Fad Diets: The American Way
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Here is the link to the article: http://www.vpxsports.com/article-detail/diet/fad-diets
Summary for the people too lazy to read: Fad diets don't work. Best quote from the article, "Have we become so naïve as to believe that taking some homeopathic HCG drops will fix 20 years of poor eating?"
Fad Diets: The American Way
by: Josh Hodnik
When a search is done at Amazon for “diet books” over 71,000 results pop up, and over half of what I scanned through were fad diets such as “The 17 Day Diet,” “1-Day Diet,” and the ever popular “South Beach Diet.” These fad diet plans range from eliminating carbohydrates completely, to cutting calories down to 500 per day while taking HCG homeopathic drops.
Fad diets are nothing new. In fact, it is rumored that William the Conqueror devised an alcohol-only diet in 1087 after being too fat to ride his horse. William did not grow any thinner but died later that year after falling from his horse, leaving his servants struggling to find a coffin large enough to fit the overweight king (after he was dead, however, he lost most of his weight).
Fad dieting gained mass appeal in the 19th century through Sylvester Graham who was the genius behind the Graham Cracker. This Presbyterian minister promoted a diet that mirrored the puritanical beliefs of his time: The Graham Diet, developed in 1829, sought to temper feelings of lust and desire while maintaining a strong sense of health. Sylvester Graham recommended a complete regimen of hard mattresses, cold showers, and a diet consisting of homemade bread, rough cereals, fruits, and vegetables, while avoiding meat, caffeine, alcohol, and breads that were not homemade. Graham was once attacked by a mob of bakers and butchers for his role in promoting the avoidance of meat and store bought bread.
Fad diets have changed dramatically since William the Conqueror ignorantly devised the alcohol-only diet, but some of the thinking behind them hasn’t changed much at all. Fad diets are generally designed to help a dieter lose a large amount of weight in a short period time, and these diets usually consist of extremely restricting a person of calories by cutting out certain food groups, or relying on pure liquids as a source of nutrition.
While poor nutrition among the American population has risen, so has fad dieting. People often try to look for a quick fix for a weight problem with a gimmick diet that promises to change a person’s appearance in a short period of time, and the regimen behind these diets are often unhealthy and quite dangerous.
I teach my clients that there are no quick fixes, and that fad diets will often leave you more frustrated and in worse shape than when you started. I feel like banging my head against the wall when I am asked what I think about the HCG Diet, Grapefruit Diet, or the Atkins Diet. Have we become so naïve as to believe that taking some homeopathic HCG drops will fix 20 years of poor eating? The sales say we have.
I am going to cover just a few of the fad diets that have gained popularity over the past few years. There are too many to cover all of them, but you will get an idea on how most work with the few that I describe below.
HCG Diet
The HCG Diet craze began in 2009, and this diet promises to promote extreme weight loss with the combination of HCG homeopathic drops, a 500 calorie a day diet, while recommending the person not exercise at all. People will see weight reduction with this plan if they can stick with the super low calories, but this has nothing to do with the HCG drops at all, and has everything to do with the extreme reduction in calories. Much of the weight loss will occur due to muscle wasting, and this will slow the metabolism resulting with the person looking like a smaller version of what they were before. Many people cannot maintain the strict calorie drop and after a few weeks they will end up giving up, binge eating, and end up weighing more than what they did when they originally started this diet.
The Ketogenic Diet
Dr. Atkins’ “Diet Revolution” was published in 1972 and was revised several times over the next few decades. This diet consists of cutting out carbs and eating large amounts of protein and saturated fats. Unlike other short term fad diets, this diet was designed so that the dieter would continue the low carb diet for the rest of their life. This diet works well in short term. Many people on this diet will boast about large amounts of weight being lost within the first few weeks of cutting out carbohydrates. Although there are many forms of the Ketogenic Diet, the Atkins version by far the most popular with the masses.
Quick results are very encouraging to a person starting any diet. But what most people do not realize is that for every 1 gram of carbohydrate store that is depleted from the body, 3 grams of water will be lost, resulting in most of the initial weight loss being water. I have seen a lot of people lose body fat from this diet, but over the long term the body does adapt, and muscle loss will occur.
Rarely have I seen anyone get truly lean while holding onto muscle over the long term while following this diet. Remember, even contest prep gurus who prescribe this diet will only use it for the weeks leading up to a contest, and not year round - therefore adding fuel to the fire contending that this diet is not a long term solution or lifestyle. (Even if TGI Fridays carries an Atkins Friendly section on their menu)
Conclusion
I only covered a few of the fad diets that have become popular today. There are hundreds more out there, and I am sure another one is just around the corner that will be marketed to intrigue most of the overweight Americans wanting an easy way out. Most of the short term diets out there are similar in the fact that they are short term solutions, and they are not designed for the dieter to succeed. Sure, the person dieting will probably lose a few pounds, but at what cost? These extreme diets can lead to muscle loss, nutrient deprivation, and even the possibility of health problems. A person can be much more successful in losing body fat, increasing their metabolism, and gaining lean muscle by incorporating exercise into their lifestyle, eating healthier year round, and supplementing with nutrients that support a healthy metabolism and weight loss.
