10 Famous Fad Diets: Pros and Cons (2024)

1. Atkins Diet

Atkinsis all about low-carb eating, and the modern Atkins program allows you to choose your carbohydrate goals, from 20 grams (mimicking the ketogenic diet), 40 grams, or 100 grams per day. Stricter carb goals produce faster weight loss. Although a famous diet, many people find it’s just not sustainable, says Leah Reitmayer, RD, a sports dietitian in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “Carbs are your main energy source. I don’t recommend low-carb because your body needs this macronutrient. If you’re trying a diet to be healthy, why take out the key nutrients that your body needs to be healthy?” she says.

2. Zone Diet

Made popular by Jennifer Aniston, the Zone diet involves eating 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat. “This diet has a bit of merit because it’s based on whole foods and emphasizes protein and omega-3 fatty acids for an anti-inflammatory benefit,” says Alyssa Smolen, RDN, who’s based in Essex, New Jersey. While it is balanced, the diet still lists certain nutritious foods as are off-limits, such as bananas, raisins, potatoes, and corn, and you’re instructed to eat less than one serving a day of grains and starches — rules that can make this diet harder to stick to long term.

3. Keto Diet

The keto diet, a high-fat, very low-carb diet, was originally developed as a medical diet in the treatment of epilepsy in the 1920s, according to research. It had to wait 100 years to reach its peak popularity among the general public: In 2020, the keto diet was the most Googled diet in the United States, per one review. One downside is that people may eat a lot of meat and cheese on this diet, which can contribute to an excess intake of saturated fat, a type of fat that can raise your risk for heart disease, says Smolen. Plus, there may be few fruits and veggies consumed, something that’s counterintuitive to health, she adds. If you are going to do keto, Smolen advises doing it under the guidance of a medical team or registered dietitian so that you can ensure you’re building a nutritious diet, following keto correctly, and monitoring your health.

4. Grapefruit Diet

It would be just as easy to replace grapefruit with any of the one-food-focused fad diets over the years, such as cabbage soup, boiled egg, or bone broth. Any of these foods are good for you, just not as a sole focus for your entire diet. “No food has everything you need. That’s why dietitians advise eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, protein, and whole grains,” says Smolen. While you may lose weight on a grapefruit diet, that’s because the severe food restrictions mean you eat less than 1,000 calories per day. In general, dietitians recommend skipping these types of diets.

5. Paleo Diet

Paleo, short for Paleolithic, is a diet made up of the foods of a traditional hunter-gatherer. People who follow a paleo diet consume half their calories from lean animal foods, as well as eggs, fruit, nonstarchy veggies, unsaturated fats, some alcohol, and water. There are big health claims associated with the paleo diet, including as a cure for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, notes a review. Yet one thing that doesn’t track is that whole grains — a food group that has been connected to lowering the likelihood of those diseases — are excluded from the paleo diet, notes the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Another big downside is that following a diet that excludes so many foods can create unhealthy obsessive thinking about your diet, says Smolen.

6. Gluten-Free Diet

For many people with celiac disease or an allergy to gluten (the protein found in wheat, barley, and rye), avoiding foods that contain gluten is not a fad diet — it’s a necessity. But gluten-free became a fad diet when people started avoiding gluten in the absence of medical need, thanks, in part, to celebrity advocates like Gwyneth Paltrow, as E! News reported. A decade ago most adults said that gluten-free foods were healthier, and more than one-quarter were buying them for weight loss, surveys from the time found. But there’s simply no evidence that gluten-free diets in general promote weight loss, according to theHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

7. Master Cleanse

In this liquid-only diet, you drink a concoction of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for 10 days, and Beyonce reportedly used it to lose 20 pounds in two weeks for her role in the 2006 movie Dreamgirls, reported USA Today. Liquid or juice diets had their moment, with the purported benefits of weight loss and detoxing. But juice fasts don’t provide enough nutrients, and any weight loss is likely temporary when you go back to eating solid food, per Mayo Clinic. And remember: You have organs, specifically the liver and kidneys, that detox your body the natural way.

8. Whole30

You can tell Whole30 is a fad diet by the 30 in its name — it’s an elimination diet designed to be done for 30 days. Developed in 2009, per the Whole30 website, the diet has strict rules about what you can and cannot eat, and if you don't adhere to them, you have to start over. The focus is on healthy foods, like meat, seafood, eggs, veggies, fruit, and healthy fats, while avoiding all added sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, and dairy. Even though it’s popular — and tests your mettle for following a strict diet — no observational studies or randomized, controlled trials back up Whole30's benefits or compare how effective it is against other weight loss diets, reports research.

