Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 04-07-2007, 10:23 PM   #1  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Charles's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 22

Height: 6'0"

Default Worst/Strangest Fad Diets - Search your memory

Hello Ladies (and guys)-

My friend Andy is working on an experiment involving fad diets. Essentially he's going to try out a bunch of them and see if any work beyond what would be expected by the reduction in calories that most have in common. He's already done the Hollywood 48-Hour Miracle Diet and he's about to wrap up the Pizza Diet.

You can read about what he's doing at:

Revival of the Faddist

Anyway, he's looking for any bad or strange fad diets you may have ever heard of or tried. He's especially looking for any obscure ones (beyond just the standard Cabbage Soup and Grapfruit diet).

I figured that if I any group of people would be able to plumb the depths of their memories to come up with some bad fad diets it would be the people here.

So what's the dumbest plan you've ever tried?

Last edited by Charles; 04-10-2007 at 11:18 PM.
Charles is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2007, 10:05 PM   #2  
CouponDiva Extroardinaire
 
Natalia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 605

Default

I've heard of a hot dog diet, but never tried it.

And that idiot on the Apprentice last year was on an all-bagel diet (LOL)I would gain weight on that one.
Natalia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2007, 10:10 PM   #3  
Just Me
 
nelie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,707

S/C/G: 364/--/182

Height: 5'6"

Default

Chocolate chip cookie diet? I think that one came from Woman's world. There is also the peanut butter diet and the lemonade diet.
nelie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2007, 11:20 PM   #4  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Charles's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 22

Height: 6'0"

Default

We were hoping we'd be able to find someone with a few boxes of 30-year-old AYDS diet candy.
Charles is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2007, 12:47 PM   #5  
Joanne
 
Jayjay55's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Vancouver BC
Posts: 231

S/C/G: 267/250/170

Height: 5'7"

Default

LMAO I forgot about AYDS -- I would buy the box and eat all of them.

Just heard about the Guiness Diet -- not sure if its about losing weight but apparently all the vitamins etc needed are in Guiness Beer --- a TV personality did it for 5 Days - certainly not healthy but he was happy LOL(google Guiness Diet)

I hope your friend is under medical supervision -- remember the guy on SuperSize me - some of these fad diets can be just as harmful.

Joanne
Jayjay55 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2007, 02:18 PM   #6  
Kim - IP 9/10
 
Kimphin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 1,681

Height: 5'4"

Default

My mother used to do a 555 calorie a day diet about 30 years ago. I don't remember what it entailed, except we all stayed away from mommy when she was on it!
Kimphin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-13-2007, 10:49 PM   #7  
Junior Member
 
Gecko's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 10

Default

In the late 70's, my husband and I were both in the Army and had to lose weight fast to re-enlist. A particular liquid protein diet was a fad at the time. In the place of two meals, you drank a tablespoon of this very thick liquid and then had a regular well balanced dinner. It was so disgusting that you either had to hold your nose while drinking it or use a shot of grapefruit juice as a chaser. A week of that and we just couldn't stand it anymore. People actually died from using the product!

Donna
Gecko is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-14-2007, 05:59 AM   #8  
Rocky Mountain "Hi"
 
wurdnerd's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Colorado
Posts: 118

S/C/G: 212 / 204 / 150

Height: 5'3"

Default

The weirdest diet I remember was "The Woman's Advantage Diet: Use your monthy cycle to lose weight easier and faster than ever before!"

This was the most complicated diet ever written. First you had to calculate your average cycle length, then divide it up into 4 different phases that corresponded to different times in your cycle: Forbidden Foods for the menstrual phase, Fabulous Fruits and Vegetables for preovulatory phase, Pasta Plus for ovulation and Protein Power for premenstrual. Each phase had specific food lists and rules and was so complex... I've got a headache just thinking about it all!

