The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets

[MamaMichelle]

So I know most of us have some history of yo-yo dieting and I bet that many of us have tried some of the diets listed below... I thought it might be fun to share some of the crazy diets we have tried in the past!!

The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets

By: Brie Cadman

People will do almost anything to lose weight. While the most logical, sustainable means of doing so hasn’t really changed—eat less and exercise—every day it seems there are a host of new and outlandish methods to lose those love handles. Most of these ill-fated regimes will help you lose pounds, at least in the short term, but sometimes it’s at the expense of an organ or your sanity. Here are a few of my favorites:

Dr. Siegal’s® Cookie Diet™

Make no mistake, you’re not going to be eating Pepperidge Farm Milanos, or Oreos, or Mrs. Fields’ White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies on this diet. No, you’re going to be eating the concoctions of Dr. Siegal, a physician who specializes in hypothyroidism and obesity, and who also likes to sell weight loss books and snacks. However, his proprietary hunger-controlling cookies are a diet-deceiving indulgence; they look like bricks of fiber-coated oats sweetened with prunes. Although they may make you less hungry, the doctor also advises combining them with a restricted calorie diet, which, as we all know, is the main way you’re going to lose weight. I also like how he has trademarked the term “Let’s face it: hunger wrecks diets™.” Uh, so do cookies.

The Subway Diet

Ever since I worked in a building where the women’s restroom abutted a Subway sandwich shop, I have had an almost Pavlovian reaction to thought of eating one of their subs. It reminds me of the toilet, and makes me want to gag. So although I know many people like Subway, eating them twice a day for a year, like Jared Fogel, the guy on the Subway commercials who lost 245 pounds, seems inconceivable. And it seems like I could save a whole lot of money by just making my own sandwiches, and maybe going for a jog now and again.

The Cereal Diet

This is similar to the Subway diet in that you’re supposed to supplant two meals a day with the same thing—in this case cereal. From Special K to Raisin Bran, many cereal boxes now claim you can “lose six in two”— that is lose six pounds in two weeks. Of course, the premise is the same: when people have to measure the amount they are eating, they end up eating fewer calories, so they lose weight. And it’s not like these cereals are health food or anything. The third ingredient in Special K is sugar; it’s the second ingredient in All-Bran. And the last thing you want to be eating too much of is All-Bran—it’s not weight you’d lose, but the contents of your bowels.

Cabbage Soup Diet

Mmmm … cabbage. Good on St. Patrick’s day, not so good every day. Unless you’re trying to lose up to ten pounds in a single week, then maybe cabbage doesn’t sound so bad anymore. But being light headed, weak, and suffering from decreased concentration, as some diet participants have reported, does. Not to mention the inordinate amount of flatulence you are bound to have on a cabbage laden diet. Slim, but stinky.

Slim Fast

First a Subway sandwich, then cereal, now a Slim Fast shake or food item. The basic premise is the same: replace two meals with any of the above, you lose weight, and the maker of said item makes a lot of money. That is, until you grow so bored and tired of eating the exact same thing for two meals a day you quit, and realize that—wow—there are a lot of other foods out there that cost a lot less. Say, fruits and vegetables.

Blood Type Diet

According to this diet, different blood types should eat different foods. If you’re group O, you’re a hunter, and should eat meat. If you’re A, you’re a cultivator, and are best as a vegetarian. B? A nomad, eat dairy. The rare AB blood type should eat—you guessed it—a combination of the foods recommended for groups A and B. If this sounds more like the plot of a bad high school play than a diet, that’s because there’s really no evidence that your blood type has any influence on your weight or overall health. Look past the A’s, B’s and O’s, and you’ll see this a fad diet that doesn’t make much sense.

Russian Air Force Diet

This diet does not require you to stand in the bread line, but it does require you to survive on near starvation levels of food. Originally developed in the former Soviet Union to keep soldiers fit, you are allowed to put herbs, salt, pepper, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and ketchup on all your meals. But about those meals … breakfast is coffee only. Lunch: two eggs, a tomato. And dinner allows you to feast on a sliver of meat and a salad. Yes, you will lose weight. Yes, you will feel like you’ve enlisted. And yes, you will feel like you are back in the USSR.

The Three-Day Diet/Hot Dog Diet

These diets are similar, because both recommend eating franks for dinner. You also get to eat one cup of vanilla ice cream and one tablespoon of peanut butter in the course of this diet, as well as other strictly measured amounts of food. The result of losing ten pounds over the course of three days is due to severe calorie restriction, even if your calories are coming from precisely measured hotdogs. And after the three days? Regain.

