Wow, reading Nevaeh's thread made me reflect on my crash-dieting past. I tried SO many "quick-fix" weight loss products and programs before I finally accepted that fact that healthy, permanent weight loss cannot be achieved overnight. Here are a few of my blunders:

Drugs - I tried several legal and quasi-legal over-the-counter diet pills - Dexatrim, Hoodia, Phentermine, etc. I didn't lose weight on any of these drugs. What I did lose was money.

Prescriptions - When I started taking Lexapro (an antidepressant), I was so excited by the fact that it killed my appetite that I wanted to keep taking it despite the fact that it did nothing to relieve my anxiety (which is why I started taking it in the first place).

Cabbage Soup - In high school, a friend of mine lost quite a bit of weight eating nothing but cabbage soup (all cabbage soup! all the time! whee!), so of course I had to try this "miracle diet." I lasted three days.

So, my question for you ladies is:

What crazy/silly/stupid scam/fad/"miracle" diets did you try before coming to your senses?

Oh gosh....you name it I probably tried it at one point in my life lol

Before I started WW again this time around (3rd time is the charm right?) I was actually looking for a crash diet and found this site again, I was so determined to do this quick! Light bulb went off about how stupid I was acting after reading some of the posts here and I went back to WW again

My most memorable one was the grapefruit diet....yuck! I hate grapefruit so this was truly torture for me lol

UM: I have to confess that I was reading your post about the cabbage soup. I immediately was like oooh that sounds promising. I have a half of cabbage in my fridge that I need to use and that's perfect. I'm not doing it as a fad. I just thought that was funny.

um does college wannarexia count? I lost about 20 lbs when I was 19 not eating at all.

I also must admit to doing the cabbage soup diet before my senior prom, lost like 18 lbs in two weeks, looked great, for a couple of days one of which was prom...lol, then I gained it all back.

Freshman year of college I limited myself to a bagel in the AM, piece of fruit and a salad for lunch and that was it. I also exercised to burn approximately 600 cals a day. I lost weight but it came back with extra friends!

At least you got 5 grain servings in all at once!

One time I decided to eat only fruit every other day and eat light and sensibly otherwise. I lost about ten pounds, but then winter came along, and I don't like winter fruit as well and that was the end of that. I learned that frozen watermelon balls are a great treat though!

Sheri

I consider my slim fast diet my junior year of high school my only crash diet. And if I could have only realized how skinny I was..I'd kill to look like that again (without the slimfast!) I always thought I was big, and it was the month before prom...little did I know, I was happy, healthy and fabulous looking....

ghost, i was also a college "wannarexic." I lost A LOT of weight really quickly by not eating (or eating, say, a 60 cal yogurt cup a day) and exercising like crazy. Naturally I burned out and my metabolism hasn't been the same since.

I was also a big xantrex fan for quite some time. (stimulant based OTC pills).

It's weird, but I never actually "dieted" in any form at all before 2004, when I succeeded in losing 80lbs (and keeping it off ever since). I was in some pretty major denial about how serious my weight problem was and though I dreamed of being thin for as long as I could remember, I never actually went ahead and tried to before I... well... lost (most of) it permanently.

I remember my mother talking ab putting me on phen phen once though back before they found out it could kill you dead.

Ooo frozen watermelon balls *DO* sound like a great treat

Ahhh yes, I think I started doing stupid stuff right before high school...when I was 14, there was thermoslim, 15, was some vitamin D stuff, then there was xenodrine, and metabolife and then finally Stackers. I was actually on phentermine earlier this year (3 weeks) but since I'm not really an overeater, it didn't really do anything for me but make me not eat at all and I started having trouble sleeping.

Back in '05, I wouldn't eat at all. I suppose I was starving myself which is how I gained it back so fast. I would have a coke as a meal a day. Sometimes I would allow myself french fries, but that was it. In '06, I started making myself sick and I'm still trying to kick that habit. This is why I have to be so strict in what I eat (why I under eat at times) because the moment I think I've ate too much...well, it's all bad.

This is the first year I putting healthy diet and exercise together and though it took me 6 months to take off 30 some odd pounds; at least I know I'm FINALLY doing it right.

I have tried Slim Fast, Grapefruit diet, diet pills of course all unsuccessful never really lost much weight b/c I never really kept up with it. This time around I am committed to stick to it for a lifetime.

I WAS anorexic for like 5 years, lots of treatment. It's so weird to me to read people saying "wannarexic" becasue why would anyone want to go through that? I suppose the want of wait loss makes sence...

400 calories a day seems pretty crazy to me, that's what I did.

Oh no, it had to be a small 100 cal bagel I was pretty proud of my fruit and veggies with lunch