Name any diet gimmicks or fads you have ever tried.:)

24

Replies

  • jbrooks3645
    jbrooks3645 Posts: 76 Member
    I've tried slim fast, phentermine, alli (one of the over the counter diet pills), and its not this is not a fad diet but I tried eating nothing but health foods that didn't work bec I wasn't in a deficient even tho the food was good for me then I tried eating whatever I wanted but goin to the gym and all I did them was maintain my weight bec I was still eating so much. I'm so glad I found mfp and now understand cico
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Not exactly a diet or done for dieting purposes, but I was into water fasts in my late teens for mental clarity and enlightenment. I got the ultimate mental clarity and was very enlightened to how stupid that was when I landed in the hospital because of it.

    Other than that, I've never really been a dieter. Maybe a brief few days because my friends were doing it, I tried the cabbage soup diet, that diet where you ate grapefruit and toast for breakfast, and some other diets that were circulating in the 90s. I can't remember them much because I wasn't really serious about losing weight back then, I just wanted to try things because my friends did them.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    Body Fueling
    Atkins
    Schwartzbein Principle
    <sigh>
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    Atkins.....but I cheated.
    Nutrisystem.....but I cheated.
    Lowfat.....but I cheated.

    Just too impatient and never understood the process.


  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    NewChapterInMyLife wrote: »
    And almost bought the raspberry ketones when Dr.Oz had me convinced. Lol

    That’s who got me! Never again. Seriously they were like gummie bears and added 15 cals each (eat 4-6 a day) to my intake. Such a scam and I fell for it
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited May 2018
    Silentpadna wrote: »
    Atkins.....but I cheated.
    Nutrisystem.....but I cheated.
    Lowfat.....but I cheated.

    Just too impatient and never understood the process.

    I tried lowfat in the '80s. Lasted almost a week before I snapped, went to In-n-Out and ordered two Double Doubles.

    Apparently I don't do well at the extremes when it comes to diet. LFHC and LCHF were both unsustainable for me.

    [ETA:] I cheated on Atkins/low-carb too - and quickly discovered that the results were....uncomfortable...and potentially disgusting. It's hard to enjoy yourself on vacation when you have to stay within waddling distance of the nearest toilet at all times.
  • pomegranatecloud
    pomegranatecloud Posts: 812 Member
    None.
  • 1houndgal
    1houndgal Posts: 558 Member
    edited May 2018
    Stop The Insanity
    Cher Diet for CFS
    Beverly Hills Diet
    Pritikin Plan
    ATKINS Diet
    Ayurvedic Diet
    Rotation Diet
    WW
    Curves
    Tops
    AHA DIET
    ADA diet
    Dash diet
  • Anna_137
    Anna_137 Posts: 167 Member
    SCoil123 wrote: »
    The one total fad I fell for though was raspberry ketones. I spent over $100 on those darned gummies lol. At least they tasted good

    Oh mate, me too. They weren't even gummies they were in capsule tablets. What a waste of money. Pretty embarrassing but it's easy to get suckered. You go online for help with weight loss and you're more likely to come across loads of fad diets, miracle pills etc that promise you'll lose weight fast, before you come across anything sensible about CICO.
  • SabAteNine
    SabAteNine Posts: 1,867 Member
    I tried a form of Dissociated Diet in 2013 which started with 4 days tour de force of raw vegetables.
    Also, I briefly tried going without meat and dairy for some reason. Horrible.

    Very low carb / keto (with calorie counting) was great for me personally and I wouldn't call it a fad, but came off it recently.

    Do herbal diuretic teas count as a gimmick? I had those too for a while.
  • jesspen91
    jesspen91 Posts: 1,383 Member
    I did the 5:2 diet for about a month but had to quit becuase I was so iritable on the fast days and it was having a negative effect on everyone around me.

    Also did super low carb for a fortnight specifically to fit into my grad ball dress that I ordered online and wouldn't do up. It worked for fitting into the dress but I was still really uncomfortable in the dress even if it did do up so I really should have just bought a new dress!
  • JaxxieKat
    JaxxieKat Posts: 427 Member
    I took Hydroxycut. Didn't work. Did Slim Fast. Didn't work. I did high carb/low fat vegan. Didn't work. Shacklee 360. Didn't work. Keto. Did work, but I felt awful. 21 Day Fix. That one was pretty neat, because it taught portion control, but it felt super restrictive.
  • Jadub729
    Jadub729 Posts: 135 Member
    slimfast, all it did was make me hungry and give me gas.
  • Crafty_camper123
    Crafty_camper123 Posts: 1,440 Member
    Slimfast= Was still hungry after drinking shakes. So I was drinking the shakes AND eating my food. Not effective.

