Diet Fads that do NOT work ( i know, do any? )
Replies
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Dont waste your money educate yourself on nutrition and how you will eat for life. You going to buy shakes the rest of your life????
Exactly, instead of spending a ton of money on processed foods and drinks, better off learning to cook (I can't get over how many people can't even handle the basics of cooking) and balance your diet . Ultimately cheaper and healthier, and should result in long term weight reduction
Agree completely - high schools should teach a course called life skills - how to cook, how to eat sensibly, how to shop sensibly, how to manage your money, how to be in a relationship, how to be a parent and on and on...........that would actually prepare people for life.0 -
Those don't teach you about portion control or eating sensibly? Do you not understand the point system is based on calories for weight watchers? Hmmmm....
So are you saying that people should then just roll the dice and hope that they aren't one of the majority? Or is that lifestyle change is really beyond one's control?Any diet that only lasts a limited time and does not lead to a lifestyle change basically will only work temporarily as you'll likely gain the weight back.
"Lifestyle changes" have the same abysmal rates of long term success and maintenance as temporary fad diets and radical dieting.
Regardless of how it's lost, the overwhelming majority of people either fail to reach their goal, or fail to maintain that goal.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I kind of love you for saying that last part. Often people start with a lifestyle change and then get to where they want to be and switch to "I reached my goal, I'm done" mode and go back to eating pretty much how they did before they made their lifestyle change. Combine that with how fat cells vs. muscle cells work and they gain back a bunch of weight. Yikes! Yes, lifestyle change means FOREVER! Of course you can make careful adjustments to it but bottom line is you are never done.
People still confuse 'diet' with 'lifestyle change' that's the problem. If you want weight loss and maintenance to be permanent you have to get out of the mindset that weight loss something you do for a little while and stop. A lifestyle change is something that should be sustainable for life. That's where I'm up to, trying to change my behaviour and wanting a 'quick fix'. It's hard to do when you have lived your life being set in your ways.
I've tried...
Jenny Craig, weight watchers, various shakes, the Dukan diet and carb free fads. None of which teach you how to eat sensibly, portion size etc. As a result I lose weight and put it back on again!0 -
Any diet that only lasts a limited time and does not lead to a lifestyle change basically will only work temporarily as you'll likely gain the weight back.
But you *can* do a crash diet and back it up with a lifestyle change, and keep off the weight that you lost. Think of the diet as a 'factory reset' of your eating habits.0 -
I don't know of any of the "healthy shake" systems that truly work!
Herbalife made me actually gain weight!
I've been around people who used the Body by Vi systems and they didn't get the results they wanted and I also noticed a complete change in their hormones!!!0 -
I have also done the cabbage soup diet and even though I will never do it for 7 days again I love the soup and make it about once a month. I can eat 3 large cups of it for like 180 cals and its full of things I love so I have it for lunch here and there (also works better then all these "cleanse" things if you know what I mean)0
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I've never tried it, but years back there was a campaign by a cereal company that you'd lose weight if you substitute your breakfast and lunch with just a bowl of their cereal. Its like yeah, duh you will, and you won't reach your macros either and then be starving for dinner!
Just my opinion..0 -
Green Tea Extract
Green Coffee Bean Extract (I do believe this actually decreased my appetite)
Bliss Go Pack (did literally nothing but waste my money)
I've also tried the Special K diet, but all that is a bunch of processed junk! live and learn!0 -
In the last 8-9 yrs:
Carbohydrate Addicts diet
Slimfast
Atkins
Slimming World
Weight watchers (works very well actually)
Coconut oil is also known to be quite good for keratosis pilaris (chicken skin on your arms). Sadly mine seems to become more pronounced when I lose weight.0 -
Its better to do it sensibly (2 pounds a week) along with exercise and lifestyle changes of eliminating processed food, low fat, this and that and go as natural as you can. ALSO, no night time snacking after 6 pm. Gradual changes. Eat most things and in moderation.0
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Cellulite smoothing cream....:noway:
I could have bought weights and done flippin' squats instead.0 -
Those don't teach you about portion control or eating sensibly? Do you not understand the point system is based on calories for weight watchers? Hmmmm....
