Have You Ever Done A Stupid/Fad Diet? What Happened?

Khovde07

When I was engaged, my then-fiance-now-husband and I were overweight. My mother pressured both of us to try a diet that her sister had done with big results. After about a month of pressure we finally gave in and did it. Here's my story:

The diet was called the HCG diet. The idea behind it is that you take oral drops that simulate the HCG hormone in pregnant women. This hormone feeds on the fat stores in the mother and gives it to the fetus. Supposedly, without a fetus present, and while taking the simulated hormone, the excess fat would be washed out as waste product. So for 21 days you ate an incredibly restrictive diet (it only included chicken, lean steak, shrimp, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, apples, oranges, and strawberries) of only 500 calories per day. And you could only drink plain water, plain coffee, or plain green tea. Absolutely no additives or enhancements. You could have absolutely no fats or oils, including certain make-up or lotions, and no breads. If you plateaued, you did a "steak day" where you didn't eat anything all day but then for dinner had 100 grams of steak and an apple. The idea was that the fat your body was releasing and feeding on kept you in a healthy calorie range. After 21 days, you spent the next 3 weeks slowly introducing more food and eventually were back to normal.

The results were huge. I lost 25 pounds in 21 days and my husband lost 45. But at the end, I had my urine tested and found out that I was in ketoacidosis. Essentially, my liver was getting ready to shut down. As I'm typing all this out, I can't believe how stupid I was to be pressured into trying something like this. Yes, I lost 25 pounds in 21 days (that I gained right back after a couple months) but at the risk of my health. I'm so glad that I've started doing this the right way and the results are even more gratifying this time around. And those HCG drops have been banned by the FDA in the US.

TL;DR: I essentially shut down my liver eating 500 calories a day.

DisneyDude85

I tried a "juice cleanse" for 3 days. Got sick, felt really run down (clearly because of the amt of calories I was taking in). Not one of my proudest moments.

I did lose a few pounds of water that came rushing back on as soon as I had a solid meal. Haha.

janejellyroll

DisneyDude85 wrote: »

I tried a "juice cleanse" for 3 days. Got sick, felt really run down (clearly because of the amt of calories I was taking in). Not one of my proudest moments.

I did lose a few pounds of water that came rushing back on as soon as I had a solid meal. Haha.

I had a very similar experience except I was also drinking "detox tea" while doing the "cleanse." When you feel too weak to make it to the bathroom but it's really ultra-important to make it to the bathroom . . . well, it wasn't fun.

usmcmp

I think I tried them all between 2006 and 2011. The worst was some diet pills that helped kill appetite and "speed up metabolism". I lost 25 pounds in two weeks because I could barely eat or drink. Then I fainted carrying my son down the stairs at our house and the way I landed broke his leg. I gained it all back when I stopped the pills and started eating again. The guilt of breaking his leg haunts me today.

abatonfan

I'm in the middle of a stupid diet that I have coined the sugar free jello and diet caffeine free coke diet. I'm diabetic and periodically need to fast for extended periods while I assess whether parts of my insulin dosages need adjusting (basal testing). I just had my last meal, plan on starting the test at 6PM (need to fast for at least 4 hours prior to the test), and can't eat or drink anything besides sugar free jello and decaffeinated beverages until I end the test around 7-8AM tomorrow (if I don't need to stop it earlier). Once that test is done, I need to assess the change in my blood sugar over that period, adjust my insulin dosages, and retest as needed. Then I get to do basal testing all over again with a different time segment!

I might hide from my family for the next few days. I only got about 900 calories in for the day and am going to be miserable while I run these tests.

TuffChixRule

Here are two of my experiences with stupid diets:

When I was in college, I read an article in Redbook about a "miracle" ice cream diet. Essentially, it was a typical restrictive diet of grapefruit, egg whites, celery and the like, but you were allowed one tablespoon of ice cream a day to "help you feel like you aren't being deprived" or some such nonsense. I lasted about a day and a half then I broke down and had a large bowl of ice cream.

