Top 10 Fad Diets To Avoid
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008Fad diets are never the answer now matter how tempting they may seem. I admit I’ve been lured into the "LOSE 10 POUNDS IN 3 DAYS" spiel before because it seems so easy but fad diets never work long term!
Sure you might see results fast but only because they use drastic measures and even put your health at risk.
I’ve put together a list of the Top 10 Fad Diets to avoid.
The Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup diet is one of the least pleasant and most ridiculous fad diets around.
You will see results but only because ALL you eat is a mixture of cabbage soup for 7 days.
Your body simply cannot survive on a diet like this. Your body needs protein, carbs and healthy fats to survive and this soup mixture simply does not provide that.
Side effects of the diet include lack of concentration, dizziness, weakness and digestive problems including excessive flautulance. Gross huh!
The Grapefruit Juice Diet
This is another silly fad diet involving lots of grapefruits, a little meat and salad.
On the traditional grapefruit diet you are supposed to have half a grapefruit before every meal and stick to just 800 calories daily.
Even the promoters of this diet admit that the calorie content is too low for sufficient nutrition. The diet lacks protein and several other important vitamins and minerals.
Side effects of the Grapefruit Diet include nausea, dizziness and lack of concentration.
The 7 Day All You Can Eat Diet
The 7 Day All You Can Eat Diet is one of the weirdest ones I came across. While the foods involved are eating all on one day and none on the next isn’t healthy.
Even the promoters admit that most of the weight loss comes from muscles and fluids, as well as fat. Any weight lost on 7 Day All You Can Eat Diet can be easily regained.
The menu plan looks like this:
Day 1 - All the fruit you want (no banana)
Day 2 - All the veges you want
Day 3 - All the fruit and veges you want
Day 4 - 5 bananas + 5 glasses of milk
Day 5 - 4 servings of meat (3 oz) with veges
Day 6 - 4 servings of beef with veges
Day 7 - 4 servings of beef with veges
The restrictive nature of this diet will prove hard to follow and will most likely lead to you caving and eating more!
The Chicken Soup Diet
In the Chicken Soup Diet you are allowed to eat 1 breakfast then chicken soup for the rest of the day.
While chicken is a great source of protein eating it watered down all day every day is obviously not a healthy choice.
People who go for any form of soup diet will most likely suffer from dizziness, nausea and hunger.
Again this diet is too low in calories to be healthy and you will gain any weight you lose within weeks of returning to normal eating habits.
The Master Cleanse has gained popularity in the last few years especially after Beyonce admitted she followed the diet but this should not be considered a good sign.
The Master Cleanse diet is effectively a starvation diet so yes you will see results and yes you will put the weight back on.
The diet involves 10 days of drinking nothing but a mixture of water, maple syrup, lemon and cayenne pepper.
Pair that with laxatives to conquer the lack of fiber and you have a dangerous diet.
The theory behind the Negative Calorie diet is extremely appealing. It works on the premise that your body has to burn energy in order to digest certain foods thus resulting in the negative calories.
For example looking at an orange, which may contain approximately 50 calories, it would take a certain amount of energy from your body to process all of the nutrients and vitamins within the orange. In doing so, you would burn more than 50 calories.
Sounds fantastic huh! So what’s the catch? Firstly there is basically no scientific proof to back up the claims and basically no further information.
The Hollywood Diet
The Hollywood Diet is a 48 hour diet that promises weight loss of up to 10 pounds. Effectively it is a detox cleanse and is not a long term weight loss solution.
The Hollywood Diet has a number of drink products which are supposed to replace 1 or 2 meals per day in the 48 hour time period.
While on the diet you are supposed to refrain from any red meat, dairy, sugar, diet sodas, salty snacks, fatty foods and sweets.
While detoxing from time to time is a good idea by no means should it be considered a diet or weight loss option.
The Grape Diet
This is one of the most dangerous diets I’ve seen.
In this Grape Diet you literally eat grapes and water for a week or so. Can you even imagine that!
This diet is deficient in most essential nutrients and can cause constipation, diarrhea, and cramps.
Do NOT fall for this one!
The Mono Food Diet
The Mono Food Diet is another one of the fad diets you might have heard of.
For the Mono Food diet you have to eat only one type of food per meal. Eat three meals a day, leaving at least four hours between each meal.
There are 3 groups of foods high protein, high carbs and high starches and you can only eat one of each at each meal.
This is not a great way of eating and you could lose weight far easier by eating a balance of different healthy foods.
The Sugar Busters Diet
While on this diet, you are allowed to eat red meat, poultry, fish, olive oil, dairy foods, and nuts and only certain fruits and veges.
Simple carbs such as pasta, white bread, white rice, potatoes and most sugars are also banned.
They way I see it is that any diet that bans types of fruit and veges is probably not the best idea. There is nothing bad about veges and they should take up approx 75% of your diet.
I hope now after all this list of the Top 10 Fad Diets to avoid this that you might have the will power to steer clear of the next fad diet that comes your way! 
For a weight loss diet that doesn’t involve starving yourself or cutting out entire food groups click the link below. Trust me your body will thank you for it!