What is a Fad Diet?
Fad diets are simple and in the short term, they do work. Most fad diets cause weight loss because they are low calorie due to restricting foods or eliminating entire food groups. However, much of this weight loss is water and lean muscle - not body fat.
Fad diets don't teach realistic long-term eating habits for weight control and for life. Wasted money, weight regained, feeling of failure and perhaps damage to emotional well being and health can result. For those who try one fad diet after another, weight cycling becomes a common problem as well.
Don't Fall for a Fad!
Use the Tips Below to Identify a Fad Diet:
- Limits or Restricts Foods - not a realistic long-term way of eating, you may be missing out on important nutrients for good health.
- Magic or Miracle Foods - there is no magic food that burns fat, you must use more energy than you consume to burn fat and lose weight.
- Rapid Weight Loss - is mostly loss of lean muscle tissue and water. A weight loss of 1/2-1lb per week is the best way to lose fat.
- Specific Food Combinations - some foods do taste good together, but there is no scientific evidence that eating specific food combinations has any medical benefit.
- No Increased Physical Activity - most fad diets fail to talk about the importance of exercise.