I also tried some diet pills with green coffee extract that were supposed to turn my metabolism into a fat-burning machine, but they just made me jittery and kept me awake for nearly 24 hours.

Meganthedogmom

I have a couple friends who also did the HCG diet. My thought was always, "no s*** you're going to lose a ton of weight eating 500 calories a day. Anyone would!"
Of course they lost a bunch of weight in a very short amount of time, and of course they gained it all back and a lot more.
I would kinda consider me doing the Atkins diet dumb, because I knew it wasn't realistic for me not to eat carbs for the rest of my life, so of course I gained all the weight back and then some.
As a kid I also followed any of the weird diets my mom would find (cabbage soup diet, anyone?)
Sadly, I've been overweight my entire life.

norcogrrl

Does "Slim Fast" count? If so, then "yes." I used Slim Fast in the '90s. I was constantly hungry and miserable, and while I did lose a few pounds the diet was not sustainable for me.

I also tried the "Master Cleanse" for around six hours once. That was just miserable. I tried green tea tablets around 2009, but they did nothing for me.

magtart

I went on The Grapefruit Diet when I was in my early 20s. I fainted at work and had to be driven home.

ariana_eatsandlifts

In college I came up with an idea that every third day all I would consume was liquids. I was miserable and tired every third day and didn't lose any weight because I would overeat the other two days. I lasted maybe a few weeks doing this. If only I'd discovered CICO sooner!

AskTracyAnnK28

norcogrrl wrote: »

Does "Slim Fast" count? If so, then "yes." I used Slim Fast in the '90s. I was constantly hungry and miserable, and while I did lose a few pounds the diet was not sustainable for me.

I also tried the "Master Cleanse" for around six hours once. That was just miserable. I tried green tea tablets around 2009, but they did nothing for me.

Back in the 90's I did SlimFast. I used to carry a can with me while I was on college and drink it between classes. My health professor stopped me one day when she saw me with it and lectured me for 20 minutes on how bad "Slim Junk" was for you and how you can lose weight eating a healthy, well balanced diet and didn't need and gimmicks or magic potions. Genius!!

Equus5374

Holy cow, what haven't I tried?? Thing is, I've never had a ton of weight to lose, but nevertheless I still tried like heck. I did Slim Fast (yuck!!), the cabbage soup diet (ate one bowl and tossed it), Herbalife, Shakeology, 3-day cleanses (hangry!!)... After trying each one of these I would end up so frustrated that I'd eat whatever. Nothing has made the difference like CICO and tracking/weighing/measuring. I still eat what I want, but I count it. I'll never go back.

AskTracyAnnK28

Equus5374 wrote: »

Holy cow, what haven't I tried?? Thing is, I've never had a ton of weight to lose, but nevertheless I still tried like heck. I did Slim Fast (yuck!!), the cabbage soup diet (ate one bowl and tossed it), Herbalife, Shakeology, 3-day cleanses (hangry!!)... After trying each one of these I would end up so frustrated that I'd eat whatever. Nothing has made the difference like CICO and tracking/weighing/measuring. I still eat what I want, but I count it. I'll never go back.

ugh - the cabbage soup diet! It had this resurgence in popularity in the mid 90's - around the time I was pregnant with my son. I had friends on it and let me tell you - being in a small car with them was soooooo not fun!!!

missblondi2u

Khovde07 wrote: »

When I was engaged, my then-fiance-now-husband and I were overweight. My mother pressured both of us to try a diet that her sister had done with big results. After about a month of pressure we finally gave in and did it. Here's my story:

