Eight UNHEALTHY Ways To Lose Weight

TrueStrength Editor's Note: Most of these "diets" are pretty extreme, but can you believe some people still try them? We would extend this list to cover 99% of the other "fad" diets that are out there. Read our nutrition articles and tips here for ways to trim up the healthy way!

By Alexandra Bernardin
1/31/2014

It’s that time of year to get back into shape – or get into shape in the first place. New Year’s resolutions are still flowing, and everyone wants to get back on track and undo all the holiday excesses. Unfortunately, many people misguidedly look for a quick and dirty fix, and find some crazy fad diet. I thought it would be fun to look at some of the craziest ones out there.

The problem all these diets share is that none of them corrects a faulty nutritional lifestyle. Weight loss occurs on these diets because calories are severely restricted. When calories are restricted for too long, however, the rebound gremlin kicks in and causes people to overeat to compensate for the lack of calories. With that background, here are eight diet plans that are real doozies.

1.    The HCG Diet. This diet consists of eating 500 calories per day and taking hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The British physician A.T.W. Simeons first promoted this diet in the 1950s, and recently it has made a strong comeback. The problem is that this hormone was approved to treat infertility, not to produce weight loss.

2.    The Tapeworm Diet. Back in the 1920s, people thought it would be a good idea to take a pill with a tapeworm in it (ugh!) so they could keep eating whatever they liked while the tapeworm “consumed” all the calories.

3.    Cigarette Diet. Yup, doctors would recommend smoking cigarettes to suppress appetite and stimulate the metabolism.

4.    The Special K Two-Week Diet. We’ve all seen the commercials for this diet. Replace each of your first two meals with a bowl of cereal (which is actually only 3/4 cup) and eat a small, sensible dinner.

5.    The Baby Food Diet. Hollywood actresses are big fans of this diet. They replace two meals with jars of baby food (“because it’s sooo good for you, baby!”) and eat chicken and broccoli for dinner. Jennifer Aniston reportedly consumed 14 servings of pureed baby food a day to prepare for her bikini scene in Just Go with It.

6.    The Cabbage Soup Diet. Try drinking homemade cabbage soup three times a day for a week and tell me what happens!

7.    The Master Cleanse. Stanley Burroughs promoted this diet in his 1976 book The Master Cleanser. It involves drinking a concoction of water, lemon or lime juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, six to 12 times a day. It regained popularity in 2004.

8.    The Sleeping Beauty Diet. This may be the wackiest one of all. Keep yourself sedated for a few days so you sleep 24/7. You will wake up skinny and refreshed because you have been starving for a few days.

The bottom line: If you can’t stay on a diet for more than a week or two, it’s not the right solution to your weight problem. There is no one diet that is right for everyone, but most experts will agree you can’t go wrong with eating high-quality protein, tons of fresh vegetables, some fruit, with a little bit of gluten-free starches. It’s that simple.

Source: http://www.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/1109/Eight_Unhealthy_Ways_to_Lose_Weight.aspx