by Jenna Pope

Created on: November 17, 2009

Fad diets promise something for nothing and usually don't work. But the "something for nothing" promise is what motivates most people to try them. I mean, why work, if we don't have to?

Any diet that promises rapid weight loss is a fad diet, and here's why:

It takes 3,500 surplus calories to put on a pound and a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose one. If you want to lose one pound a week, you'll need to eliminate 500 calories from your daily diet. Double that to lose two pounds a week. However, if you diet this way for more than two or three days without exercising, you'll sabotage yourself. The body's natural defense mechanism against starvation causes your metabolism to slow down and, thereby, conserve calories. When you begin eating normally again, you will put on weight because of the decrease in your metabolism (or rate at which your digestive system processes food). The very thing that keeps you from starving to death can cause you to gain, instead of lose.

This cosmetically unattractive aspect of crash dieting is always airbrushed out of the picture.

Even if you go on a fad diet, combined with an exercise regimen, you are still disrupting your weight loss goals because fad diets don't address your eating patterns. I once went on the "Peel-a-Pound" diet, where all I ate for seven days was onion soup. I followed the diet religiously, tolerated the smell of onions coming out in my perspiration, lost a whopping two pounds, and gained them back (plus one more) when I resumed normal eating. Though decades have passed since then, I still cannot stand the smell or taste of boiled onions!

Diet pills also fall under the fad-dieting category and are a prescription for a heart attack, if used long term. Just like my Peel-a-Pound Diet, diet pill users will regain the weight as soon as they stop taking the diet medication. The appetite returns, and so do the pounds.

Fad diets are also bad for your health. The weight gain after rapid weight loss is stressful to the heart and is especially damaging if it's repeated over and over again. Humans need fruit, fiber, vegetables, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, grains, and protein to function effectively. Fad diets are never nutritionally balanced.

The only way to lose weight permanently is to eat less and exercise more. Determine what you should weigh and begin cutting calories and fat grams. You will begin seeing results within a week. Click on the link below to find out what your healthy weight should be:

http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/ManageMyHealth/H ealthy+Weight+Calculator

Fad diets entice us with their inflated promises that fail to deliver lasting results. Find a healthy weight-reduction diet and stick to it. You will retrain your eating habits, lose all the weight you want, and keep it off permanently.

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