So are you saying that people should then just roll the dice and hope that they aren't one of the majority? Or is that lifestyle change is really beyond one's control?Any diet that only lasts a limited time and does not lead to a lifestyle change basically will only work temporarily as you'll likely gain the weight back.
"Lifestyle changes" have the same abysmal rates of long term success and maintenance as temporary fad diets and radical dieting.
Regardless of how it's lost, the overwhelming majority of people either fail to reach their goal, or fail to maintain that goal.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I kind of love you for saying that last part. Often people start with a lifestyle change and then get to where they want to be and switch to "I reached my goal, I'm done" mode and go back to eating pretty much how they did before they made their lifestyle change. Combine that with how fat cells vs. muscle cells work and they gain back a bunch of weight. Yikes! Yes, lifestyle change means FOREVER! Of course you can make careful adjustments to it but bottom line is you are never done.
People still confuse 'diet' with 'lifestyle change' that's the problem. If you want weight loss and maintenance to be permanent you have to get out of the mindset that weight loss something you do for a little while and stop. A lifestyle change is something that should be sustainable for life. That's where I'm up to, trying to change my behaviour and wanting a 'quick fix'. It's hard to do when you have lived your life being set in your ways.
I've tried...
Jenny Craig, weight watchers, various shakes, the Dukan diet and carb free fads. None of which teach you how to eat sensibly, portion size etc. As a result I lose weight and put it back on again!
Jenny Craig gives you food, you blindly stick it in the microwave and consume it. Where in that does it teach you to portion control and eat healthy? It's also laden with so much salt it's ridiculous. Weight Watchers might be a calorie counting type diet, but why do I want to pay for going to meetings to show me how to count calories when I can do it on MFP for FREE (and it's pretty frigging expensive!)? Also their food tastes like cardboard and I avoid it like the plague. I'd rather eat full fat and just log it and move on.0 -
Metabolife.
Metabolic research center... As a teen, they gave me pills and a guided eating plan, list of forbidden foods, and weekly weigh ins...i ddi drop a lot of lbs, and I did gain it back....and it was all ephedra based then. Not sure what it is now, as it still exists.
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So are you saying that people should then just roll the dice and hope that they aren't one of the majority? Or is that lifestyle change is really beyond one's control?Any diet that only lasts a limited time and does not lead to a lifestyle change basically will only work temporarily as you'll likely gain the weight back.
"Lifestyle changes" have the same abysmal rates of long term success and maintenance as temporary fad diets and radical dieting.
Regardless of how it's lost, the overwhelming majority of people either fail to reach their goal, or fail to maintain that goal.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Nope. I'm saying that slapping a "lifestyle change" label on your dieting doesn't magically put anybody in a better position for beating the odds.
It's become quite common for people to claim that if you call it a "lifestyle change", or lose it slowly, or do it in "moderation", and many other such popular dieting platitudes, it equips you better for long term success. That's not backed up by any actual facts or statistics. Calorie counting, point watching, carb counting, fast loss, slow loss, moderate loss, portion control, dieting, "lifestyle changes", all ultimately have extraordinarily horrendous long term results.
So I'm merely saying that regardless of how you lose, it's best to be aware that it's an uphill battle for most people, no matter how how you label the journey.0 -
Fad diets don't work its about changing your food intake and exercising. The 123 plan is similar to the dukan diet.. Is it coincidence??? NO ! Terri ann lost her weight via the dukan diet . This widely known in the area where terri ann is from. If i read shakespeare and copied it onto A4 and sold it does it mean i have compiled it myself ? Definitely not. An amazing business evidently for this lady, is it morally right to steal other professionals hard work and claim it to be your own ? Thats for others to decide0
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Agree completely - high schools should teach a course called life skills - how to cook, how to eat sensibly, how to shop sensibly, how to manage your money, how to be in a relationship, how to be a parent and on and on...........that would actually prepare people for life.
High school should teach this? Are you kidding me? The last time I checked, this was called PARENTING.0 -
Am I the only one old enough to have tried Ayds? You were supposed to take them before meals and they were supposed to swell up and fill your stomach so you wouldn't eat so much. Nope. Did not work. I followed the directions but no magic full feeling. My appetite was not lessened. I did not lose.