Summary for the people too lazy to read: Fad diets don't work. Best quote from the article, "Have we become so naïve as to believe that taking some homeopathic HCG drops will fix 20 years of poor eating?"
Fad Diets: The American Way
by: Josh Hodnik
When a search is done at Amazon for “diet books” over 71,000 results pop up, and over half of what I scanned through were fad diets such as “The 17 Day Diet,” “1-Day Diet,” and the ever popular “South Beach Diet.” These fad diet plans range from eliminating carbohydrates completely, to cutting calories down to 500 per day while taking HCG homeopathic drops.
Fad diets are nothing new. In fact, it is rumored that William the Conqueror devised an alcohol-only diet in 1087 after being too fat to ride his horse. William did not grow any thinner but died later that year after falling from his horse, leaving his servants struggling to find a coffin large enough to fit the overweight king (after he was dead, however, he lost most of his weight).
Fad dieting gained mass appeal in the 19th century through Sylvester Graham who was the genius behind the Graham Cracker. This Presbyterian minister promoted a diet that mirrored the puritanical beliefs of his time: The Graham Diet, developed in 1829, sought to temper feelings of lust and desire while maintaining a strong sense of health. Sylvester Graham recommended a complete regimen of hard mattresses, cold showers, and a diet consisting of homemade bread, rough cereals, fruits, and vegetables, while avoiding meat, caffeine, alcohol, and breads that were not homemade. Graham was once attacked by a mob of bakers and butchers for his role in promoting the avoidance of meat and store bought bread.
Fad diets have changed dramatically since William the Conqueror ignorantly devised the alcohol-only diet, but some of the thinking behind them hasn’t changed much at all. Fad diets are generally designed to help a dieter lose a large amount of weight in a short period time, and these diets usually consist of extremely restricting a person of calories by cutting out certain food groups, or relying on pure liquids as a source of nutrition.
While poor nutrition among the American population has risen, so has fad dieting. People often try to look for a quick fix for a weight problem with a gimmick diet that promises to change a person’s appearance in a short period of time, and the regimen behind these diets are often unhealthy and quite dangerous.
I teach my clients that there are no quick fixes, and that fad diets will often leave you more frustrated and in worse shape than when you started. I feel like banging my head against the wall when I am asked what I think about the HCG Diet, Grapefruit Diet, or the Atkins Diet. Have we become so naïve as to believe that taking some homeopathic HCG drops will fix 20 years of poor eating? The sales say we have.
I am going to cover just a few of the fad diets that have gained popularity over the past few years. There are too many to cover all of them, but you will get an idea on how most work with the few that I describe below.
HCG Diet
The HCG Diet craze began in 2009, and this diet promises to promote extreme weight loss with the combination of HCG homeopathic drops, a 500 calorie a day diet, while recommending the person not exercise at all. People will see weight reduction with this plan if they can stick with the super low calories, but this has nothing to do with the HCG drops at all, and has everything to do with the extreme reduction in calories. Much of the weight loss will occur due to muscle wasting, and this will slow the metabolism resulting with the person looking like a smaller version of what they were before. Many people cannot maintain the strict calorie drop and after a few weeks they will end up giving up, binge eating, and end up weighing more than what they did when they originally started this diet.
The Ketogenic Diet
Dr. Atkins’ “Diet Revolution” was published in 1972 and was revised several times over the next few decades. This diet consists of cutting out carbs and eating large amounts of protein and saturated fats. Unlike other short term fad diets, this diet was designed so that the dieter would continue the low carb diet for the rest of their life. This diet works well in short term. Many people on this diet will boast about large amounts of weight being lost within the first few weeks of cutting out carbohydrates. Although there are many forms of the Ketogenic Diet, the Atkins version by far the most popular with the masses.
Quick results are very encouraging to a person starting any diet. But what most people do not realize is that for every 1 gram of carbohydrate store that is depleted from the body, 3 grams of water will be lost, resulting in most of the initial weight loss being water. I have seen a lot of people lose body fat from this diet, but over the long term the body does adapt, and muscle loss will occur.
