing any self-care. This “drastic” change got my butt in gear quick and I’m so thankful for it. I needed the structure more than I realized. The non-fiction, motivational books were a fantastic addition! I highly recommend the challenge!!
I enjoyed reading these reasons/explanations from a different perspective. I have often said this same thing. I agree that 75 hard is more of a challenge of one’s mental fortitude and the weight loss can be a result in the end. But yes, it is very extreme. Personally I am not working out outdoors everyday. I am an avid fitness junkie but I prefer indoor workouts when the weather is a factor (too hot/cold). I am too old to be outside in the rain/snow/high temps or whatever it is I feel will be a detriment to my health. There should be some alternatives to some of these rules.
Great article! Thanks
I think you have to look at it from a different perspective. Todays society has ruined people. We aren’t mentally/physically challenged beyond what we’re comfortable with and everything is so easily accessible. Adults are as undisciplined as ever. Yes, 75 hard is extreme, but that is the point. Too often we criticize hard things and make it out as a dangerous entry into something that it’s not. To me, this signals a deeper rooted issue with that individual. It’s a challenge for 75 days, it’s not meant to be long term. Doing hard things creates resilience, mental strength, and overall growth.
This is long but I think informative about positives and negatives.
I don’t regret it, but I wish I’d been able to afford a trainer, nutritionist, and therapist – and that I had a post challenge plan and structured deload.
First though, before I explain what I went through- it helped me and my son in basebAll season this year – hardest one got him mentally so far, he’s 9 but was moved up to 11u with comp travel kids – we went through multiple nights of blow outs about quitting and feeling like a failure – I just kept sounding like Andy and Goggins – finally one morning he said “mom, I understand why you did 75 now, I can’t quit. 1+1 = mfing 2 and I have to do the work”. He asked to listen to the podcasts and I overlooked the inappropriate language and all of a sudden my kid went from anxiety attacks and giving up to im fucking doing this. (Out of desperation I said just dont say that word around others).
I read about it the night before Thanksgiving and started Black Friday.
My past: I struggle with mood disorders and ADD, never setting goals except for weight loss since my teens, *financially a mess, mentally feeling like I was a failure because I was always disorganized and feeling ineffective, feeling I had no way of improving my life, multiple back to back relationships that just had me feeling horrible*. I have a mood disorder and ADD. I struggled with a serious eating disorder that almost killed me but had managed to prob get to the a average 39 perimenapuse woman’s f*d-ness about food and weight.
Where I started: I already had 3 years of weight training and LISS for about 10-14 hours a week, BF usually around 19%. Relatively clean but lived on protein bars and avoided many foods including vegetables, fruit, and most carbs (learned the real reason during this. mentally described above. I lived on 2-3 diet coke big gulps a day.
How things went weeks 1-3:
I told everyone I wasn’t going to lose weight, but my meal plan was 1800, clean, 40/30/30 with 130g protein. Weight training and LISS (which was walking mostly).
-water: learned to take salt and liquid IV before bed and upon waking by day 3. By day 6 I realized I was down to a can or no diet coke.
-workout: only struggle was the time spacing
-reading: invigorating, I started with can’t hurt me. I also started listening to motivational podcasts by men about just getting it done (Andy, Goggins, inky Johnson, a compiled favorite, and I’ll confess even an Andrew Tate and a musk interview) my view on life and what to do when sky rocketing to “I can’t “do the f work”
-food: realized by week 3 I wasn’t gonna make it
I “messed up” on day 22: truly it was my body saying this food plan is unstainable. I’d finally read 75Hatd and realized “diet” needed to be “nutrition ” and all I was doing was continuing f*d up eating. So that went to maintenance calories (2300-2500), same macros, 5 vegetables, and 3 heavy carb. I did two week carb load. THAT WAS HARD. Itd be 8pm and I’d be at 1200 and 2 vegetables and 1 English muffin during the day. PB became my friend. HOWEVER, my financial outlook had a plan, my spending was tracked, diet coke disappeared.
Started over: days 1-45 my stomach constantly hurt, eating was difficult to reach, I was still flying high though and ripped.
Day 45-60: started ripped, but eventually my legs felt like sand bags, my BF was probably 17,I was still motivated – it’s hard to workout when my son is home but I stopped making excuses and i’d do lines or body weight in the backyard, I allowed the weekends he was home to be deload with bikrides his pace and active stretching/body weight. That was good example for him. jan-feb is a usual depressive time for me, I felt I had it beat. A week in there some things happened that had me beat down – three different people that week said “you work hard” and it wasn’t about how I looked and that was the biggest compliment I’ve ever had. BUT I was excited to start month 1 because so many things had changed, I had goals I felt I could reach, I felt disciplined and effective. My life was organized, my home clean every day.
Day 60-75: (actually 90something to 108) – my body was done, my eating was desperate, I was exhausted, I was always bloated and gassy to extreme pain (learned why after). BF was probably 18 again. The night I finished I felt so down and low. I almost felt I was cheating.
If I had finished on what would’ve been 75 and not 108 I probably would’ve been ecstatic. But instead I felt lost. I “rebounded” by about week 2 which was something that hadn’t happened since I’d gotten out of the hospital at 17, everyone though said I wasn’t rebounding just recovering. I tried to start again. I felt like I’d almost just postponed my winter depressive episode.
Four months later: my nutrition isn’t as great and working out the least frequent in 3 years BUT I’m more patient with myself. However people have said it’s more reasonable and normal than the past 3 years. Critical tasks get done for the most part, ones I previously would’ve put off for weeks. I’ve been ok with lesser muscle mass.
So – I don’t regret it but I did need help during it like I said.