Tell us crazy diets that you or someone you know fell for

caminoslo

For me I guess it could be the food pyramid

VeryKatie

I had a coworker who drank clay (yup, soil) mixed with water for 7 days. Like an earthworm!

caminoslo

I had a coworker who drank clay (yup, soil) mixed with water for 7 days. Like an earthworm!

Is that digestable? I ate raw bread dough and had a stomach ache

ghosthackexe

CLAYY ??? that's crazy as hell. Well mine doesn't come close to that when I first started my weight loss journey I wasn't very knowledgeable and I fell for not a low carb diet but a ZERO carb diet where I ate zero carbs for about a solid week I looked like **** and felt like **** =P

edit: as soon as I put "Looked like **** and felt like ****" I immediately thought god I wonder how bad that clay guy must have felt XD gah still blows my mind

TeaBea

Nothing quite as goofy as eating dirt.........

The Dolly Parton Diet (now called fat burning soup)....blech

The grapefruit diet...this was your basic low fat.....very old school.

The Special K Diet (also known as....I'm hungry all the time diet!)



Also did the rotation diet (now called zig-zagging). This is actually decent.

shellma00

I had a coworker who drank clay (yup, soil) mixed with water for 7 days. Like an earthworm!

I think this is one of the most bizarre fad diets I have ever heard of.. WOW.. JUST WOW

AlyssaJoJo

The Idea Protein diet STILL blows my mind. My friend is doing it - has been on it for over half a year - has lost well over 100 lbs and I'm happy for her but not once could I bring my self to think that it was healthy! Her breath is gross, her periods are messed up, her hair is super thin compared to how it used to be, her coach will only let her work out so much a day because if she does much she loses pretty much everything she ate, she can't eat healthy fruits ... or healthy veggies... or healthy meats... it's crazy. AND SO MUCH SOY!

VeryKatie

I had a coworker who drank clay (yup, soil) mixed with water for 7 days. Like an earthworm!

I think this is one of the most bizarre fad diets I have ever heard of.. WOW.. JUST WOW

I know! She bought it in a health food store - it was a weird cleanse. I mean, cleanses can be pretty weird, but CLAY? Shampoo can be made of clay, sure... but... food? And she was just like "It's good for you!". It's weird because I knew it was my "fault"... she wanted to lose weight because I had been losing weight... except I was using Weight Watchers at the time.. not clay.

fourfiftythree

My grandma did this one... can't remember the name... where she got to eat one "normal" meal of a lean protein with vegetables once a day, and pre-packaged astronaut food the rest of the time. It was extremely low carb and low calorie. She lost more than 100 lbs and re-gained 150 after she went off the diet. While she was having so much success, she became a coach and talked several other friends and family members into trying it. They have all gained the weight back too, after likely spending hundreds on the prepared food.

WhatMeRunning

For me I guess it could be the food pyramid

That was a good one!:laugh:

I recall a diet when I was around 20 years old called the "Apple diet", or "Apple a day diet". Basically it said that you could eat as many apples as you wanted so long as you ate at least one a day when you first woke up and you would lose weight. I actually did lose weight as I recall, but it all came back once I got tired of all the apples. It's not like I was doing anything ELSE to try and lose weight!::blushing:

Personally, I hesitate to say this one because I do believe there can be some merit to it, but going 100% Raw Vegan for the better part of a year didn't really do the best for me long term. I think that really getting a bunch of raw fruits, veggies and such is awesome, but I do believe that what got me in the end was perhaps an imbalance between carbs and proteins. When I simply started allowing cooked beans into the diet (only beans) I instantly started gaining weight again, and fell completely off the wagon soon after (I was craving beans non-stop and meats like you wouldn't believe). It was HARD being 100% raw vegan!

I'm very happy with what I'm doing now. Please don't hate me all you raw vegans out there.

seltzermint555

I think that clay cleanse wins!! haha

Looking back, I realize that I seriously tuned out 99% of my past coworkers and acquaintances who tried extreme and/or fad diets. I just did not even care to hear about it. Most of what I did hear involved eating lots of bacon, eggs, and steak while talking about how EVIL most other foods were.

My mom used to go on the Mayo Clinic diet once or twice a year when I was a kid. I mainly remember grapefruit and boiled eggs were consumed and I was happy about that because I liked both...with my Cheerios of course...or a honey bun.

I do remember a couple of friends (maybe 8-10 years back) believed that Trim Spa MUST work if Anna Nicole Smith lost weight on it...they bought some...didn't see a change. lol

Lasmartchika

The 7 day cabbage soup diet. God, horrible diet.
Of course basically starving myself by denying everything considered "bad" and just eating salads.
And then always gaining back my weight plus more.

