Someone asked me what I think about the 75 Hard challenge. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a very strict 75-day program:

You follow a diet (any diet you want) but it has to be strict, with no cheat meals at all, no deviation from the plan.
You drink a gallon of water a day.
You read 10 pages of non-fiction a day.
You consume no alcohol at all.
You perform two workouts a day, each consisting of 45 minutes, and one of them must be outdoors, no matter the weather.
You take a progress photo every day, preferably at the same time.

I’m not totally convinced this is a great idea. I support very strict elimination-type diets or challenges when there is an explicit goal. Like with Whole30 or a carnivore diet challenge, you’re trying to identify your trigger foods. You’re trying to understand which foods are causing symptoms and which ones are actually fine to eat. Then, you potentially reintroduce the foods you’ve eliminated, one by one, to determine which you can eat and which you should avoid. There’s a reason, a goal, a justification for the extreme restriction.

But 75 Hard is just flagellation. It’s not sustainable for anyone. These kinds of challenges or hardcore diets will probably make you lose weight and might have a short-term effect, but will it last? Are you really going to stay on that plan with zero cheat meals for the rest of your life? Are you never going to drink alcohol again? Are you going to maintain 2 workouts a day?

If you’re going to do this, you need to understand why you’re doing it. I think humans can definitely handle, and even thrive with, brief or even extended periods of restriction in one area of life. Stick with a diet for three months, sure, but live more normally in the other areas of your life. Make a pledge to train twice a day for three months, with one of the workouts being outdoors, but still allow yourself to splurge on your diet and have a little wine with steak.

I think when we try to do a total lifestyle overhaul in an extreme way, changing the way you do everything with no deviation, it doesn’t teach us anything that we can actually take home with us. It’s almost like going on a massive drug trip in the Amazon—an overwhelming sensory and emotional experience that breaks down the ego and makes you hallucinate but that ultimately leaves you with very little to bring back into everyday life.

Where I think it might be helpful is for the people who truly need a total overhaul. They can’t just change one thing and keep everything else the same, because the bad habits will bleed over into the part of their lifestyle they’re trying to fix and ruin it. There’s a small subset of the population that thrives by subjecting themselves to these overhauls, but they almost have to do them for life. Doing a 75 Hard, then taking a week break, and then doing another one, and repeating. Basically stacking overhauls, stacking challenges, and never really stopping.

If that’s what it takes and you’re willing to maintain it, then go ahead. But I’ve rarely seen anyone do a total overhaul and then return to living normally, integrating what they learned into an otherwise moderate and sustainable way of living.

That’s how I feel about 75 Hard.