The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet

Yummy—nothing like throwing back a few teaspoons of vinegar to get your gut prepared for a meal. Talk about an appetite suppressant. This diet relies on the premise that apple cider vinegar, taken fifteen minutes before a meal, will decrease hunger and curb the urge to nibble. There’s no real evidence that apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight, but reducing portions and exercising, like most of the proponents of this fad also tell you to do, will.

The Writing Diet

I can’t seem to figure out why we writers aren’t all size twos. Because according to Julia Cameron’s new book The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Sized, we should be. The premise for this too-good-to-be-true diet is that people overeat not out of hunger, but because of emotion. By writing daily, we tap into our emotions, and put them on the page instead of in our mouths. While I can concede that having your hands on a keyboard will prevent them from grabbing a bag of Doritos, I can’t figure out how sitting on your butt is supposed to make it smaller.

And the number one most ridiculous diet …

The Atkins Diet

Don’t get me wrong: the Atkins diet can help you lose weight. I’ve tried it, and I lost weight. But man, I felt like crap. And after a week, all I could think about was eating an orange. An orange! Of all the harmless food items out there. Of course, cutting out refined sugars and nutrition-less carbs is a good thing, but not all carbs are bad for you, and the good ones fuel muscles, fill you up, and are pretty damn tasty. Not to mention that the Atkins diet isn’t a healthful lifestyle change; it’s a limiting diet that requires you to eat a lot of not so healthy foods. And chances are you won’t be able to avoid eating carbohydrates for your entire life, nor would many people want to.

While these diets are ridiculous, unsustainable, and often times dangerous, if your main goal is to lose weight, you just might find them useful. After all, extreme caloric restriction, per the Three Day or Russian Air Force diet, seems to be a tried and true method of dropping pounds. And they’ll stay off—at least until you come to your senses.

[jena]

I don't know about any of the other diets, but the author apparently knows nothing about the Atkins diet. It's not a "no carb" diet. Sure, the first two weeks you are limited to a certain food list that only allows BERRIES and not oranges. Strawberries, blueberries, black berries and raspberries, AKA fruit.

After the first two weeks you begin to add back "good" carbs, unprocessed carbs until you reach a point that you stop losing weight and then cut back until you do. It differs for different people. You can have meat of course, but it doesn't require you to eat a pound of bacon topped off with a steak for every meal. You can make choices like a chicken breast. You can also have non-starch veggies like salads, green beans, squash, so on and so forth.

Anyway, it pisses me off to see so called writers who don't do their research.

Jena

[mona-camille]

I don't know about any of the other diets, but the author apparently knows nothing about the Atkins diet. It's not a "no carb" diet. Sure, the first two weeks you are limited to a certain food list that only allows BERRIES and not oranges. Strawberries, blueberries, black berries and raspberries, AKA fruit.

After the first two weeks you begin to add back "good" carbs, unprocessed carbs until you reach a point that you stop losing weight and then cut back until you do. It differs for different people. You can have meat of course, but it doesn't require you to eat a pound of bacon topped off with a steak for every meal. You can make choices like a chicken breast. You can also have non-starch veggies like salads, green beans, squash, so on and so forth.

Anyway, it pisses me off to see so called writers who don't do their research.

Jena

THANK YOU, exactly what I wanted to say!! And to top it off, it took me 2 weeks on the Adkins diet, but once I got over the initial 2 weeks on it, I no longer craved carbs, sugar and anything unhealthy. I have never felt better in my life when I was on that diet. I loved it. More energy, slept better, just all around good mood. Even if I wouldn't have lost weight, it still made me feel better than I ever have in my life. Also, it is almost impossible to consume no carbs whatsoever. Even most veggies have a few carbs in them. So does cheese. And the body only needs very few carbs, not what we as Amercans tend to eat each day. I will continue to say doing the Adkins diet was the best thing I ever did and even now, after banding, I am basically still following it. Well, sort of. Doing my meat/protein and veggies with a small fruit cup each day. No bread, sugar, candy, rice, potatoes etc. None of the crappy carbs. And the best thing is that once you get carbs out of your life, you will be amazed how good you feel and how you don't even crave them anymore.

[iamworthit]

So I know most of us have some history of yo-yo dieting and I bet that many of us have tried some of the diets listed below... I thought it might be fun to share some of the crazy diets we have tried in the past!!

