A fad diet is an eating plan that is sold as a smart approach to weight loss or health improvement, in a short amount of time. It promises an array of short-term changes that require little to no effort at all. It is often without the backing of solid science. 

Fad diets are popular thanks to the ingenious marketing of the food industry. These diets are often promoted by companies looking to sell their diet catered merchandise.

Fad diets are designed to work in a short amount of time. You initially see results and can lose a decent amount of weight, but what you actually lose is usually water or muscle mass. While there are some positive results at first, the restrictions that come with most fad diets are also unhealthy and unrealistic to maintain. This just leads to failure or a subscription to another fad diet.

Another problem with fad diets is the lack of nutrition that could lead to a lot of additional health problems, including negative effects on hormonal health and metabolism. If you lose weight too quickly and there is no support to help you keep the weight off, you could get stuck in a cycle of losing and gaining weight.

These diet plans also affect mental health by causing stress, guilt, and anxiety over food choices. It can leave you tired, hungry, and weak.

“When we are restricting calories, you are restricting the energy source of your body. You're also restricting the energy source of your brain. And if that's happening, then, you know, very primitive, protective mechanisms start to kick into place where your body senses that as a physiological threat and does start to shift your metabolic balance to burn less because it's getting less.”  - Nikita Kapur

A low-fat diet is an eating plan that restricts fat, as well as saturated fat and cholesterol.

Intended effects

The primary reasons for choosing a low-fat diet tend to be to help reduce overall calorie intake and to improve cholesterol levels. Low-fat diets are intended to reduce the occurrence of conditions such as heart disease and obesity.

Pros/Advantages

• Fat carries a higher number of calories per gram than carbohydrates or proteins and so reducing fat can help to reduce your overall calorie intake
• A study has shown reduced death following breast cancer, slowed diabetes progression, and prevented coronary heart disease as a result of a long-term low-fat diet.

Cons/Risks

• More often than not, low-fat or fat-free foods tend to be bland. To make up for the lack of taste, manufacturers tend to pour other ingredients like sugar, flour, thickeners, and salt into the products.
• Fat is necessary for absorbing fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, D, E, and K. And just like fat, cholesterol is also important. It helps build the structure of cell membranes, helps produce hormones, and helps your metabolism work efficiently.

Restrictions

• A low-fat diet will typically involve reducing fat intake from foods such as butter, eggs, and cheese. They are restricted to foods that have 30% of their calories or less from fats. These are foods that contain fewer than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories.
• The base of the diet is grains, veggies, and fruit. Fruits and veggies will cover half of your plate at each meal. Leaner sources of protein are also recommended, like skinless chicken, turkey breast, or pork loin.

The gluten-free diet restricts foods that contain the protein gluten. These include wheat, rye, and barley. It was designed for people with gluten sensitivity and people with Celiac disease but is marketed as a healthier food option for regular people by food manufacturers.

Intended effects

• The diet is mainly intended for people with gluten sensitivity and Celiac disease to prevent any intestinal damage.
• For people without sensitivity, a gluten-free diet is intended for weight loss, better focus, increased energy, or a less-bloated belly.

Pros/Advantages

• The diet is necessary and life-saving for people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity since gluten brings a bag-full of problems for them.
• The diet claims to treat digestive problems for non-gluten-sensitive people. These include bloating, diarrhea or constipation, gas, fatigue, and many other symptoms. It may also help promote healthy weight loss, especially if you eat a well-balanced diet that contains essential protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
• While it is said to help with weight loss for non-gluten-sensitive people, It does promote healthy weight gain for gluten-sensitive people.

Cons/Risks

• Unnecessarily cutting out whole grains from your diet can be problematic because whole grains are associated with several health benefits, especially for the heart.
• Going gluten-free does not mean weight loss. When they take out gluten, they have to replace it with something else to provide consistency to flavor and texture. It's the same thing with low-fat foods. That's why gluten-free foods tend to have more fat, more sugar, and more salt than their regular counterparts in general.
• Going gluten-free will prevent a proper diagnosis of celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Within just a few weeks of going gluten-free, any damage to the intestine or evidence of celiac disease might be gone.

Restrictions

The diet restricts consuming anything with gluten. This means you’ll probably have to get processed foods that had gluten taken out or food that naturally doesn’t have gluten.

A paleolithic diet, or simply the paleo diet is a dietary plan based on foods similar to what might have been eaten during the Paleolithic era. Which researchers believe consisted of whole foods.

Intended effects

The purpose of a paleo diet is to return to a diet that's more like what early humans ate. The reasoning is that the modern diet that emerged with farming practices is unsuitable for the human body.

People that practice the Paleo diet aim to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight without cutting on calories.

