75 Soft Challenge Rules: What You Can Drink, Daily Plan

75 Soft Challenge Rules: What You Can Drink, Daily Plan

The 75 Soft challenge is 75 days of four daily rules: eat well and drink alcohol only on social occasions, train for 45 minutes with one active recovery day per week, drink 3 liters of water, and read 10 pages of any book. It was posted on TikTok in 2021 by Irish trainer Stephen Gallagher. Unlike 75 Hard, a missed day does not restart your count.

That sounds simple. The problem: Gallagher's video never defined "eat well," "social occasions," or whether coffee counts toward the 3 liters. No official rulebook exists. Below is every rule, the drink questions nobody answers, and a clock-time daily template.

Key Takeaways

• The four rules come from a single 2021 TikTok by Stephen Gallagher. A separate site, 75soft.com, runs a different program under the same name, which is why search results disagree.
• No restart penalty for a missed day, per Cleveland Clinic's reporting with sports psychologist Matthew Sacco, PhD.
• The rule says "water," but the National Academies (2004) confirms caffeinated beverages contribute to daily hydration. Decide your own line on day 1.
• 3 liters is about 101 fl oz, roughly 79% of 75 Hard's full gallon requirement.

What Are the 75 Soft Challenge Rules?

As reported by TODAY and Cleveland Clinic, Gallagher's four rules are the version most outlets agree on. Here is how they compare to 75 Hard, the stricter parent program created by Andy Frisella in 2019.

For a deeper breakdown of the 75 Hard drink rules, see 75 Hard Drink Rules: Coffee, Energy Drinks, Caffeine Pouches.

Where Did 75 Soft Come From?

Stephen Gallagher, an Irish fitness influencer (@stephengfitness on TikTok), posted the concept in April 2021. The video reached 2.5 million views before the account went inactive. His pitch: 75 Soft is for people who want 75 Hard's structure but cannot commit to two 45-minute workouts a day. There is no book, no app, and no official site.

That gap created confusion. 75soft.com, run by a mother-daughter duo from Nashville, publishes a different program under the same name: mindful eating 90% of the time, four 30-minute workouts per week, half your body weight in ounces of water, 10 pages of reading, meditation, and progress photos. If the rules you find online contradict each other, this is why.

What Can You Drink on 75 Soft?

Gallagher's video never addressed drinks beyond "water" and "alcohol only on social occasions." You write your own drink rules. The table below gives you the facts.

The honest answer in the "counts toward 3 L" column: decide on day 1 and stay consistent for 75 days. There is no referee.

Does Coffee Count Toward the 3 Liters?

The National Academies' 2004 report found that about 80% of total daily water comes from beverages, including caffeinated ones, and concluded that caffeinated drinks contribute to hydration just as non-caffeinated options do.

A 2014 crossover trial (Killer et al., PLoS ONE, n=50 men) compared four cups of coffee per day against the same volume of water: no significant difference in total body water or urine volume. (Men only; the data does not directly generalize to women.)

The practical position: the rule says "water." The cleanest plan is 3 liters of plain water, then coffee on top. Pick a lane before day 1.

For context, 3 liters is about 101 fl oz vs. 75 Hard's gallon at 128 fl oz. The National Academies' adequate intake is roughly 2.7 L for women and 3.7 L for men (all beverages and food), so 3 liters of water alone exceeds the beverage share for most women. Anyone with kidney or heart conditions should talk to a clinician before forcing 3 liters. See also: Dehydration and Cognitive Function.

Can You Drink Energy Drinks on 75 Soft?

The test is "eat well." Here is what the common cans actually contain, set against daily limits.

The AHA recommends no more than 25 g of added sugar per day for women and 36 g for men. One sugared Red Bull uses most of a woman's daily budget; a Monster blows past both. The FDA has cited 400 mg of caffeine per day as the amount not generally associated with negative effects for healthy adults.

Zero-sugar options pass the sugar test. Whether they pass your "eat well" standard is your call. See also: Celsius caffeine content, Monster caffeine content.

What Does "Only Drink on Social Occasions" Mean?

The rule is one line and undefined. "Social occasions" could mean a friend's wedding or every Friday happy hour. The ambiguity is the feature, but it is also the loophole.

Before day 1, write down the occasions you will allow. "Sarah's wedding, Super Bowl party, two dinners out per month" is a rule. "Whenever I'm with people" is not. Setting a number removes the in-the-moment negotiation that derails most challenges.