The diet was called the HCG diet. The idea behind it is that you take oral drops that simulate the HCG hormone in pregnant women. This hormone feeds on the fat stores in the mother and gives it to the fetus. Supposedly, without a fetus present, and while taking the simulated hormone, the excess fat would be washed out as waste product. So for 21 days you ate an incredibly restrictive diet (it only included chicken, lean steak, shrimp, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, apples, oranges, and strawberries) of only 500 calories per day. And you could only drink plain water, plain coffee, or plain green tea. Absolutely no additives or enhancements. You could have absolutely no fats or oils, including certain make-up or lotions, and no breads. If you plateaued, you did a "steak day" where you didn't eat anything all day but then for dinner had 100 grams of steak and an apple. The idea was that the fat your body was releasing and feeding on kept you in a healthy calorie range. After 21 days, you spent the next 3 weeks slowly introducing more food and eventually were back to normal.

The results were huge. I lost 25 pounds in 21 days and my husband lost 45. But at the end, I had my urine tested and found out that I was in ketoacidosis. Essentially, my liver was getting ready to shut down. As I'm typing all this out, I can't believe how stupid I was to be pressured into trying something like this. Yes, I lost 25 pounds in 21 days (that I gained right back after a couple months) but at the risk of my health. I'm so glad that I've started doing this the right way and the results are even more gratifying this time around. And those HCG drops have been banned by the FDA in the US.

TL;DR: I essentially shut down my liver eating 500 calories a day.

I've never tried a fad diet, but I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience. Good luck on your healthy journey!

nvmomketo

I did soup once for a few days to try and curb my cravings. It didn't work and I got sick of soup.

missblondi2u

usmcmp wrote: »

I think I tried them all between 2006 and 2011. The worst was some diet pills that helped kill appetite and "speed up metabolism". I lost 25 pounds in two weeks because I could barely eat or drink. Then I fainted carrying my son down the stairs at our house and the way I landed broke his leg. I gained it all back when I stopped the pills and started eating again. The guilt of breaking his leg haunts me today.

Thank you for sharing this. It can't be easy to live with that guilt. When I first started my weight loss journey, I would put my 2 year old in the stroller and go for long, leisurely walks, which he loved. Now, I often find myself leaving him at home so I can get a more rigorous workout in a shorter time because "he'll slow me down." Your story reminds me that one of the main reasons I'm losing weight is for him. Thank you.

rankinsect

For me personally, Atkins was dumb as it was totally unrealistic for me to sustain, and as I've demonstrated for myself later, wholly unnecessary.

Calorie counting with insanely low goals (1300 calories for a 300+lb man is not reasonable at all) was another dumb one, as was trying to eliminate all "bad food".

As to what happened, like many of us, I failed, and regained all the weight I lost plus extra.

rhianna818

The big one I did was Adipex (phentermine). I lost 70 lbs in 2 months and I didn't even try. At first the Dr at this place told me to eat 1200 calories and 24 grams of fat. That lasted like 2 weeks. It was so hard to stay at the fat grams. So I just started eating what I wanted and I still lost weight. I didn't have any issues like some people did w/ it. BUT I stopped taking them and gained back 70 + some.

VintageFeline

Oh boy.

Well, when I was at dance school I bought a book called the dancer's diet or some such. It was basically a published guide to anorexia without anyone really noticing you had anorexia. 800 calories a day or some such, gross not net. I think I lasted about a week because it was ridiculous for someone dancing up to eight hours a day!

About a year later, whilst also at dance college, I tried an Alli type product. I didn't have any of the worst of the horror stories happen but it was still very unpleasant. I only lasted a couple of weeks then too.

Briefly did the cabbage soup but it was in support of a flatmate doing it, who didn't fully explain until she gave the print out of all the details. I jacked it in after a day, she lasted about a week too.

Utter lunacy given that we had perfectly sensible diet and nutrition classes at dance school and yet I still fell for the fads. 10+ years down the line I am on my way to being physically smaller, fitter and healthier than I ever was when dancing!

Kalikel

When I was nineteen or twenty years old, I tried Slimfast. It lasted about 36 hours. That's the only fad diet I ever tried.