Rarely have I seen anyone get truly lean while holding onto muscle over the long term while following this diet. Remember, even contest prep gurus who prescribe this diet will only use it for the weeks leading up to a contest, and not year round - therefore adding fuel to the fire contending that this diet is not a long term solution or lifestyle. (Even if TGI Fridays carries an Atkins Friendly section on their menu)
Conclusion
I only covered a few of the fad diets that have become popular today. There are hundreds more out there, and I am sure another one is just around the corner that will be marketed to intrigue most of the overweight Americans wanting an easy way out. Most of the short term diets out there are similar in the fact that they are short term solutions, and they are not designed for the dieter to succeed. Sure, the person dieting will probably lose a few pounds, but at what cost? These extreme diets can lead to muscle loss, nutrient deprivation, and even the possibility of health problems. A person can be much more successful in losing body fat, increasing their metabolism, and gaining lean muscle by incorporating exercise into their lifestyle, eating healthier year round, and supplementing with nutrients that support a healthy metabolism and weight loss.
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Replies
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REALLY great article.
One of the things I didn't see mentioned here was how the fad diet culture makes real weight loss seem so much harder than it has to be. Many of these fad diets demonize certain food items as "bad" and counterproductive to the diet. It creates this notion that some food is inherently going to derail you. If the person enjoys that food, they end up miserable trying to "diet" when all they really had to do was have a moderate calorie restriction and get moving more.
These diets also set people up to think that one HAS to be miserable and hungry to lose weight.
It's such a shame.0 -
REALLY great article.
One of the things I didn't see mentioned here was how the fad diet culture makes real weight loss seem so much harder than it has to be. Many of these fad diets demonize certain food items as "bad" and counterproductive to the diet. It creates this notion that some food is inherently going to derail you. If the person enjoys that food, they end up miserable trying to "diet" when all they really had to do was have a moderate calorie restriction and get moving more.
These diets also set people up to think that one HAS to be miserable and hungry to lose weight.
It's such a shame.
Once again, everything that she said. Lol - you always say what I want to say!! :laugh:0 -
It also missed the newest shake-on yumminess that's supposed to change whatever your eating into 75% fiber, so it just passes through without really being digested.0
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Love this. I am convinced that most of our obstacles are self-inflicted. We make things so much harder, more painful, more awkward, etc. than we need to.REALLY great article.
One of the things I didn't see mentioned here was how the fad diet culture makes real weight loss seem so much harder than it has to be. Many of these fad diets demonize certain food items as "bad" and counterproductive to the diet. It creates this notion that some food is inherently going to derail you. If the person enjoys that food, they end up miserable trying to "diet" when all they really had to do was have a moderate calorie restriction and get moving more.
These diets also set people up to think that one HAS to be miserable and hungry to lose weight.
It's such a shame.
The craziest dynamic I see is people who are obviously intelligent (demonstrated in other ways) that buy into crazy notions that don't make any sense. I don't believe it's stupidity. I believe it's the power of want clouding reason.0 -
The craziest dynamic I see is people who are obviously intelligent (demonstrated in other ways) that buy into crazy notions that don't make any sense. I don't believe it's stupidity. I believe it's the power of want clouding reason.
As someone who gave into the low-carb/starvation thing early on, I think it has more to do with feeling like it's what is expected of someone losing weight. I didn't approach nutrition initially the way I would my work with rationality, research into peer-reviewed literature, and reading the work of people who are well-trained and thoughtful. I just knew that there were these diet plans out there, and I'd heard they worked. I figured if others could stick with <40g carbs per day and eating 1200 calories per day and not eating the food I loved so much, so could I. I was wrong. I couldn't, and when I failed, which was really inevitable the way I'd set myself up, I then decided to readjust my thinking. A lot of people don't get that far. They fail and then think it's them that's the problem not the diet.
The other part of it for me was the sudden realization that I was obese, and that I had let my once athletic fit figure get completely ruined. I wanted to fix it NOW not wait for months for me to relearn how to eat. I just wanted the fat gone as fast as possible. Impatience and poor expectations have a lot to do with it.0 -
I think you're right! So they either needlessly suffer through the misery and give up after a short time, or they don't even start because they don't want to deal with it in the first place.These diets also set people up to think that one HAS to be miserable and hungry to lose weight.
I also agree with the 'want-it-now' desire - heck, we all want the fast off asap, and when those pretty infomercials come on showing the latest fad diet or workout, full of people with amazing bodies and shocking before and after pics showing results in a short amount of time, we rare see that tiny print at the bottom of the screen that says "results not typical"!
I'm so glad for all I have learned along the way - yeah, it takes effort, but it doesn't have to be hard and you don't have to be miserable, you just have to stick with it and be smart about it. But we are an instant gratification society, patience is hard to come by these days.