Pros/Advantages

• Several studies suggest that this diet can lead to significant weight loss and major improvements in health.
• The diet cuts out a lot of processed foods, and because the diet promotes eating anti-inflammatory foods like fruits, vegetables, and unsaturated fats in nuts and certain oils, your health could benefit from it. The paleo diet also reduces blood pressure and reduce the risk of diabetes, which can improve heart health.

Cons/Risks

• The paleo diet may help people lose weight initially but other diets that reduce calorie intake may be just as effective.
• The diet emphasizes meat and fish, and it's impossible to follow a Paleo diet without eating meat, seafood, or eggs. Good vegetarian sources of protein, such as beans and other legumes, are not allowed. 
• A strict paleo diet does not allow dairy products because people in the paleolithic era did not get to milk cows. By not getting enough calcium, you increase the risk of osteoporosis, rickets, and bone fractures.
• The paleo isn’t effective for sustained weight loss, as it is very difficult to stay committed to any diet that is too restrictive of one or more food categories.

Restrictions

In its purest form, the paleo diet allows you to eat only those foods that humans in the Paleolithic area. This means whole foods or unprocessed foods.

The ketogenic diet or keto diet, is a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate eating plan. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.

Intended effects

The goal of the keto diet is to lose drastically lose weight by burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates like we normally do. This metabolic state of the body is called Ketosis.

Pros/Advantages

Aside from the obvious weight loss, following the Keto diet may also reduce appetite.

Other claims are

• Reduce the risk of heart disease
• Reduce seizures in people with epilepsy
• Used as an additional treatment for cancer patients as the diet reduces tumor growth
• Protects brain function as ketones that are produced during the keto diet are beneficial to the brain.

Cons/Risks

• There are contradicting studies as heavy reliance on animal fats and proteins also increases the risk of heart disease. This form of diet could also lead to liver and kidney problems.
• By cutting out fruits and vegetables, you are missing out on a lot of fiber. This may lead you to experience constipation or other gastrointestinal side effects.
• The so-called keto flu may appear within 2-7 days after starting the diet. Symptoms include headache, foggy brain, fatigue, irritability, nausea, difficulty sleeping, and constipation.

Restrictions

Any food that is high in carbohydrates is restricted. You are, on the other hand, allowed to consume meat, fatty fish, eggs, butter, cream, cheese, nuts, avocados, low-carb vegetables, and healthy oil.

Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is a meal plan that is based on the traditional diets of people from the 1960s of countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea, such as Crete, Greece, Spain, and Southern Italy.

Intended effects

Mediterranean diet is about eating fresh, wholesome food to lower the risk of chronic diseases and prevent early death. It also focuses on daily physical activities and sharing meals with others that are vital elements that would have a profound effect on your mood and mental health.

Pros/Advantages

• The diet prevents heart diseases by limiting your intake of refined bread, processed foods, and red meat, and encouraging you to drink red wine instead of hard liquor. By reducing your risk of developing heart disease or cancer with the Mediterranean diet, you’re also reducing your risk of death at any age by 20%.
• With older adults, the nutrients gained with a Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of developing muscle weakness and other signs of frailty by about 70 percent.
• Though the diet mainly focuses on a healthy diet that prevents heart diseases and lowering the risk factors, people may also lose weight.

Cons/Risks

• Since the diet doesn’t focus on weight loss, it is possible to gain more weight if you eat more than the recommended amount of fat.
• The diet tends to be a bit pricey with some concerns about the cost of some foods including fish, seeds, nuts, and olive oil.
• There are concerns about the regular alcohol intake in the Mediterranean diet and whether this is truly beneficial to recommend.

Restrictions

This diet recommends reducing red meat and added sugar consumption.

The Atkins Diet is a popular low-carbohydrate dietary plan developed in the 1960s that restricts carbohydrates while emphasizing protein and fats. It is similar to the Keto diet but with fewer restrictions on how much carbohydrates are taken.

Intended effects

The purpose of the Atkins Diet is to change your eating habits to help you lose weight and keep it off. It claims a healthy lifelong approach to eating, whether you want to lose weight, boost your energy or help improve certain health problems, such as high blood pressure or metabolic syndrome.

Pros/Advantages

• Weight loss is certainly on top of the list but also includes other health benefits as it reduces blood glucose levels to the benefit of diabetics and pre-diabetics. It results in increased levels of good cholesterol and improves the concentration of the mind.
• You don’t cut out the carbohydrates entirely as you gradually introduce them back to your diet until you reach your desired weight.