It didn't taste good and I was HUNGRY, so I quit. I gave the rest of the canister to a friend and she didn't finish it, either, lol.

kaylajane11

When I was overweight I took a trip to Mexico, and beforehand wanted to lose some weight. A friend suggested the "Apple Cleanse." Basically, you can eat as many apples as you want all day long. If you feel you need more, you can have a little bit of peanut butter or cheese with your apple. Then for dinner you have a salad with grilled chicken. I did it for two weeks and only lost about three pounds - likely because I was so hungry so my "little bit" of peanut butter or cheese was getting bigger every day. By the end I was running to the bathroom three or four times an hour, and decided that probably wasn't going to go well on the three hour flight to Mexico.

Last year my sister did a juice cleanse (even though I tried to encourage her not to). She lasted 12 hours, and woke up in the night violently ill. That was the end of that.

Karen_can_do_this

I did the 24680 diet. I think I lasted 4 rounds on it before my boss caught onto what I was doing and told me that either I start eating properly or she would fire me (total bluff btw she told me ages later)
I lost about 10kgs on that.

For those of you who don't know what it is, 200 calories one day, 400 the next, 600, 800 (so you don't go into starvation mode) then a complete fast. Then back to 200 calories etc.

You keep this up apparently forever lol. I highly would not recommend it. Not unless you like fainting, stomach cramps, that feeling like your stomach is going to eat your lungs unless you feed it etc
I gained it all back and then some

Oh and I did the nothing but apples diet, the nothing but iced coffee diet, nothing but carrots diet. Lots and lots of those types. I never actually lost weight on any of those.

I much prefer mfp and ifym

JustMissTracy

About twenty years ago, I bought an EMS unit off a commercial on tv...just hook yourself up, turn it on, and no need to do crunches ever again.... lol! What they forgot to mention was, it felt like bolts of electricity zapping thru my skin every 15 seconds, and I couldn't use it more than twice. That was worth the trip back for a refund, believe me!

AskTracyAnnK28

JustMissTracy wrote: »

About twenty years ago, I bought an EMS unit off a commercial on tv...just hook yourself up, turn it on, and no need to do crunches ever again.... lol! What they forgot to mention was, it felt like bolts of electricity zapping thru my skin every 15 seconds, and I couldn't use it more than twice. That was worth the trip back for a refund, believe me!

I got something like that back in the early 2000's. You wrap it around your waist and...it was just a bad time. it actually burned me!!!

sunandmoons

Lol back in the 70's, or 80's? (man, Im old)...the popular fad was AYDS..not to be confused with aids.

It claimed to lose 10 pounds in 5 days. The main ingredient benzocaine. A local anesthetic. Oh yah, wrapped in a piece of candy.

PeachyCarol

My mother put me on a diet where I was eating way too little. I ended up fainting in school.

I tried Nutri System. I consider that a fad or stupid because I learned nothing from it and promptly gained all the weight back.

I did the Cambridge Diet. I think that lasted for two weeks. I don't even remember if I lost anything.

Did raw vegan (not Freelee style) for a while. Didn't lose weight, cost too much, spent so much time preparing food.

And, finally, either paleo or Atkins... I did those for years. Ultimately, they came down to being fads for me because although I was able to eat that way for years, I really didn't learn that it wasn't about WHAT I ate, but it was about HOW much I ate. I only ever lost so much weight and never got down to even where I am now (still 25-30 pounds from goal).

Learning to be conscientious, learning to form habits, learning about sustainability? Those things finally worked for me. Everything else? I consider a fad. I learned what not to do.

RetroPolkaDot

I tried the lemon juice, water, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper cleanse thing. I lasted until dinner time on day one of that before deciding it was just too stupid and gross.

oolou

When I was sixteen I tried the cambridge diet, which is essentially a meal replacement diet of shakes, soups, bars etc that restricts calories. First week I lost 11 pounds, after that I lost a few pounds each week. Eventually though I started to cheat because I was really, really, really hungry. I also missed the social aspect of the family dinner as there was no way I could sit there and watch everyone eat a normal meal. It was not a happy time, despite the praise and congratulations I was getting for losing weight. The lost weight was regained fairly quickly once I stopped.