    ACV= Tried drinking an ACV tonic in the AM at the suggestion of a coworker. Tried it for about a week. Did literally nothing. Moving on.

    Dandilion tea= Peed a lot. Lost some water weight.

    Garcinia Cambogia= Claims to increase your metabolism and helps burn more calories. Well it increased something because my appetite shot up and I was hungry all the time while taking it. Kind of defeats the purpose if it makes me eat more. Thanks Dr. Oz.

    Those are the only fads I've tried personally. While growing up my dad was doing Atkins and low carb. So that means during the summer M-F I was doing also doing Atkins and low carb... When I wasn't eating Ramen noodles of course. I learned it wasn't sustainable by watching them try, succeed for a while and then fail. I also learned that grilled meat and veggies is still one of my favorite healthier meals.


  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Back in uni (some many years back now) I tried Slim Fast and last like one day - drank the breakfast shake and was still exactly as hungry as before. I wasn't even overweight, I have no memories of dieting otherwise for years and years after that until the last ten years. I was a member of Beachbody for a while (in the sense that I had some DVDs and used the chatrooms) before they got that MLM flavour to things, counted cals on a neat site called FitDay (which still exists as an alternative btw) but I remember just randomly choosinfg 1500 cals and had no plan for adjusting for exercise, I had fleeting success with WW online. Landed here two years back after deciding to just get it done.
  • 1BlueAurora
    1BlueAurora Posts: 439 Member
    In high school I substituted a "health shake" for breakfast because my friend said it worked for him. You make it by putting one cup of lowfat milk, a raw egg, a packet of Sweet N Low, some vanilla extract and some cubes of ice in a blender and blend it all up. It was fast and tasty enough, but it didn't help me at all. And then, of course, there's that whole issue about eating raw eggs. I don't believe getting salmonella would have helped, either.
  • missperfectpitch
    missperfectpitch Posts: 620 Member
    I've tried a couple of different tactics that didn't work too well or weren't sustainable for me, but I think the one that might qualify as a fad/gimmick was when I added chia seeds to as many dishes as possible. The others were mainly misunderstandings of how things work, like eating only "healthy" foods, and thinking that I could eat as much as I want if I exercised (while being sedentary otherwise).
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    BruinsGal_91 wrote: »
    The Grapefruit Diet. All it did was make me really hungry and put me off grapefruit for life.

    But even that wasn't as miserable as the time I shared an office with one woman on the Egg Diet and another one on the Cabbage Soup Diet.

    I pity the folks who shared space with me on the bacon cheeseburger and Broccoli Keto diet.

    FWIW, I didn't even lose weight.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    In high school I tried the "eat nothing but carrots and one meal a day" plan before prom. I did not miraculously lose weight in the two weeks or so that I tried it.

    College was the Slim Fast plan. Those shakes were awful and I don't know why I stuck with them so long. I wasn't tracking my weight at the time, but I was much more active in college and also living off of breadsticks and poptarts between classes, so at least the shakes gave me some nutrition, I suppose.

    Sometime when I started actually trying to lose weight through calorie counting I bought one of those rubber slim belts that velcro around the waist to help "sweat the fat away." Never made me sweat more. Didn't affect my weight loss. Didn't magically reduce my tummy. So sad.
  • Kimmotion5783
    Kimmotion5783 Posts: 417 Member
    Low-fat, fat free foods. Did Weight Watchers 5 times and not once did they tell me that a weight loss plateau would be normal! Frustrating! Anyway, I did weight loss shakes for a while until I discovered how much added sugar was in them and then I ditched those.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    edited May 2018
    SaunaSuit wrote: »
    I love grapefruit, I eat it every day! and I have a orange or apple and berries when they look good to buy. I'm on the Cabbage Soup Diet and it has never given me (gassssssss). that is because I put a soup bone in the pot when it is boiling so it adds a little oil which stops the (faaaaarrrrrtttts). :wink:

    Back when I would do the cabbage soup diet, there were a few variations that were tasty. There was one with tomato sauce that tasted hot and slightly sweet. But I did get gas/bloating and even the better tasting varieties of cabbage soup got old. I always gained the weight back when I went back to regular eating.
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