SideSteel

I have a distant family member who is convinced that you cannot eat certain combinations of foods together. I believe she never combines carbohydrate with fat, but she can eat P+C or P+F, just not F+C.

lmao

EmotionalEater84

ViSalus .. tastes awful. Never again.

NH_1970

The hot dog and tuna fish diet...I can't even remember what was on it, other than two of the meals for the first three weeks included a hot dog and one meal included tuna fish...

The vegetable, juice and tuna fish diet. No fruits, no milks etc.

BarbellApprentice

paleo
*backs away slowly*

BombshellPhoenix

My aunt tried the "eating for your blood type diet". She kept telling me to stop eating hummus because it was bad for my blood type....

chivalryder

My borther had this crazy idea that, according to some "calculators" he found online, his TDEE is over 3000 calories/day, and that he would be best off eating half that to lose weight. Then he didn't log anything, and never measured anything.

It didn't work very well.

ghosthackexe

paleo
*backs away slowly*

A storms approaching

LifeOfBrian78

I lost a bunch of weight doing an extreme version of the atkins diet. This was before it got really popular. By the end of it, I was having blackout spells. I gained it all back very quickly when I went back to old habits.

rgbmore

My room mates did this one where they took a pill that had pregnancy hormones in it or something. Then they only ate lettuce and cheese for a week.
Try baking in an apartment where two girls are imitating pregnancy with artificial hormones and starving themselves. I thought I was going to be murdered.

sklarbodds

The funny thing is some of these diets work just simply because they get you out of bad habits. The low/zero carb diet works (to lose weight anyway) IMO simply because you can cut out a TON of calories that way.

The problem is sustainability. Until that person learns to adapt a healthy lifestyle (including eating) they'll just gain all the weight back.

I had a friend tell me he couldn't eat anything wheat. His reasoning was that it had been so GMO'd that it provided zero nutrients for the body and that we're actually 'allergic' to it now. That is the same friend that tries pretty much every fad diet. He even tried an 'egg' diet where he ate eggs for 2 meals a day and had whatever for the last.

Oh well

bizco

Cabbage Soup diet.

LifeOfBrian78

The problem is sustainability. Until that person learns to adapt a healthy lifestyle (including eating) they'll just gain all the weight back.

Yep, pretty much. That is what happened for me.

seltzermint555

I have a dear friend who believes a lot of the fairly extreme stuff about wheat, gluten, etc. She read "Wheat Belly" and it was all over...but I get so confused, because she talks about all of that and then she has a BBQ and serves burgers on puffy white Sara Lee buns.

sofaking6

I lost a bunch of weight doing an extreme version of the atkins diet. This was before it got really popular. By the end of it, I was having blackout spells. I gained it all back very quickly when I went back to old habits.

I did Atkins, just the regular one - after awhile though I'd blackout after just one cocktail.

CLM1227

The beginning of my real weight problems began with a banana diet while pregnant with my first because it was the only thing that tasted "ok" and didn't hurt on its way back up...

Yeah... That kind of diet.

Put on a lot of weight after the pregnancy because I had been deprived for 8 months and started a roller coaster that began with Atkins (which I don't really think is a crazy diet and none y'alls can convince me otherwise =p).

Following that, I went on a 40 day fast (Lent to break a food addiction called pizza). I made it to 30 days, but my family didn't let me break it the way I had intended (lots of whole, natural fruits and veggies for the first few weeks and slowly introduce more until I was at a proper calorie intake). Put on even more weight.

I've done the Betonite clay + psyllium husk as part of a candida cleanse - lots of avocado cream smoothies... those are actually really good and I highly recommend them as part of a normal diet =p

The betonite and psyllium didn't have the effect I was hoping for (which was bowel movement regularity).

tauny78

I'm surprised I haven't seen the so called military diet....I can't remember exactly what's on it but you're on it for a couple days at a time then eat what ya want then back....you definitely have to Google that one lol. I do remember saltine crackers and tuna being a staple. Tuna is great but the crackers? And it's strict...no deviations. Then there's the lemon, cayenne pepper and maple syrup cleanse. I have a family member who has done both, along with Atkins (but they did it all wrong) and any other "instant gratification" fad diet there is out there. Needless to say....they are still overweight .

allstatemom

Four years ago a group of my co-workers went to the diet doctor. I don't know what they were taking, but they lost from 20 - 55 pounds. All of them gained all of it back and some more. Then they did the Military diet. That is hot dogs and tuna. There was a round of cabbage soup. Last week they started Advocare.

bjshields

Yes! Paleo! Felt like total crap. Cholesterol skyocketed, too. (Please do not tar & feather me, Paleo people!) :flowerforyou:

OKfarmgal

Back in the 80's I did the Richard Simmons diet that you moved cards from one side to the other as you ate the calories. I was always hungry and cranky!!