Ultimately, it was just another low calorie diet, but it had some interesting concepts and some pretty good recipes. I think you can find it on Amazon for less than a buck.
wurdnerd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-14-2007, 06:55 AM   #9  
Member
 
Karen68's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Maine
Posts: 41

S/C/G: 253/241/170

Height: 5'6

Default

How about the campbells soup diet. A can of soup at every meal!!!
Karen68 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-24-2007, 01:24 PM   #10  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Charles's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 22

Height: 6'0"

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by wurdnerd View Post
The weirdest diet I remember was "The Woman's Advantage Diet: Use your monthy cycle to lose weight easier and faster than ever before!"
Hmmm, I'm going to try to get my buddy to go on the Woman's Advantage Diet. Let's see how the "woman's advantage" works on a guy.
Charles is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2007, 10:58 PM   #11  
Master of disaster
 
michelle127's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Beautiful Florida
Posts: 215

S/C/G: 269/ticker/160

Height: 5'6"

Default

I nearly lost it on the Cabbage Soup Diet. Lost my mind - not weight! I also followed Susan Powder's (sp?) formula where you kept all foods at 10% fat or less. It was awesome because I could eat all the fudge I wanted! I also remember this Machiavellian diet (Scarsdale maybe??) where you could only eat one food per day. Monday it might be strawberries, Tuesday pineapple, etc.
No wonder I'm so FAT!!!
michelle127 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-05-2007, 09:57 PM   #12  
Senior Member
 
luja's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 344

Default

My Mom did the Rotation diet - what was that in the '70s? It was something like 500 calories a day for 3 days, 900 Calories a day for 4 days and then 1200 calories for a week? Or something like that.

Then there was the cabbage soup diet and the grapefruit diet.
luja is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2007, 05:06 PM   #13  
Junior Member
 
AndyNY's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: New York City
Posts: 13

S/C/G: 297/254/187

Height: 6'0"

Default

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and Charles for starting this thread. I'm still looking for more input if anybody has suggestions.

Michelle -
I'm right in the midst of one of those diets where you only eat one type of food each day. It's pretty awful. I call it the Lebanese Doctors diet because I found it on some shady website that is supposedly the work of Lebanese Doctors. If you're interested you can read about it on the site in my signature.
AndyNY is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2007, 05:24 PM   #14  
it's always something
 
Suzanne 3FC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 11,615

Default

You are aware that we are basically an "anti fad diet" website, right? We encourage weight loss through a healthy diet and exercise program, and discourage following fad diets.

I noticed in your blog you wrote:
Quote:
People always talk about fad diets and say, “Well it worked for the first few days, but then after that I didn’t notice any results.” It seems like every diet works at the beginning. So my idea was to have a diet that consisted only of the beginnings of other diets. It’s the Fad-Diet Diet. Yes, I know, it’s ingenious. So that’s my plan. I’m going to try every fad diet I can uncover for a few days or a week each and then report on how they go. Fun, right? Well, I think it will be. Tomorrow will be the first day and the start of the first fad diet experiment.
The problem is that at the very beginning of the fad diet, you drop a lot of excess water weight. Once it's gone, then it's up to the body to burn fat or probably lean mass. By then the dieter has become impatient since the initial loss didn't continue, or they have become bored because these diets are so restrictive and they went off the plan and probably regained quickly. Jumping from one fad diet to the next just to try to grasp that initial loss of water weight doesn't make sense. The end result will be the same. If the calories are low then you will continue to lose weight, but if they are too low then you'll lose more than fat. Since most fad diets are not nutritionally balanced, then you aren't doing yourself any favors. Why try a fad diet at all? Why not try a diet that really DOES work while still nutritionally sound and isn't a fad, such as Weight Watchers? If you want to diet-hop to try them, maybe try some reasonable diets such as Volumetrics, WW, or diets promoted based on their health benefits.

I know you didn't ask for opinions but it really sounds dangerous. It might initially sound fun, but with the many bad experiences that we've witnessed, it sounds anything but fun.
Suzanne 3FC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2007, 08:23 PM   #15  
Junior Member
 
AndyNY's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: New York City
Posts: 13

S/C/G: 297/254/187

Height: 6'0"

Default

Hey Suzanne,

I agree that fad diets are in general a dumb idea. And I tried to express that in the first post on my site. I come from a science background and have studied dietetics for the past six years. I'm not trying to encourage anybody to do a fad diet, in fact what I'm trying to say is that these fad diets offer nothing more than a very regimented form of calorie restriction, which as you said is often not very nutrionally balanced. I do alternate the fad diets with a few days of eating normally and I take vitamin and mineral supplements. I'm keeping my eye on things to make sure I'm not doing anything that will have any long-term effects.

I'm certainly not writing the site as a smart way to lose weight. It's more about the spirit of experimentation. I'll strive to make that clearer.

Thank you for your concern and input!

Andy
AndyNY is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:10 AM.


We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.