Fad diets are diets that involve rapid weight loss, but are only to be followed for a short period of time. Fad diets are also diets that quickly become wildly popular, last for a short time, then become a footnote in popular culture. Examples include the grapefruit diet, the South Beach diet, and Jenny Craig.
Fad diets are a subcategory of food fads. A food fad is a phenomenon in which some food or category of food suddenly becomes very popular. These all have two things in common:
- Some elements of the food are said to have miraculous properties.
- Other foods are removed from the diet because they have negative properties that should be avoided.
The Atkins diet displays the characteristics of one of these fad diets. Carbohydrates are avoided like the plague, because a carbohydrate low diet can do amazing things for your body. Low carbohydrates are extremely desirous in Atkins, because then the body enters a super fat burning condition. This diet had a number of short periods of extreme carbohydrate avoidance, followed by long periods of sustainable low carbohydrate eating. Unlike many fad diets the Atkins diet was designed to be something a person could stick to for a long period of time.
As with many have diets, Atkins popularity was extreme and short-lived. It lasted a few years during which it seemed everyone you talked to was on the diet . Entertainment magazines were full of movie stars and music stars and sports stars who claimed amazing weight loss and fitness all due to the Atkins diet. Although still around today, the diet is far from as popular as it was at its height.
Many fad diets can be quite dangerous. Even a diet like the Subway diet, as first presented in the commercials, could have problems. At its center was a young man named Jared who had lost hundreds of pounds in only a year by eating Subway sandwiches. In reality Jared cut his caloric intake from over 10,000 calories a day to only 900. Doctors agree that weight loss on that scale isn’t healthy. Even so, the Subway diet when followed in moderation can work. Particularly because the diet included exercise — Jared walked 6 miles a day while losing the weight.
Approach fad diets with caution. A long-term eating strategy combined with moderate exercise is usually the better bet.
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