We all know that the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat less and move more. However, throughout the years, fad diets have come and gone – some more successfully than others. Just as a fun way to look back, we’re taking a look at our top-ten famous freaky fads. Please note: this list does NOT indicate an endorsement of any of the following diet plans. We’re just having a little fun looking back on the diets we were too smart to fall for – and a maybe a few that we weren’t.
The Twinkie Diet.
Yep, you read that correctly.
A baker invented the Twinkie in the 1930’s, but the origin of the Twinkie diet is a mystery. At 150 calories each, you could eat 10 cakes a day to maintain a perfectly reasonable 1,500 calorie-per-day diet. However, just imagine all the nutrients and vitamins your body is being deprived of. We’re really glad this diet never caught on.
The Baby Food Diet
Hollywood celebs supposedly get credit for this one. Dieters are encouraged to replace at least two regular meals per day with a jar or two of baby food. Daily caloric intake will certainly be reduced on this diet, but can you imagine spying Clooney or J. Law treating themselves to a jar of strained peas inside a posh Beverly Hills eatery?
The Chewing Diet
This diet fad is attributed to Horace Fletcher, who sold art in San Francisco in the early 1900s. He advocated chewing incessantly, until the food was purified, and then spitting out what remained. He supposedly had many fans, including novelist Henry James, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, and cereal mogul John Harvey Kellogg.
The 3-Day Diet
Follow this diet plan (made of up mostly fruits, veggies and lean protein) precisely for three days. Then return to your normal eating habits for four or five days, repeating the cycle until you lose your desired amount of weight. You better like vanilla ice cream, though. It’s the only sweet you can have and are required to eat daily on this very low-calorie diet.
The Sleeping Beauty Diet
Consistently getting a good night’s sleep has been proven to help weight loss. However, some people have taken this idea to the extreme by sedating themselves for days. We certainly advise dieters to get plenty of rest, but spending days in bed is not healthy for anyone!
We all wish losing weight was as easy as eating Twinkies or sleeping a few days away, but we all realize it isn’t.
These fads sound silly now, but there are plenty of diet plans out there today that will sound just as silly in retrospect. Before you get started on any kind of health or weight loss plan, give us a call and schedule a consultation with a health professional who can help you create a customized plan that works!