Quick fix diets: the good, bad and ugly

The holidays are over which means the sugar cookies are gone, the ham has been devoured, and you're thinking someone has played a cruel joke on you and moved the button over on your favorite jeans because you just can't seem to get them to fit right. A new year is here, which comes with a New Year's resolution for most people. After staring at the empty Christmas pie pan for awhile an obvious resolution comes to your mind: lose weight.According to about.com, the top two and three resolutions for 2007 are losing weight and getting into shape. It's no secret gym memberships shoot up in January as people take the first step in sticking to their New Year's resolution of getting healthier. But not everyone who wants to get into shape buys a gym membership and starts pounding away on the treadmill. Some people want a quick fix. These quick fixes are called fad diets.

Everydiet.org defines a fad diet as a poor weight loss diet or a way of losing weight that has become popular. Everyone has heard of some of these fad diets. The Adkins Diet and The Zone Diet are two of the better known fad diets out there.

According to Yahoo!, searches on diets were up 61 percent last week and searches for fad diets were up 300 percent.

There are many fad diets out there but there are a few more popular (and unique) ones that might be looked at in order to get a quick fix on holiday weight gain.

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a seven day meal plan that, according to everydiet.org, is not very sustainable. The cabbage soup the diet is based on has to be eaten every day. Some days the dieter can add veggies, fruit, or meat. The Web site says while the diet does provide fast weight loss and a change from bad eating habits, it's not a diet that can be done long term. Also, many said the soup that had to be eaten every day was bland. The diet also lacks good nutrition and is high in salt. Some day the diet is low in protein and fails to provide the essential fatty acids. According to the Web site, the reason why weight loss happens is because of the low calorie intake, not because cabbage is a miracle food.

There is also the Grapefruit Diet. This diet is 12 days on and two days off. The diet outlines a specific menu and instructs the dieter to never eliminate anything from that menu. There is a strict set of rules. The dieter must eat until they are full and can't eat anymore, cut down on caffeine, eliminate desserts, white vegetables, and bread from their diet, and not eat between meals.

The grapefruit is not supposed to be left out of any meal because it helps start the fat burning process.

According to everydiet.org, the Grapefruit Diet is really just a Very Low Calorie Diet with a grapefruit thrown in at every meal. This diet is also not recommended.

The most popular diet, according to everydiet.org, is the Three Day Diet. This is a short term diet where weight is lost and then quickly gained back.

This is also called a yo-yo diet and according to the New England Journal of Medicine, people who lose weight quickly and then gain it back increase their risk for heart disease.

The newest and maybe the most unique fad diet is the Cookie Diet. This diet says a person will lose 15 pounds in a month with the help of specially formulated cookies that suppress hunger. The Cookie Diet has a specific diet menu. Dieters are along allowed one meal a day. That meal can be six ounces of chicken, turkey, fish, or seafood with one cup vegetables. Red meat isn't allowed. The rest of the diet is six cookies each day. A person can eat a cookie whenever they are hungry but they have to eat all six cookies by the end of the day. The diet only allows 800 calories.

According to ABC News, critics of this diet believe it gives too little calories and lacks nutrition that people need because it eliminates vegetables and fruits that have essential vitamins and minerals.

While these fad diets seem quirky and possibly a quick fix for a bulging belly, there are dangers when it comes to using fad diets in order to shed some pounds.

According to the American Heart Association there are several reasons why using fad diets isn't a good idea. First, the diets don't provide good nutrition that comes along with eating a balanced diet with a variety of foods. Many diets limit someone to only a few foods they are allowed to eat. Secondly, many fad diets claim a "super food" that really doesn't exist.

People should eat in moderation from a large amount of food types, according to the American Heart Association. And finally, according to the American Heart Association, fad diets get monotonous and people hardly stay on them for long periods.

Maybe the resolution at the top of the list is to lose weight and get in shape. But sometimes the quick fixes aren't really the healthiest way to go.

Reach Kristen at
kristen_miller77@eku.edu