Should You Try the 75 Soft Challenge? Here's What to Know About this Program

Emily Laurence

Two friends celebrating their 75 soft challenge

If you’ve ever done a couch-to-5K plan or another workout regime, you know the satisfaction that comes with meeting your goal. Plans are helpful for staying motivated if you want to improve your health in a specific way.

One particular program that’s trending on social media is the 75 Hard Challenge, which aims to help someone improve both their physical and mental health in 75 days. Here’s the thing about the 75 Hard Challenge: It lives up to its name. In fact, it’s so hard that many people find it too difficult to stick with until the end. This has led to a new trending program, the 75 Soft Challenge, which is easier than the 75 Hard Challenge but still has both physical and mental health benefits.

Intrigued? Here, nutritionists and personal trainers break down the differences between the two programs, share the 75 Soft Challenge rules and reveal the benefits that come with sticking with it.

Related: The 75 Hard Challenge Is Everywhere—but This Is What Experts Want You to Know Before You Try It

What Is the 75 Soft Challenge?

“The 75 Soft Challenge is a variation of the fitness challenge known as the 75 Hard Challenge. Both challenges are designed to promote mental toughness, discipline and self-improvement, but they differ in their intensity,” explains Ellen Thompson, CPT, FNS, FMS, NASM, a certified personal trainer and the head personal trainer at Blink Fitness.

Registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Jenn Baswick, RD, MHSc, explains the differences between the two programs, saying that instead of two 45-minute workouts a day—which is a lot!—the 75 Soft Challenge encourages doing one daily 45-minute workout, also incorporating one active recovery day into the week.”

Related: If You Want to Lose Weight and Only Have One Hour a Week to Work Out, Here's What Trainers Say You Should Do

Baswick explains that the 75 Soft Challenge has slightly more lenient diet rules too. “The 75 Hard Challenge requires following a very strict diet with no alcohol, whereas the 75 Soft Challenge is about eating well and limiting alcohol to special occasions," she says. Additionally, Baswick says that the 75 Hard Challenge requires drinking a gallon of water a day whereas the 75 Soft Challenge requires drinking three liters of water a day.

Yola Robert, a health coach and functional nutritionist explains the rules to both programs below.

75 Hard Challenge Rules

  • Stick to a diet for 75 days. It can be a diet of your choice but you must follow it consistently each day.

  • Drink a gallon of water every day.

  • No cheat meals or alcohol for the full 75 days consecutively.

  • Exercise twice a day for 45 minutes each time, with at least one session happening outside.

  • Read 10 pages of a book every day. The books should be non-fiction and focus on self-improvement. Audiobooks do not count.

  • Take a progress picture every day.

  • Start completely over if you don’t follow the rules exactly.

75 Soft Challenge Rules

  • Eat well and only consume alcohol during special occasions for 75 days.

  • Work out for 45 minutes per day, with one day of active recovery each week.

  • Drink three liters of water each day.

  • Read 10 pages of any book each day.

  • If you skip any of these challenges, keep going; you don’t need to start over.

Related: 100 Different Diet Plans That Could Help You Lose Weight—We've Got Tons of Info to Help You Decide

What Are the Benefits of the 75 Soft Challenge?

As you can see, the 75 Soft Challenge still isn’t easy. Maybe you’re looking at the list of rules wondering what the point of following them is. Why would anyone want to do it? Steve Stonehouse, NASM, CPT, a certified personal trainer, running coach and the vice president of programming and education at Body Fit Training and STRIDE Fitness, says that sticking with it can encourage a better, healthier relationship with food and exercise. “Provided you’re somewhat consistent with the program, it can provide some routine to your week, which can help significantly with mental health. Along with that, accomplishing these little ‘wins’ each week by being consistent can build confidence and self-esteem,” he explains.

Baswick agrees that committing to the 75 Soft Challenge can be beneficial in many ways. “Some physical health benefits of doing a 75 Soft Challenge could include feeling stronger, having more energy, improving your fitness level, being less sedentary, getting a wider variety of nutrients and keeping your body well-hydrated,” she says.

The benefits of committing to the challenge aren’t just physical; Baswick says there are mental health benefits too: “Some mental health benefits of the 75 Soft Challenge could include managing stress levels, slowing down and enjoying a good book, improving your relationship with food and finding types of movement that truly just make you feel good." But she emphasizes that it’s still challenging, so it’s important to be kind to yourself along the way and know it’s completely okay if you miss a day. “Flexibility on a health journey of any kind is incredibly important. We don’t want to slip into a rigid all-or-nothing, perfectionistic mindset,” she explains.

Tips for Giving the 75 Soft Challenge a Try

Want to give the 75 Soft Challenge a try? The experts offer up a few tips on how to stick with it to the end. As previously explained, part of the challenge is committing to eating well for 75 days. “While you don’t have to follow a specific diet, I would focus on lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Remove refined sugar, processed foods, packaged goods, seed and vegetable oils and buy organic if possible,” Robert says, offering up some guidelines for how to do this part of the challenge.

Baswick adds to this, saying, “As a registered dietitian specializing in intuitive eating, I would suggest folks stay away from rigid diets or plans. Instead of focusing on what you ‘shouldn’t’ eat, focus on what you can add to your diet. For example, you could choose to set a goal to have more veggies or fruit at every meal or snack. Or you could choose to add more fiber to your meals. Focusing on this concept of ‘nutrition by addition’ can be a tremendous help to your relationship with food and overall health goals.”

If you have a meal or snack that goes against the 75 Soft Challenge rules, Stonehouse says not to let it derail you. “Don’t let a ‘cheat’ meal turn into a ‘cheat’ day. Don’t let a ‘cheat’ day turn into a ‘cheat’ week. It’s just one mistake, no more and no less. Keep pushing forward,” he says.

Another part of the challenge is working out for 45 minutes, six days a week. When deciding what type of workout to do, Thompson says it’s important to think about your health and what you hope to accomplish with this part of the challenge, explaining, “You should tailor your workout to fit your goals and abilities."

Thompson encourages varying the type of workout you do to keep it interesting and benefit the body in different ways. “Try running, cycling, swimming, strength training, yoga, pilates, HIIT or a team sport. You can also cross-train to add variety,” she says. No matter what form of exercise you choose, she adds that it’s important to warm up and cool down to prevent injury.

With all this in mind, there is a lot to gain from committing to the 75 Soft Challenge. Just be sure to celebrate the small wins along the way and to go easy on yourself. After all, even doing the challenge for just one day has health benefits, so if you make it to 75, you should be super proud.

Next up, learn about the five practices that decades of scientific research say benefit mental health.

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