9. Low-Fat Diet

Remember in the 1990s when SnackWell’s fat-free cookies were the healthy choice? That was at the height of the low-fat craze, when people tried to lose weight by eating foods that fell into the low- or no-fat category, like fat-free salad dressings, chips, and frozen yogurt. The entire low-fat era spanned decades, notes the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, but now health experts recognize the value of foods containing healthy unsaturated fats, and we’ve moved away from the low-fat craze. “In general, to be a healthy person, we need some fat,” says Smolen. Not only do fats provide energy but they also help your body produce hormones and absorb fat-soluble nutrients that your body needs to function well, she says. Fat contains more calories per gram than protein and carbohydrates, so reducing some fat in your diet can help you eat fewer calories and lose weight. But just because something is labeled fat-free, low fat, or reduced fat does not automatically make it healthy.

10. Special K Diet

When the Special K diet came out in the early 2000s, the goal was to lose two jean sizes in two weeks by eating Special K for breakfast and lunch, then a regular dinner. (In later iterations, you were able to eat Special K products, like bars, in lieu of the cereal.) It’s a low-calorie plan that was never designed to be long term, but somehow it felt doable if you just had to make it through a couple weeks. On a positive note, Rifkin points out that because there’s not much thought behind the diet and you are eating mostly the same thing every day, it can be easy to follow. Still, two weeks may feel like an eternity. “It lacks variety, and a lot of people get bored pretty easily,” she says, adding that it lacks adequate nutrition. This is yet another fad diet to skip.

10 Famous Fad Diets: Pros and Cons (2024)

FAQs

What are the pros of fad diets? ›

One of the first pros of doing a fad diet is that you will lose weight, although it's not guaranteed for every individual. The reason why you lose weight by doing these fad diets is that you're avoiding certain foods like sugar, processed foods, and high-carb meals.

What is 1 fad diet? ›

A fad diet is a trendy weight-loss plan that promises dramatic results. Typically, these diets are not healthy and don't result in long-term weight loss. In fact, some fad diets can be dangerous to your health.

What is a bad fad diet? ›

Promises a quick fix. Promotes 'magic' foods or combinations of foods. Implies that food can change body chemistry. Excludes or severely restricts food groups or nutrients, such as carbohydrates.

What were the diet fads in the 2000s? ›

The Master Cleanse (aka the Lemonade Diet), the Cabbage Soup Diet, Slim Fast: the most popular diets of this era had one thing in common – restricting calories to far below recommended amounts and replacing regular meals.

What are 5 negatives from the Atkins diet? ›

The Atkins Diet says that cutting carbs extremely in the early phase of the program can cause some side effects, including:
  • Headache.
  • Dizziness.
  • Weakness.
  • Fatigue.
  • Constipation.

What is the Apple fad diet? ›

The apple diet is proposed to be fiber-rich, antioxidant-loaded, and low in calorie density. Weight loss, improved heart health, and gut health are possible benefits of eating apples. On the flip side, risks may include too much fiber and lack of nutrient diversity.

What is the banana fad diet? ›

The official website says followers can start their day by eating as many bananas as they like for breakfast, and drinking room-temperature water. After 15, or preferably 30, minutes, you can drink ginger tea or a similar beverage to warm yourself from the inside, the instructions say.

What is the 3 day fad diet? ›

The three-day military diet is an organized regimen that claims to help people lose up to 10 pounds in one week. It's a highly particular, low-calorie diet that is followed for three days, followed by a less restrictive diet for the next four days.

What is the most unhealthiest diet? ›

The Raw Food Diet

People who eat exclusively raw end up with low levels of important nutrients like vitamin B-12. It's also hard to get the calories your body needs. You may lose weight at first. But you're likely to feel less than your best.

What is the werewolf diet? ›

The werewolf diet, also known as the lunar diet and the moon diet, is a fad diet that centers upon users fasting according to the lunar phases. This has prompted people to nickname the diet plan the "werewolf diet" as a result.

What's the hardest diet? ›

Raw paleo diets

One of the most extreme versions is “raw paleo” in which only uncooked foods are allowed. Because so many foods are excluded, these diets are unbalanced and cannot be recommended.

What was the fad 80s diet? ›

The period of low-fat everything had a strong focus on consuming single foods, with exotic-sounding names like the sexy pineapple diet, the grapefruit diet, the wine and eggs diet (yes, it really was a thing!), and even the cabbage soup diet, AKA the Dolly Parton diet.

What is the cereal fad diet? ›

On this diet, you replace your breakfast and lunch with a serving of whole-grain cereal and skim or low-fat milk. Your dinner and snacks should be small, low in calories, and contain a lean protein, as well as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Why would someone choose a fad diet? ›

Fad diets are attractive because they promise something everyone wants: an easy and quick way to lose a lot of weight. However, losing weight comes down to a formula that health care professionals have known for a long time: combining eating a variety of healthy foods in reasonable proportions with regular exercise.

What are the benefits of extreme dieting? ›

The main benefit of these diets is that it results in lower blood glucose and insulin levels and appetite suppression. This promotes weight loss and decrease in body fat loss and thus to better control of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and hypertension1.

Are fad diets successful? ›

Fad diets will not result in long-term weight loss because these diets do not promote healthy and sustainable diet and lifestyle habits.

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