Thanks for posting!0 -
People in this country are always looking for the answer to a riddle that doesn't exist rather than facing reality. There's no magic potion or special routine that is any better than calorie reduction and exercise of any sort. Eat fewer calories, you'll lose weight. Stress your muscles and cardiovascular system by any physical activity and you'll burn calories. But we're a dumb country where the Thighmaster, the Ab Roller, and the Shake Weight have sold countless millions as if they provide a path to physical fitness any better than doing pushups and situps. Our fast food, fast everything mentality has led to expectations of a fast and easy solution to eating like crap.0
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Then there's the only take 20 bites per day diet that debuted here, I believe.0
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Very true! The worst I've done is take Adipex. Granted it worked, but eventually I got where I was comfortable & went right back to my previous eating habits which of course resulted in gaining all the weight back. I really got started on this journey in February & am proud to say that I've stuck with it going on 10 months now. It has truly become a lifestyle change for me. I've rarely gotten off track & when I do it's not the end of the world, tomorrow a new day. I exercise daily & if I don't I feel completely guilty. That's one way that I know this has been a real lifestyle change for me. I've watched friends do both the low Carb thing & the HCG diet & failed. I've tried to discourage them from making any changes that aren't sustainable for life, but everyone knows how that goes. I'm very proud to say that I've lost 98 lbs & while I have a way to go, I'm confident & patient that I will get there in time & NOT gain it back!0
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Great little article. I think we've all been guilty of the "I want to lose weight NOW NOW NOW" mindset but a little common sense and research should bear out these crazy fad diets. But they seem to be getting more prevalent, not less.0
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Then there's the only take 20 bites per day diet that debuted here, I believe.
Lol!!! I wonder how that all worked out for her? Definitely not sustainable!
Great article! Thanks for sharing
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Then there's the only take 20 bites per day diet that debuted here, I believe.
Lol!!! I wonder how that all worked out for her? Definitely not sustainable!
Great article! Thanks for sharing
She deactivated her account after she literally got driven off the board by a torch-bearing mob of people.0 -
True. Took me too long to learn this lesson, but now I'm doing much better.0
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Bumping because I feel many more people on MFP need to see this.0
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So what is not a fad diet? I think some of the diets he mentioned are more lifestyle changes in the end. Atkins is no 20g of carbs forever and the south beach diet ends up adding fruits and even grains by the last phase. I think some people need a blueprint on healthy eating and those books can be a way of helping to get to a better diet.0
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So what is not a fad diet? I think some of the diets he mentioned are more lifestyle changes in the end. Atkins is no 20g of carbs forever and the south beach diet ends up adding fruits and even grains by the last phase. I think some people need a blueprint on healthy eating and those books can be a way of helping to get to a better diet.
The downside to what you describe is the labeling of certain foods as "bad" or "dirty". No single food item, by itself, is inherently "bad". Those types of diets promote the feeling of guilt when eating a piece of cheesecake without taking into consideration that persons entire day of eating.
So many times you see people panic because they are invited to a buffet for lunch. Why? Because they don't take the time to learn how to integrate things into their day. They just assume that everything on that buffet is "dirty" because some dude told them that in a book.
No reason to add stress to your life when it's not necessary.0 -
In fact, it is rumored that William the Conqueror devised an alcohol-only diet in 1087 after being too fat to ride his horse.
I think I did this one in my first year of uni :drinker:0 -
True. Took me too long to learn this lesson, but now I'm doing much better.
And I wish I had known all this 25 years ago. But doing much better now too. Thank you for the post. 0 -
In b4 a Paleo war0
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So what is not a fad diet? I think some of the diets he mentioned are more lifestyle changes in the end. Atkins is no 20g of carbs forever and the south beach diet ends up adding fruits and even grains by the last phase. I think some people need a blueprint on healthy eating and those books can be a way of helping to get to a better diet.
The downside to what you describe is the labeling of certain foods as "bad" or "dirty". No single food item, by itself, is inherently "bad". Those types of diets promote the feeling of guilt when eating a piece of cheesecake without taking into consideration that persons entire day of eating.
So many times you see people panic because they are invited to a buffet for lunch. Why? Because they don't take the time to learn how to integrate things into their day. They just assume that everything on that buffet is "dirty" because some dude told them that in a book.
No reason to add stress to your life when it's not necessary.
I don't necessarily agree that Atkins and south beach diets do that. I think that carbs, especially the "bad" carbs are eaten in excessive amounts by Americans as a whole. I think these diets offer a way to get people off the addictive cycle. Afterwards, they allow more "good" carbs in the diet until a person reaches their tolerance level. In a society where, generally, people are unaware of good nutrition, (or ignore it because it's too difficult), I think these diets help provide a roadmap to healthier eating. But, I am a person who can't lose weight while eating that piece of cheesecake. I can maintain fine eating that stuff once in awhile, but to lose, I must watch those foods. I cannot integrate those foods into my day while trying to lose, unfortunately.0
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