Trying to lose weight can be a life changing challenge. Do it the right way by adjusting your daily habits with long-term, permanent solutions and you’ll end up winning. But try a fad diet and you’ll most likely end up gaining the weight back and possibly damaging your system in the process. Some are simple solutions, but others seem to have been dreamed up by kids looking for something to do.
Here are 4 of the craziest fad diets you’ll want to avoid:
1) The 5-Bite Diet
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This diet is the brain child of obesity expert Alwin Lewis, M.D. Perhaps it’s meant to recondition the mind of someone who is obese to eating less, and then normal eating patterns would be added in, later. As a stand-alone solution though, it’s scary.
With this diet, you can eat any kind of food you wish, but just 5 bites of it. You skip breakfast (isn’t that the most important meal?) and then eat five bites of something for lunch, and 5 for dinner. Experts say you’ll likely be barely consuming 900-1000 calories a day on this, and definitely going hungry. While it’s easy to implement, it’s not a successful permanent solution.
2) The Werewolf Diet
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It doesn’t involve vampires and ghouls but this diet is certainly beastly. It has you fast each full moon, allowing you to drink water and juice only until it passes.
You’re almost guaranteed to lose some weight doing this, but your metabolism will plummet and you’re just going to gain the weight right back, and possibly more once the moon shrinks. Verdict? Eat regular meals and leave this one to the fairies and witches.
3) The Grapefruit Diet
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The sensible version of this diet is OK. It involves eating some grapefruit and consuming its juice throughout the day, along with your regular meals. The theory is that grapefruit contains fat-blasting enzymes that can help you shed pounds.
The fast-fad version of this diet is dangerous, though. It has followers eat only grapefruit, something that will definitely send your system in a tailspin.
You won’t have a great source of iron, potassium, b vitamins and a plethora of other nutrients that your body actually needs to function properly, if you do this.
4) The Cookie Diet
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Love crunchy cookies? This diet has an interesting premise, at its base. In an effort to help followers lose weight, it has you eat specially made cookies, packed with the nutrients you need. Dieters consume 6 cookies throughout the day, and then a regular dinner. It’s about meal replacement, and changing an over-eaters’ mind set.
While this could be a good way to cut back on eating too much food, the problem with this diet is that it makes the dieter reliant on whoever is making and selling the cookies. Perhaps if you’re making your own- we’re not talking chocolate chip here, though, they’re specially formulated-it could work for the long-term. However, saying ‘no’ to regular food for the rest of your life, could be a challenge, to say the least.
So, what are some better ways to change your eating habits? Following your country’s food guide takes some thinking, as does counting calories, but if done properly, it can help you make permanent changes.
MyPlate Program
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The USDA’s MyPlate program also provides a good, simple method for eating right. Fill half your plate with non-starchy veggies and fruits each meal, and divide the other portion into one half grains and one half protein-preferably lean protein.
Don’t forget to add in occasional oils and fats, as you need these. Drink a glass of milk with it, and you’re ready to go. You’ll be getting the nutrients you need, limiting yourself to one plate of food and filling up on what your body needs, without going hungry.
Isn’t that the way we should always be eating?
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