Does anybody remember the embarrassment producing product that was Olestra? It was supposed to prevent fat absorption. Olestra potato chips felt like they had coated your entire digestive tract, from your tongue to your poop chute with a greasy, plastic film. Food slid through, unhampered by the digestive process. It was too disgusting to try more than once.
Weight Watchers worked for me in the 70's, the 80's and the 00's. Only problem is I fall back into old habits as soon as I decide I've spent enough and stop going to meetings.0 -
You're about 14 years older than me but I remember Ayds from an older sister trying it in the mid-70s. The vibrating belt machine was still around, too, I think? I remember Marlo Thomas on That Girl using it.Am I the only one old enough to have tried Ayds?
I tried a box of Alli when it first came out. Eh. You limit your fat intake to 15g/meal so you don't have greasy orange diarrhea. I could do that without an expensive pill.0 -
Low fat diets. Hahaha. What a bunch of crap those are0
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The "eat right for your blood type" diet. I'm embarrassed that I got suckered into trying that one!0
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I have several friends that swear they lost a lot of weight on HCG. What's the story there?0
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Face type diet.... All those home made oatcakes and disgusting green soup....ugh.
And Slimming World made me feel so ill it was unreal.... Low fat diets do bad things to my digestive system... And I put on weight :frown:
One of the shake diets, Celebrity Slim (I knowwwwww! ) does actually work for me, though. Trouble is I have a mild dairy allergy so it's impossible for me to do for an extended period. The weight lost stayed off until my boyfriend moved in...0 -
My mum did Lighter Life where you only drink these awful expensive milkshake sachets. She lost like 5st very quickly but then her hair started falling out.
Once she stopped Lighter Life and started eating normal food, she ballooned back up and is now way bigger than she was pre-lighter life.0 -
In high school, I megadosed on Metabolift (off-brand Metabolife) at the urging of a boyfriend. I felt awful after doing that for a short while and had to stop. I also drank Kombucha tea with my mom - it tasted like warm vinegar, so of course you won't want to eat after that!
I tried some chitosan liquid while in college - saw an infomercial for it. Did nothing. Neither did this weight loss vitamin supplement my cousins were using and selling - can't remember the name of them now.
I have also tried Atkins and didn't work at all. I felt awful after week 1, yet lost zero lbs. My doctor recommended South Beach. I got the book but didn't do it because the food was expensive and I was a broke grad student.
I thought about Alli, but I thought better of it once I remembered it was a tapered-down version of Xenical. My dad took Xenical back in the 90s and apparently had a lot of "treatment effects" (ie lots of oily poop and emergency restroom trips while on family vacation).0 -
Alli....you will **** yourself....true story.:mad:0
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Low fat diets. Hahaha. What a bunch of crap those are
Exactly. :grumble:
I prefer eating food that tastes good. And satisfies.0 -
All diets seem now to be called 'lifestyle changes' now, though that may be because you have to change your life completely to accommodate them.
I have done Slimming World but struggle after the first few pounds. It doesn't really teach portion control, and some of the free foods are not particularly healthy.
I liked WW until they changed to pro points.
I tried the Harbourne diet twice but the lack of carbs on the first week led to me having a full blown migraine. When I questioned this on the forum was told it was me detoxing. I decided to keep hold of my toxins and gave up.0 -
ANY diet works if one follows the program. A FAD DIET is one that will help one lose weight, but one that's not likely sustainable by anyone looking to lose a few pounds and keep them off.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
as an adult the only diet i ever tried was atkins and i barely lasted a week. not because it doesnt work but because it SUCKED. sorry, i like food or i wouldnt be in this mess, why would anyone want to restrict what they like from their lives...
i do calorie counting, and it works, i do diets, they dont. because i hate them.
my mom used to get me to try this and that with her when i was a tennager. cabbage soup, atkins, blahdy blah and i hated them all so much that they didnt work.
the only thing that has ever worked for me in all this time is calorie counting. not having anything be off limits, but just controlling how much of things i eat.
people try to tell me about diet pills and i just pshaw at them. no thanks.
i count my calories. i eat what i want but less of it. i continue to love food and not feel like i cant eat it and i lose weight.0
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