First of all, let's make sure we're all on the same page as to what we're talking about. What is a fad diet?
I define it this way: a fad diet is one which is temporarily popular and promises weight loss (often substantial) by using methods other than a healthy balance between exercise and reduction of calories.
We've all heard about plenty of fad diets, haven't we? Remember the "Beverly Hills Diet"? "The Scarsdale Diet"? The "Cabbage Soup Diet"? "The Blood Type Diet"?
In fact, many fad diets are still around. They fade for a while, then a Hollywood star shows off a new, streamlined body and gives credit to one or another fads from the past, and off we go with that one again.
Then, there are the new or renewed ones that jump onto the bandwagon. In fact, already this year, there are diet "plans" being touted that are brand new (or at least new to the current generation) to our ears. Have you heard of:
• The HCG diet in which you take hormone injections and eat 500-700 calories per day. They promise you will lose weight. Well, duh! If you're only going to be eating 500-700 calories per day, you might just as well skip the injection (or inject fairy dust). You're going to lose weight...injection or not. And oh, how miserable you will be!
• The Paleo diet. Don't you want to eat just like the caveman? Root veggies, spices, fruits, nuts, shellfish, eggs. Oh, pass a mouse, please?
• Cleansing and detox diets are supposed to rid your body of toxins and prevent the buildup of fecal material in the intestine. (Proponents of cleanses swear Elvis had 60 pound of hardened stool in his bowel when he died. I wonder why gastroenterologists, who can stick a tube in your mouth and come out where they can tie your shoes, have never documented these wonders?)
• The Dukan diet in which you cut out whole groups of foods and then slowly add them back into your diet. (Watch this one. If it's good enough for the mother of Kate Middleton who married Prince William...it must surely be good enough for all of us, right?)
There are dozens and dozens more which we could explore, but there is no need to. There is one way, and one way only, to lose weight and that is to balance calories in with calories out.
Healthy weight loss is achieved slowly, (just as the pounds accumulated slowly). But, once you lose weight, you will keep it off because you will have changed your lifestyle insofar as eating habits are concerned.
You will be grateful when you see the quick results, and when you pass your method along to your family, they too can live a life unencumbered by excessive weight and the constant struggle to lose it!
Until next time!