The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets

By: Brie Cadman

People will do almost anything to lose weight. While the most logical, sustainable means of doing so hasn’t really changed—eat less and exercise—every day it seems there are a host of new and outlandish methods to lose those love handles. Most of these ill-fated regimes will help you lose pounds, at least in the short term, but sometimes it’s at the expense of an organ or your sanity. Here are a few of my favorites:

Dr. Siegal’s® Cookie Diet™

Make no mistake, you’re not going to be eating Pepperidge Farm Milanos, or Oreos, or Mrs. Fields’ White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies on this diet. No, you’re going to be eating the concoctions of Dr. Siegal, a physician who specializes in hypothyroidism and obesity, and who also likes to sell weight loss books and snacks. However, his proprietary hunger-controlling cookies are a diet-deceiving indulgence; they look like bricks of fiber-coated oats sweetened with prunes. Although they may make you less hungry, the doctor also advises combining them with a restricted calorie diet, which, as we all know, is the main way you’re going to lose weight. I also like how he has trademarked the term “Let’s face it: hunger wrecks diets™.” Uh, so do cookies.

The Subway Diet

Ever since I worked in a building where the women’s restroom abutted a Subway sandwich shop, I have had an almost Pavlovian reaction to thought of eating one of their subs. It reminds me of the toilet, and makes me want to gag. So although I know many people like Subway, eating them twice a day for a year, like Jared Fogel, the guy on the Subway commercials who lost 245 pounds, seems inconceivable. And it seems like I could save a whole lot of money by just making my own sandwiches, and maybe going for a jog now and again.

The Cereal Diet

This is similar to the Subway diet in that you’re supposed to supplant two meals a day with the same thing—in this case cereal. From Special K to Raisin Bran, many cereal boxes now claim you can “lose six in two”— that is lose six pounds in two weeks. Of course, the premise is the same: when people have to measure the amount they are eating, they end up eating fewer calories, so they lose weight. And it’s not like these cereals are health food or anything. The third ingredient in Special K is sugar; it’s the second ingredient in All-Bran. And the last thing you want to be eating too much of is All-Bran—it’s not weight you’d lose, but the contents of your bowels.

Cabbage Soup Diet

Mmmm … cabbage. Good on St. Patrick’s day, not so good every day. Unless you’re trying to lose up to ten pounds in a single week, then maybe cabbage doesn’t sound so bad anymore. But being light headed, weak, and suffering from decreased concentration, as some diet participants have reported, does. Not to mention the inordinate amount of flatulence you are bound to have on a cabbage laden diet. Slim, but stinky.

Slim Fast

First a Subway sandwich, then cereal, now a Slim Fast shake or food item. The basic premise is the same: replace two meals with any of the above, you lose weight, and the maker of said item makes a lot of money. That is, until you grow so bored and tired of eating the exact same thing for two meals a day you quit, and realize that—wow—there are a lot of other foods out there that cost a lot less. Say, fruits and vegetables.

Blood Type Diet

According to this diet, different blood types should eat different foods. If you’re group O, you’re a hunter, and should eat meat. If you’re A, you’re a cultivator, and are best as a vegetarian. B? A nomad, eat dairy. The rare AB blood type should eat—you guessed it—a combination of the foods recommended for groups A and B. If this sounds more like the plot of a bad high school play than a diet, that’s because there’s really no evidence that your blood type has any influence on your weight or overall health. Look past the A’s, B’s and O’s, and you’ll see this a fad diet that doesn’t make much sense.

Russian Air Force Diet

This diet does not require you to stand in the bread line, but it does require you to survive on near starvation levels of food. Originally developed in the former Soviet Union to keep soldiers fit, you are allowed to put herbs, salt, pepper, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and ketchup on all your meals. But about those meals … breakfast is coffee only. Lunch: two eggs, a tomato. And dinner allows you to feast on a sliver of meat and a salad. Yes, you will lose weight. Yes, you will feel like you’ve enlisted. And yes, you will feel like you are back in the USSR.

The Three-Day Diet/Hot Dog Diet

These diets are similar, because both recommend eating franks for dinner. You also get to eat one cup of vanilla ice cream and one tablespoon of peanut butter in the course of this diet, as well as other strictly measured amounts of food. The result of losing ten pounds over the course of three days is due to severe calorie restriction, even if your calories are coming from precisely measured hotdogs. And after the three days? Regain.

The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet

Yummy—nothing like throwing back a few teaspoons of vinegar to get your gut prepared for a meal. Talk about an appetite suppressant. This diet relies on the premise that apple cider vinegar, taken fifteen minutes before a meal, will decrease hunger and curb the urge to nibble. There’s no real evidence that apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight, but reducing portions and exercising, like most of the proponents of this fad also tell you to do, will.

The Writing Diet

I can’t seem to figure out why we writers aren’t all size twos. Because according to Julia Cameron’s new book The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Sized, we should be. The premise for this too-good-to-be-true diet is that people overeat not out of hunger, but because of emotion. By writing daily, we tap into our emotions, and put them on the page instead of in our mouths. While I can concede that having your hands on a keyboard will prevent them from grabbing a bag of Doritos, I can’t figure out how sitting on your butt is supposed to make it smaller.