If you would rather make alcohol a zero for all 75 days, that works too. See How to Do Dry January for a framework that pairs well with 75 Soft.

75 Soft Daily Template

Built around a 7 AM wake and 11 PM bedtime. Shift the times to your schedule, keep the structure.

For the science behind the caffeine cutoff, see How Long Does Caffeine Stay in Your System.

75 Soft vs 75 Hard vs 75 Medium

75 Hard is the strict original: two workouts a day, a gallon of water, zero alcohol, nonfiction only, daily photos, full restart on any miss. 75 Soft keeps the structure but cuts the volume: one workout, 3 liters, any book, no restart. 75 Medium sits between them, typically adding a cold shower or visualization, though no single "official" version exists. 75 Hard is a discipline test; 75 Soft is a habit-building framework. For a longer comparison, see Winter Arc vs 75 Hard vs Great Lock-In.

When Does 75 Soft Start in 2027?

Any day you want. Most people start January 1.

January 1, 2027 is a Friday. Day 75 lands on Tuesday, March 16, 2027. If you prefer a Monday start, January 4, 2027 puts day 75 on Friday, March 19, 2027.

Starting before January? The Winter Arc 2026 challenge runs through the fall and pairs naturally with a 75 Soft start in the new year.

Conclusion

The 75 Soft challenge gives you four daily rules for 75 days: eat well, train for 45 minutes, drink 3 liters of water, and read 10 pages. Because no official rulebook exists, you need to define your own lines on drinks, alcohol occasions, and whether coffee counts toward your water total before day 1. The no-restart policy makes it more forgiving than 75 Hard, but the lack of structure means the rules are only as strong as the definitions you set for yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have to restart 75 Soft if you miss a day?

No. Cleveland Clinic quotes sports psychologist Matthew Sacco, PhD: if you miss a step, take a break or try an alternative approach. You are not penalized and you do not start over. This is the biggest difference from 75 Hard, where any miss resets you to day 1.

Can you drink coffee on 75 Soft?

Yes. Nothing in the original rules prohibits coffee. The National Academies confirmed caffeinated beverages contribute to hydration, but the safest approach is 3 liters of plain water plus coffee on top.

Does sparkling water count toward the 3 liters?

Gallagher's rules do not say. 75 Hard explicitly requires water to be non-carbonated. Since 75 Soft has no such restriction, most people count sparkling water. Decide before day 1 and stay consistent.

Is a rest day allowed on 75 Soft?

Yes, one active recovery day per week is built into the rules. Active recovery means light movement (walking, stretching, yoga), not a couch day. The other six days require a 45-minute session.

Is 75 Soft good for weight loss?

75 Soft is a habit challenge, not a weight-loss program. Cleveland Clinic frames it as habit building around exercise, hydration, and reading. Some people lose weight because they train daily and eat better for 75 days, but no outcome is promised or studied.

Can you use a caffeine pouch on 75 Soft?

A caffeine pouch is not a drink, so it does not interact with the water rule. Zero-sugar variants would need to pass your "eat well" definition. Pouches still count toward your daily caffeine total, so factor them into the 2 PM cutoff if you follow the template above.

One Morning Dose for a Day With Four Boxes to Tick

The template above has one failure point: you finish the water and the workout, but by 9:30 PM your caffeine is long gone and the 10 pages feel like a chore.

That is a duration problem. Roon is a zero-nicotine caffeine pouch (80 mg caffeine, 60 mg L-theanine, 25 mg methylliberine, 5 mg theacrine) designed for a 6 to 8 hour focus window. Methylliberine (Dynamine) slows caffeine clearance. In a randomized, double-blind crossover PK study (n=12), co-administration of methylliberine with caffeine cut oral clearance from 41.9 to 17.1 L/hr and extended caffeine's half-life from 7.2 to 15 hours, with no increase in peak concentration. That study used 100 mg methylliberine + 150 mg caffeine, roughly 4x and 1.9x Roon's doses, so the magnitude will differ at Roon's 25 mg + 80 mg, but the mechanism is directionally the same. A longer half-life also means timing matters: stop at least 8 hours before bed.

Roon is not a drink, so it never touches your 3-liter count. Zero sugar (contains sucralose), zero calories; "eat well" is its only test. Subscriptions start from $9.16 per tin (15 pouches, as little as $0.61/pouch), one-time 4-tin at $15.00/tin. First orders include a 30-day money-back guarantee (once per customer, nothing to send back). If you want one caffeine decision before 2 PM that reaches the after-work session, try Roon.

Written by Roon Team