Cons/Risks

• The Atkins diet and other low-carbohydrate diets could have other harmful effects as well. The high protein of a low-carbohydrate consumption could lead to joint pain, gout, kidney stones, and osteoporosis.
• Some protein sources like fatty cuts of meat, whole dairy products, and other high-fat foods can raise cholesterol and increase your chance of heart disease.

Restrictions

The person goes through 4 phases of the diet while consuming different amounts of carbohydrates each time. 

• Phase 1 restricts you to 20 grams of carbohydrates per day for 2 weeks.
• Phase 2 is where you slowly reintroduce carbs to your diet by consuming low-carb vegetables, fruits, and nuts.
• Phase 3 is where you add more carbohydrates to your diet and where weight loss slows down.
• Phase 4 is for maintenance. You consume as many healthy carbohydrates as you can without gaining weight. 

Depending on the phase, people may eat vegetables that are rich in fiber and nutrients, low sugar high fiber fruit, complex carbs, and plant fats.

The South Beach Diet is a popular commercial weight-loss diet and has been popular for over a decade. It’s another lower-carb diet like Atkins that has been credited with producing rapid weight loss without hunger, all while promoting heart health.

Intended effects

The south beach diet aims to achieve weight loss by eliminating carbohydrates though it claims not to be a traditional low-carb diet. It instead focuses on avoiding certain carbohydrates, based on their glycemic index (GI) score.

Pros/Advantages

• A considerable amount of weight loss will be seen in the first few weeks of starting the diet.
• The diet allows you to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, which means you can still enjoy regular meals and snacks while on the diet.
• There is no calorie counting as the diet also allows you to eat how much you can as long as you follow the guidelines.
• The foods recommended are low in saturated fat. The diet encourages people to consume unsaturated fats from sources like nuts, seeds, and avocados.
• The diet encourages people to pay close attention to how different foods and affect their bodies. It allows people to eliminate or add certain foods when something is working or not.

Cons/Risks

• The first phase of the diet can be a problem. It’s too restrictive and difficult because you are eliminating foods that are somewhat addictive. It’s also very dangerous because of the expected rapid weight loss.
• There is a risk of acquiring symptoms of the “keto flu” since there is also a risk of going into ketosis.
• The drastic change in diet can cause dizziness, mental fatigue, nausea, and dehydration.

Restrictions

You evaluate food based on the glycemic index. This will indicate how your blood glucose is likely to be affected by specific foods.

There are three phases that come with different restrictions.

• Phase 1 is where you eliminate almost all carbohydrates from your diet. It’s a two-week period designed to eliminate cravings for foods high in sugar and refined starches to jump-start weight loss.
• Phase 2 is where you slowly add back carbohydrates to your diet. It’s a long-term weight loss phase where you stay until you reach your target weight.
• Phase 3 is the maintenance phase where you continue the lifestyle principles learned in the previous phases.

The Vegan diet in its purest form is a diet that completely forbids the consumption of all animal products including meat, eggs, and dairy.

Intended effects

There is no doubt whatsoever that eating fruits and vegetables will lead to a healthier life. The vegan diet is often recommended to those with health problems and conditions. But a lot of those who switch to or practice being vegan do so in the belief that all animals have a right to life and freedom. This includes animals that have long been consumed around the world for centuries. 

Pros/Advantages

• Vegans tend to be slimmer and have a lower body mass index than non-vegans. 
• A plant-based diet may also lower your blood pressure, reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, prevent type 2 diabetes, Improve your cholesterol, help you live longer, decrease the risk of cancer, and all the while helping you lose weight. 

Cons/Risks

• Being vegan cuts your food choices drastically and not many restaurants offer dishes to cater to the diet.
• Taking out meat from your diet may lead to nutrient deficiencies. Nutrients like Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3, Carnosine, DHA, Heme iron, and Creatine are mostly if not only found on animals. 

Restrictions

A vegan diet restricts all forms of food from animals including eggs and dairy. Vegetarians, however, do consume eggs and dairy as long as it doesn’t involve slaughter animals.

The juice cleanse is a detox program that involves consuming only fruit and vegetable juice from 3-10 days to lose weight and detoxify the body. 

Intended effects

It promises weight loss and to flush out the numerous toxins that routinely enter the body.

Pros/Advantages

• You are consuming a lot of fruits and vegetables. There’s will be a significant increase in vitamins and nutrients like beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and folate.
• Juices could help improve your digestion by introducing healthy enzymes that make the gut work more efficiently. They are also rich in anti-inflammatory compounds that may boost the immune system and help you feel more energetic.

Cons/Risks

• If you only drink juice for you're missing important nutrients, like protein and fat. Fruit and vegetable juices are almost completely devoid of protein, healthful fats, and certain vitamins, which are vital to health.
• The fiber is taken out of the fruits and vegetables during the juicing process. Fiber is important for the healthy bacteria in our gut. It helps us feel full, keeping blood sugar from going up too quickly and preventing constipation.
• Juicing or detoxification diets will work for quick weight loss, but they tend to lead to weight gain after returning to a normal diet. 