My doctor gave me diet pills when I was seventeen. I'm not sure what type they were, but I do remember moments of feeling faint and being aware that my heart was racing. I did lose some weight while taking them but the side effects frightened me.

A year later, another doctor put me on a diet of 500 calories for a week to prove to me that I could lose weight. Yes, I lost weight. I recall the nutritionist whom the doctor sent me to for recommendations on what to eat for that week laughing in bewilderment and at a loss as to how to put together a healthy diet on so few calories. After that week I was then allowed to eat 800 calories. Yes, I lost weight. During those weeks I was miserable and starving. Not a happy time. I stopped going to the doctors for help and decided I would rather be fat and happy.

GillianSmith2

I have done,
slim fast
numerous tablets
The Dukan diet
The high carb diet
starvation

the only one that had results was the Dukan diet, i managed to lose 2 stone but i missed my carbs to much to carry on with it and gained it all back.

This is definitely the only diet that don't even feel like i'm restricting what i eat.

mommarnurse

Khovde07 wrote: »

When I was engaged, my then-fiance-now-husband and I were overweight. My mother pressured both of us to try a diet that her sister had done with big results. After about a month of pressure we finally gave in and did it. Here's my story:

The diet was called the HCG diet. The idea behind it is that you take oral drops that simulate the HCG hormone in pregnant women. This hormone feeds on the fat stores in the mother and gives it to the fetus. Supposedly, without a fetus present, and while taking the simulated hormone, the excess fat would be washed out as waste product. So for 21 days you ate an incredibly restrictive diet (it only included chicken, lean steak, shrimp, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, apples, oranges, and strawberries) of only 500 calories per day. And you could only drink plain water, plain coffee, or plain green tea. Absolutely no additives or enhancements. You could have absolutely no fats or oils, including certain make-up or lotions, and no breads. If you plateaued, you did a "steak day" where you didn't eat anything all day but then for dinner had 100 grams of steak and an apple. The idea was that the fat your body was releasing and feeding on kept you in a healthy calorie range. After 21 days, you spent the next 3 weeks slowly introducing more food and eventually were back to normal.

The results were huge. I lost 25 pounds in 21 days and my husband lost 45. But at the end, I had my urine tested and found out that I was in ketoacidosis. Essentially, my liver was getting ready to shut down. As I'm typing all this out, I can't believe how stupid I was to be pressured into trying something like this. Yes, I lost 25 pounds in 21 days (that I gained right back after a couple months) but at the risk of my health. I'm so glad that I've started doing this the right way and the results are even more gratifying this time around. And those HCG drops have been banned by the FDA in the US.

TL;DR: I essentially shut down my liver eating 500 calories a day.

Sounds like the drops had nothing to do with the dramatic weight loss

Colorscheme

usmcmp wrote: »

I think I tried them all between 2006 and 2011. The worst was some diet pills that helped kill appetite and "speed up metabolism". I lost 25 pounds in two weeks because I could barely eat or drink. Then I fainted carrying my son down the stairs at our house and the way I landed broke his leg. I gained it all back when I stopped the pills and started eating again. The guilt of breaking his leg haunts me today.

When my son was 8 or so months old, I tripped over his baby gate while holding him. He fell to the floor and I took him to the emergency room but they said he was fine. Didn't even do any x-rays. Took him to the orthopedist after he wouldn't put weight on his leg and sure enough...it was broken.

While I didn't fall as a result of a fad diet or anything, know that it happens all the time. Even the orthopedist told me that it's a super common injury in toddlers and infants. The good thing is that their bones are soft so they heal faster than an adult would.