What Are Fad Diets and Do They Work?
Wikipedia defines fad diets as a diet that is popular for a time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often promising unreasonably fast weight loss or nonsensical health improvements.
Fad diets usually promise rapid weight loss, often without scientific backing and can promote potentially dangerous dietary advice. Sometimes these diets will even have celebrity endorsements. Fad diets are a $35 billion industry annually in the U.S. who bank on people who want to lose weight fast without the work.
Fad diets will include things like:
- Supplements (powders, pills, teas, etc.)
- Restrictive diets
- Physical or physiological testing or fasting
- Meal replacement products (such as SlimFast)
- Single food, or food specific diets, such as the cabbage soup diet also falls under this category.
They sound so promising. How can you distinguish the good from the bad?
The saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Not all fad diets are bad or bad for you. But there are signs to look out for to tell the difference. Bad diets will:
- Promise rapid weight loss (more than 2 pounds per week).
- Suggest that the diet (or product) is a one-size-fits-all.
- Claims that they have a secret ingredient, or specific combination of ingredients.
- Use personal testimonials instead of medical or scientific evidence.
- Recommend eating certain foods in a specific order.
- Has no health warnings or medical precautions.
- Primarily focuses on body image instead of health benefits.
- Implies that only taking the supplement is required with little to no work or changes to eating habits.
Fad diets are also not meant for the long term. The results, if any, are not long lasting. In other words, once the dieter goes back to normal eating habits, any weight lost will return.
What about the good diets?
Some fad diets actually do have scientific supportive evidence because they were originally used for medical purposes. Examples of this would be the Mediterranean diet, originally intended for diabetics and obese patients and the ketogenic diet, which is used for hard to control epilepsy. While these diets do promote weight loss, it should be noted that they were meant to be performed under medical supervision. I personally have done the ketogenic diet as part of my fitness program under a fitness trainer’s and physician’s supervision with good results.
Healthy diets overall promote lifestyle changes (not short term) which include healthy, balanced diets and limits processed foods, trans and saturated fats, and sugars. They do not suggest miracle weight loss or little to no work on your part. Weight loss with healthy diets have slow and steady results, from 0 to 2 pounds per week. Even so, consider losing “only” a half pound per year. That amounts to 26 pounds per year. On the high end, 2 pounds per week could amount to 104 pounds per year. Nothing to sneeze at! While these results might be slower than what is promised by fad diets, these will always have longer lasting effects because the diet itself is a lifelong habit, not a temporary one.
In conclusion…
Fad diets are primarily too good to be true and if the dieter does manage to lose some weight, it is only a temporary loss (only as long as the diet is continued). You should never begin a fad diet or make any drastic dietary changes without first consulting with your physician.