Restrictions

The diet will strictly consist of juices from fruits and vegetables

There are a few variations of Intermittent fasting available. All of these involve rotating periods of eating and fasting in a pattern or as a routine. 

Intended effects

Fasting will get you a significant reduction in blood sugar levels, insulin levels, and a drastic increase in human growth hormone. Most people get into intermittent fasting to lose weight while others do it for metabolic health benefits, as it can improve different risk factors and health markers.

Pros/Advantages

Fasting increases the levels of growth hormones, improves insulin sensitivity, and initiates cellular repair processes.

Intermittent fasting is an easy and cheap diet that can help you lose weight without any food restrictions.

Cons/Risks

Hunger is the main drawback of intermittent fasting. It can make you feel weak and brain function might not be at an optimal level.

You should not be fasting if you are already underweight or have a history of eating disorders.

Restrictions

There are no restrictions to what you eat but rather a schedule on when you eat. This will differ depending on the type of intermittent fasting you’re on.

There are different types of intermittent fasting available.

• The 8/16 method is where you fast for 16 hours and have an 8-hour window for eating.
• The 5:2 method where you restrict calorie intake to 500-600 for 2 days.
• The eat-stop-eat involves fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week. Zero-calorie beverages are allowed during the fast, but no solid foods are permitted.
• Alternate-day fasting involves limiting your calorie intake every other day.
• The warrior diet where you fast during the day and have a 4-hour window for eating during nighttime.
• Spoteainous meal skipping is where you skip meals without following any schedule. People often take advantage of this method when they are too busy with work or any other activity.

Weight watchers (now just WW) is a paid digital, workshop, or personal membership where you track and log everything you consume. The program awards or deducts SmartPoints depending on what you eat. It’s basically a calorie counting program without having to do the math.

Intended effects

Weight watchers’ goal is to inspiring healthy living and improving overall well-being by slowly altering your eating habit. But people pay for the program to lose weight since it is one of the best weight loss programs out there.

Pros/Advantages

• Unlike other fad diets, a slow and steady weight loss is expected with Weight Watchers. It doesn’t promise rapid weight loss or any miracle solutions.
• Weight Watchers has a website and apps that can be sync with most modern devices used for tracking physical activities. This helps in managing and tracking your activities within the program.
• There are no restricted foods to watch for. The point system allows you to balance your meals and indulge yourself in treats from time to time.
• You also earn FitPoints for physical activities which in turn encourages you to exercise and be more active.
• There’s a social aspect of the program where you meet your coach weekly. It creates a sense of accountability and refreshes your view on the diet with encouragement to stick to it.

Cons/Risks

• The diet has a recurring fee just to stay on it, and it can be costly depending on what program you are following.
• Some say the program is too lenient allowing you to possibly spend your points on less nutritious food. The ability to choose anything you want to eat may prove too tempting.
• The program is not run by medical professionals. Some people would rather spend their hard-earned money on someone that can also monitor their health and prescribe medication if needed.

Restrictions

People on the Weight Watchers diet are restricted by the points given to them depending on their program. They are required to track their meals and physical activities. A weekly weigh-in is also mandatory.

Trying to lose weight is certainly harder than gaining it. But trying to lose weight while staying healthy is grueling. Most of these diets aim for a simpler solution by eliminating the food that makes us gain weight. But most of them have drawbacks that you just can’t ignore and accept. From what we’ve learned is that it’s all about balance. You can’t have too much of anything, and you certainly can’t take away too much of anything either. 

Despite their claims and supposedly backing of science, it’s quite hard finding studies that back these diets. A simple google search should’ve sufficed but most data on the search results come from “health sites” that seem to have a knack for defending popular diets like these. Only there on their site will you find the “science backing” they so proudly declare with every paragraph. 

There are surely proven results and a lot of true testimonies to the success of each diet. But it does make you wonder if that weight loss is caused by their ingenious dietary plans or is it simply because they caused so much trauma to their body that they actually stressed themselves to being slim.

Every person is different, so shouldn’t everybody have a different diet plan that suits them? The safest and most logical approach to health and fitness should be to reach out to medical professionals who have spent their lives studying the human body. Get in touch with a nutritionist or a dietician so they can come up with a dietary plan catered especially for you. Don’t just take advice from coaches or diet veterans that know nothing about you or your body. It’s ok to read up on things that you think may help. But before you starve yourself, make sure to consult a professional. Ask them about the diet you just read. Like they always say, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.