Lots of people want or need to lose weight, but the time-proven method of moderation and exercise just isn’t fast enough. Enter fad diets.
Many rely on “science” to come up with the logic of how their plan works miracles. In reality not only do such fad diets fail, but they can also be dangerous, too. Here are ten of the worst fad diets.
10Moon Diet
Sometimes called the “werewolf diet” due to its dependency on the lunar cycle, this revolves around fasting based on the phases of the moon, including total fasting on new or full moons. Though advocates say you can lose six pounds in a single day following this, it’s simply not feasible, and any weight loss this way will be gained back shortly after you stop.
9Blood Type Diet
No, blood type doesn’t determine how your body reacts to certain foods, though this diet is based on restricting what you eat based on your blood type. Arbitrary restrictions, a running theme of fad diets, are a bad idea.
8Military Diet
Though the title gives it a nice official-sounding ring, there’s no evidence suggesting that any military utilizes this diet. It’s simply extreme calorie restrictions for three days. How restrictive? One meal suggestion is cottage cheese, an egg, and five saltines.
7Juice Diet
Sometimes pitched as a cleanse, consuming nothing but juice even one day out of the week is risky business. Sure, you’ll (temporarily) lose water weight, but may also lose muscle mass. You know, the stuff you need.
6Cotton Ball Diet
We’re sure you don’t need us to tell you this, but here it goes: eating cotton balls just to feel full is stupid. Like, really stupid.
Have you ever experience intestinal blockage? Did you know that most cotton balls are actually dipped in bleach? Do you really need much convincing not to do this?
5Five Bite Diet
Despite being developed by a doctor this one is extremely dangerous. Five biters skip the first meal of the day and take only five bites for lunch and another five for dinner. On the upside, you can eat whatever you want. On the downside that’s not enough food to reasonably survive for an extended period of time and maintain good health.
4Paleo Diet
The premise of the diet is flawed on its face: eating inline with our paleolithic ancestors is practically impossible given it would vary by location and season.
Beyond that, the idea that our ancestors were somehow healthier than we are requires very selective evidence, like focusing on a lack of diabetes while ignoring shorter lifespans. Nutritionists warn that following the diet could lead to a calcium deficiency.
3The Maker’s Diet
Where things get really questionable are the recommended supplements, which nutritionists argue are not needed if you’re eating a balanced diet, pulling the rug out from under the whole premise.
2Fletcherizing
Concocted in the 1880s on shoddy “science” by Horace Fletcher, the idea is that all food should be chewed at least one-hundred times. Oh, and liquids, somehow. On paper this should make food digest better and promote better health. In reality, it doesn’t do anything outside of wasting time.
1Eat Anything Diets
There are many diets that claim you can eat whatever you want with certain caveats (one says you only eat during an eight-hour period each day, while another says eating anything at all will eventually force self-control onto you… somehow).
But in either instance, you’ve taken the idea of a balanced diet and smashed it to pieces. Without that balance, there is no health.
