A clinical dietitian is urging caution over wellness craze 75 Hard, a diet and exercise challenge that many Kiwis are jumping on board with.
The challenge goes for 75 days and involves doing two work outs a day (of any intensity), following a diet, drinking four litres of water a day, reading 10 pages of a personal development book and taking progress pictures.
If a participant misses a task, they start again on day one.
“This is the equivalent of an Iron Man, of climbing Mount Everest,” founder Andy Frisella said on his podcast.
“Whatever it is that you see all of these other people doing that they’re so proud of — this is the equivalent of that for your brain."
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Keep it Cleaner clinical dietitian Liv Morrison says 75 Hard is an all-or-nothing approach that was unsustainable without any nutritional backing and could result in harmful health affects.
She said the challenge is a fad and it could be "dangerous" for some people.
"Areas like taking a progress photo every day and drinking four litres of water per day is really quite dangerous for a lot of people and it promotes more disordered eating behaviours and fad diets."
Morrison said for most people, it wasn't healthy to be drinking that much water each day. She said if people wanted to take part in it, they should adjust the rules so they're more suitable and sustainable to each individual.
"I do think it's another fad, call a spade a spade unfortunately. The man that created the challenge, Andy Frisella, he has said these are rules he's developed to lose weight.
"When he's developed these rules, he hasn't necessarily done these things in 75 days and got those results, he's done that over years and years and years, so from a habitual change side of things it's just gearing you up for failure."
The 75 Hard website urges people to speak to their doctor before taking part.
Also speaking to Breakfast this morning, 75 Hard advocate Christina Fransham said the challenge completely changed her life.
She said it had a significant impact on her mindset and the "direction of her journey".
Fransham completed the challenge just before Christmas last year, and said some of the good habits and discipline have continued.
Asked what she thought of the health concerns raised by Morrison, Fransham said: "I definitely, in some way, agree because going from drinking a cup of water a day to four litres is crazy and it was probably the hardest part of the challenge for me at the start.
"Then your body just gets used to it and now after the challenge I'm drinking so much water and I feel so much better."
She said injured herself during the challenge, but wasn't sure whether it directly related to 75 Hard or not.
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