We all hear about whatever the latest fad diet is and know someone bragging about how they lost SO MUCH weight on the newest “miracle diet.” But here’s the thing, all of these fad diets just eliminate certain food groups or food types– carbs, gluten, meat, etc. – and are VERY calorie restrictive.
So yeah, you lose a lot of weight quickly, but you don’t make any long-term changes, because these eating habits are not sustainable for most. I mean, just look at the meaning of ‘fad’ – “something that becomes a crazed trend without any basis in quality”. That says it ALL, ladies!
Fad Diets Are Not Sustainable
I think we can all agree that if you go on an extremely calorie-restrictive diet, you will lose weight. BUT, you can’t sustain that…So instead what happens is when you start eating again there’s a major rebound and you end up gaining back AT LEAST all of the weight that you lost (often even more). Yo-yo dieting, anyone?!?
If you want to learn more about what’s going on with these, check out my post about the reality of yo-yo diets and what they do to your body.
Not only is this type of dieting frustrating, discouraging and terrible for your body, but it’s also really hard and uncomfortable. At some point, most of us have tried one of these and felt nausea, headaches, dehydration, and fatigue that come with them. No, no and NO – don’t do it to yourselves!
The Most Recent Favorite Fad Diets
It seems like every week a new fad is popping up. Especially popular lately are those diets that cut out the carbs. Everyone loves to hate carbs, right?!?
There’s South Beach, with three stages of carb restrictions and claims of losing 13 pounds in two weeks (what?!?); Atkins, telling you to eat as much fat and protein as you want just skip the carbs; Dukan, another high protein-low carb diet with claims of 10 pounds in one week (come on!!!!); and Ketogenic, one of the newest low carb-high protein favorites. So many low-carb fads with big promises. I mean, ten pounds in one week?!? If it sounds too good to be true…
And how about those crash diets…have you heard about the Cabbage Soup Diet? For a week, you eat LOTS and LOTS of cabbage soup – and a few other foods that are scheduled out for you. Or the classic Grapefruit Diet, where you start every meal with half a grapefruit and then eat a prescribed menu?
Plus, you probably all know someone raving about the Paleo Diet, where they eat like a hunter and gatherer, or the Blood Type Diet, where you only eat specific foods based on your blood type.
There’s also Slimming World – a favorite program in the UK that promises weight loss through meal plans of its own. Or the long-time favorite Weight Watchers, that offers a variety of plans and programs to help you drop extra weight. These diets are coming from a good place – they encourage people to pay attention to how much they’re eating and watch their calories – but my issue is that these programs don’t teach you about the foods you’re eating or about calories. Even worse in my opinion is that they don’t help their members properly move forward when their bodies reach a plateau.
If you’d believe it, I’ve even heard of some Slimming World members being encouraged to NOT exercise because it would make them ”bulky” and hungrier…There’s so much to say about this.
The bulky part is something I can talk about in a whole blog, but to keep it short for now: women don’t have enough testosterone to look ”bulky” when the exercise. And, in regards to the hunger… Well, yeah, of course exercising will make you hungrier because it’s increasing the number of calories you burn. But, exercising will help you shape your body and make you feel extra confident in that bikini. All that to say, these types of programs simply don’t give you the nutrition and fitness support that you need.
OMG. There are so many fad/miracle diets with SOOOOO many promises.
The Truth About Weight Loss
These fad diets get me so wound up. They’re not healthy or sustainable and they do harm to both your body and your morale. Don’t fall into the trap of doing these!
The ONLY way to lose weight is by having a calorie deficit, in a sustainable and realistic way. But remember, you don’t want to have prolonged calorie deficits because it will lead to yo-yoing (see above!).
To get that calorie deficit, you don’t need a fancy diet or a confusing plan. You just need to either decrease the calories that you eat or increase the calories that you burn. I bet you can guess what I like here – let’s get moving, ladies!!!! And whatever you do, AVOID THE FADS!
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