Fad Diets: How They Work For Weight Loss, Pros, & Cons

Celebrities and people who aim to lose weight quickly get into the trend of fad dieting. While the pressure to stay fit and look good is constant, the fad diet is a quick way of achieving your desired weight. Since the diet involves cutting down on essential food groups for some time, it may also result in some negative effects on your body and may be ineffective and unsustainable in the long term. In this article, we check out the pros and cons of fad dieting and how it can impact our health in the long run. Scroll down to read them before you opt for the diet of your choice and jump on the bandwagon of fad dieting.

In This Article

Fad Diets – A List:

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Following is a list of some of the popular fad diets:

• Cabbage Soup Diet
• Master Cleanse
• Grapefruit Diet (1)
• 3 Day Diet
• 5 Bite Diet
• 17 Day Diet
• Acai Berry Diet
• Air Diet
• Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
• Atkins Dietⁱ  X A diet that aims for weight loss by eating as much protein and fat as one wants while avoiding high carbs.
• Baby Food Diet
• Beverly Hills Dietⁱ  XA 35-day diet that requires a person to start the day with enzyme-rich fruits followed by only the same category of foods every meal.
• Blood Type Diet
• Cotton Ball Diet
• Detox Diet
• HCG Diet
• Hollywood Dietⁱ  XA diet plan that involves eating normally for five days of the week and fasting for the remaining two days.
• Liquid Diet
• Low-Carb Diet
• Low-Fat Diet
• Negative Calorie Diet
• Paleo Diet
• Sacred Heart Diet
• Sleeping Beauty Diet
• South Beach Diet
• Tapeworm Dietⁱ  XA diet that requires people to swallow tapeworm egg pills. The tapeworm then grows inside the body and eats whatever a person eats.
• Zone Diet

Most of these diets help you shed pounds quickly. However, they may have adverse effects. They cannot be considered as long-term solutions for weight loss. They just provide quick-fix and temporary solutions, and the consequences can be unhealthy.

Let’s look at three top fad diet plans in detail. All of them have disadvantages and advantages. They can help you lose weight, but they aren’t long term healthy solutions. The best way to keep fit is a balanced diet and exercise.

1. The Cabbage Soup Diet

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Cabbage soup diets usually include eating nothing but cabbage soup through the week, in addition to fruits and other vegetables. On the first day, you may eat cabbage soup and a tomato; the next day, you’ll eat cabbage soup and a turnip; on the third day you’ll be eating cabbage soup, tomato and turnip and so on.

Advantages

• You can have unlimited amounts of cabbage soup and the specified foods (fruits and vegetables).
• The no-limits policy on cabbage soup ensures that you don’t feel too hungry and lose weight quickly. In some cases, the weight loss is quite immediate and people have shed as much as 5 kgs in a week.
• Its antioxidant properties help remove toxins from your body.
• It’s cheap to furnish and quite easy to prepare.

Disadvantages

• The cabbage soup diet can leave you fatigued and make you feel weaker than usual.
• In most cases, the weight loss has been found to be temporary.
• Cabbage soup can cause stomach cramps.
• Cabbage soup isn’t quite palatable and it may begin to taste dull after a couple of days.

Related: 10 Health Benefits Of Cabbage, Nutrition, And Side Effects

2. The Master Cleanse

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Beyoncé Knowles made the master cleanse an instant hit. The diet regimen is aimed at ridding the body of excess fat and detoxifies it. The diet substitutes regular food with cayenne pepper, maple syrup and lemon-flavored water. It is an especially laborious task, and sometimes the cleanse may continue for 40 days.

Advantages

• It makes you feel better as you get rid of junk food, tobacco and alcohol from your diet.
• Its strong antioxidant properties help detoxify the body.
• The mix is quite palatable and economical to make.
• Although it can be incessantly long, The Master Cleanse is one of the shorter diets compared to other regimens with the average time being 10 days.

Disadvantages

• It can be hard to follow, as no food is allowed.
• It needs physical and mental fortitude.
• It can induce rapid muscle mass depletion and reduce energy levels as well.
• Your body will take time to adjust to the normal food upon the completion of The Master Cleanse.

Stylecraze SaysYou can ease into the master cleanse by cutting out processed food and shifting to a liquid diet for 3 days before starting with the main cleanse that allows only lemonade.

3. The Grapefruit Diet

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Often hailed as the Hollywood Diet, the grapefruit diet can last up to 12-18 days on an average. Grapefruits are slated to contain a fat-burning enzyme. Usually, you will eat ½ a grapefruit; alternatively, you can drink around 250 ml of grapefruit juice, along with specific meals. Meals will usually feature up to 5-7 glasses of water and protein.

Advantages

• The grapefruit diet plan is quite easy to follow.
• It is a healthy food to consume, is low on calories, has close to zero fat and is crammed with Vitamin C.
• It helps lessen the risk of diabetes and hypertensionⁱ  XA medical condition that affects the body’s arteries and leads to a person’s blood pressure reaching higher than normal. .

Disadvantages

• The calorie intake is reduced to 800. This limit is well below the daily nutrition needs and may cause fatigue.
• The rigid regime may cause stomach ache, dizziness or headaches due to food deficiency.
• The extra protein can lead to complications like Kidney stones (2).

Stylecraze TriviaInstead of going on a grapefruit-only diet, you can simply start taking a cup of grapefruit or a glass of grapefruit juice with all your meals for its health benefits.Related: Is Grapefruit Beneficial For Your Skin?

Cautions

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Following are some cautions you have to exercise while using fad diets. You should ignore any weight loss product or diet plan that:

• Claims to help shed more than 2 pounds a week. Remember that weight loss and weight gain are gradual processes and gaining or losing 2 pounds in a week seems highly improbable.
• Makes unreal promises. You don’t have to remove fat and calories from your diet to lose weight. Healthier plans advise you to cut down on certain foodstuffs. Removing a nutrient from your diet can lead to other complications.
• Includes ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. Stay away from tricksters who use this technique. These products usually pay people money to right rave reviews and use unheard names of nutrition experts.
• Restricts your diet to fruits and veggies and encourages you to refrain from a balanced diet.

[ Read: GM Diet Plan ]

Our Verdict

The cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet and The Master Cleanse help reduce weight. However, all of them only provide temporary results. To really get fit, you need to balance your eating, exercise, and pay close attention to what you put inside your mouth.

There is a wide range of fad diets out there, starting from the cabbage soup diet to the Hollywood diet. Unfortunately, people do not weigh the pros and cons of fad dieting in their urge to shed some pounds quickly. The fact is that they do help in faster weight loss, but the results do not last long once you are off those diets. So, they are only effective for short-term weight loss. Moreover, these diets bring down the intake of calories to very low levels, and following them for extended periods may lead to muscle loss, fatigue, and headache. Hence, the best way to lose weight is to go on a balanced diet and exercise regularly.