What is the 75 Hard diet and why is it so popular?

Hi, it’s your friendly neighbourhood nutrition coach back with a little dose of motivation and cloud based high fives.

If you’re an older athlete and have recently noticed that your body is changing and you just cant’ seem to lose the weight, and maybe looking for a weight loss strategy that works, you may have come across 75 Hard in your google searches.

In this blog I’m going to discuss what it is, whether you need it or not *blurb: no you don’t*, and some of the negative effects it might have on those that attempt it.

You may have heard of this insane diet and exercise trend called 75 Hard. If you haven’t, here’s what it is.

For 75 days, you’ve got to:

• Choose a diet and stick to it. (Hmm ok, how very specific)

• No cheat meals and no alcohol. (Right, can someone explain why you have to cheat on your diet in the first place and what that even entails exactly??)

• Drink a gallon of water each day. (Erm-kaaay, let’s not ever worry about hyponatremia shall we?)

• Take a daily progress photo. (Hello body dysmorphia!)

• Do two 45-minute workouts a day, and one of those has to be done outside, regardless of the weather. (Wait what?? You mean no rest days and no deloads?)

• Read 10 pages a day of a self-improvement book (Ok I actually don’t have a smart ass comment to make for this one)

Right, if you come from the school or hard knocks, you might actually think this is something you could benefit from, but here’s the caveat, if you fail any of these steps, you have start all over again from day 1.

There have been research after research that show that the more restrictive you make your diet or lifestlyle, the harder it is to stick to it. When people feel like they have failed a particular diet, it often leads to more feelings of failure, guilt and as a result can lead to further physiological stressors.

One research conducted in 2010 concluded that “negative eating/body-related attitudes may be modestly associated with higher [ambulatory blood pressure] in healthy young women.”

Worrying about how we look is literally making us sick and old.

Furthermore, another research carried out in 2008 found that there is a distinction between “unhealthy and ineffectual attempts at weight loss, […] and successful dietary restraint induced by behavioural interventions” and that the former can lead to a shortening of telomeres (often associated with a sign of ageing).

So what is the difference between unhealthy attempts at weight loss and dietary restraint induced by behavioural interventions?

For starters, giving up all your favourite food for 75 days, (not to mention potentially having to start the process all over again if you fail) means that you will likely spend the next 75 days thinking about getting out of the diet.

If you aren’t enjoying the process, you probably won’t complete it, and if you don’t complete it, according to the 75 Hard approach, there is no end to it.

It’s like Groundhog Day without the feel-good ending where you actually learn something about life.

But maybe you came across some of the before and after pictures and thought the results were impressive and you think this might be the answer for you as an athlete over 40, those transformations are only truly valuable to a person if they are able to maintain similar results 4 months after the programme.

So how do you ensure you are able to keep your results on any nutrition and diet programme as an older athlete?

Create SMART goals

Make your goals specific and time bound.

The SMART acronym is a goal setting guideline I use on all my clients. When you set goals you want to make sure that they are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Actionable

• Realistic

• Time bound

When you set specific goals where the results can actually be measured, comes with an actionable plan and (this one is perhaps the most important) is time bound, you are likely to come out of it a winner.

Goals that aren’t realistic, actionable or time bound are not only difficult to achieve because they’re wishy washy, they also likely don’t align with your true values. And let me tell ya, trying to achieve those goals that only serve to secure external validation, won’t make YOU truly happy.

How to succeed on any diet.

It’s no secret that consistency is key when it comes to success in any domain of life. So my friend, don’t go Hard for 8 days just to crash and burn and feel completely deflated.

So if you’re looking for diets that work, start small. Be in it for the long haul. Create small actions you can do everyday that are specific, targeted and are realistic. When that gets easy, add one more habit.

If you approached your nutrition like this, just think where you’ll be 12 months from now instead of beating yourself up over an intense and psychologically damaging diet fad every 75 days, never quite getting to the end of the programme and never quite getting the results you’re after.

I know how frustrating weight loss can seem because everyone wants immediate results. Quick fixes rarely give you life changing results. Create good habits that stick around so you feel better, perform better and get to eat your cake too! Because what is life without cake!

If you need some support with creating better habits, I’m always here or a chat.