And the number one most ridiculous diet …

The Atkins Diet

Don’t get me wrong: the Atkins diet can help you lose weight. I’ve tried it, and I lost weight. But man, I felt like crap. And after a week, all I could think about was eating an orange. An orange! Of all the harmless food items out there. Of course, cutting out refined sugars and nutrition-less carbs is a good thing, but not all carbs are bad for you, and the good ones fuel muscles, fill you up, and are pretty damn tasty. Not to mention that the Atkins diet isn’t a healthful lifestyle change; it’s a limiting diet that requires you to eat a lot of not so healthy foods. And chances are you won’t be able to avoid eating carbohydrates for your entire life, nor would many people want to.

While these diets are ridiculous, unsustainable, and often times dangerous, if your main goal is to lose weight, you just might find them useful. After all, extreme caloric restriction, per the Three Day or Russian Air Force diet, seems to be a tried and true method of dropping pounds. And they’ll stay off—at least until you come to your senses.

I have tried all of these except the russian air force diet, the cookie diet and the hot dog diet (who thought that one up??). Pretty amazing the things we put our bodies through. I did the Atkins diet several times but was never able to stick on it. It is just too hard to stay in ketosis for long enough to get off the amount of weight I have. That coupled with destruction of your kidneys...

Anyway, thanks! Another great post!!!

[Maytee]

I think I have tried 4 of those diets. Atkins didn't work for me at all. The best diet I have ever been on is Weight Watcher and I am still following it. Last month I lost 8 pound by working out with a trainer 2 days a week, doing cardio for 3 days and counting my points. It is so easy with the band!

I love the combo of the 3!!!!!!

Maytee

[BATassbandita?]

i did great on atkins, lost about 20 lbs in 6 months. But as soon as i tried to transition to normal eating patterns (including the occasional french fry) i gained it all back plus 10 lbs! then when i tried to go back on it it didn't work at all and caused my cholesterol to go UP!!!

[soccermom]

Cabbage Soup Diet (Did this one, did lose weight but was hungry & miserable)

Mmmm … cabbage. Good on St. Patrick’s day, not so good every day. Unless you’re trying to lose up to ten pounds in a single week, then maybe cabbage doesn’t sound so bad anymore. But being light headed, weak, and suffering from decreased concentration, as some diet participants have reported, does. Not to mention the inordinate amount of flatulence you are bound to have on a cabbage laden diet. Slim, but stinky

Blood Type Diet ( Bought all the books for this diet, my friend's hubby lost 60 pounds doing this)

According to this diet, different blood types should eat different foods. If you’re group O, you’re a hunter, and should eat meat. If you’re A, you’re a cultivator, and are best as a vegetarian. B? A nomad, eat dairy. The rare AB blood type should eat—you guessed it—a combination of the foods recommended for groups A and B. If this sounds more like the plot of a bad high school play than a diet, that’s because there’s really no evidence that your blood type has any influence on your weight or overall health. Look past the A’s, B’s and O’s, and you’ll see this a fad diet that doesn’t make much sense.

The Atkins Diet ( Did this one, nothing happened)

Don’t get me wrong: the Atkins diet can help you lose weight. I’ve tried it, and I lost weight. But man, I felt like crap. And after a week, all I could think about was eating an orange. An orange! Of all the harmless food items out there. Of course, cutting out refined sugars and nutrition-less carbs is a good thing, but not all carbs are bad for you, and the good ones fuel muscles, fill you up, and are pretty damn tasty. Not to mention that the Atkins diet isn’t a healthful lifestyle change; it’s a limiting diet that requires you to eat a lot of not so healthy foods. And chances are you won’t be able to avoid eating carbohydrates for your entire life, nor would many people want to.

[Phoenix]

Dr. Siegal’s® Cookie Diet™

Make no mistake, you’re not going to be eating Pepperidge Farm Milanos, or Oreos, or Mrs. Fields’ White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies on this diet. No, you’re going to be eating the concoctions of Dr. Siegal, a physician who specializes in hypothyroidism and obesity, and who also likes to sell weight loss books and snacks. However, his proprietary hunger-controlling cookies are a diet-deceiving indulgence; they look like bricks of fiber-coated oats sweetened with prunes. Although they may make you less hungry, the doctor also advises combining them with a restricted calorie diet, which, as we all know, is the main way you’re going to lose weight. I also like how he has trademarked the term “Let’s face it: hunger wrecks diets™.” Uh, so do cookies.

Poor research here. I disagree. The Cookie diet is no different than Medifast. Same protein type and same dietary make up, only solid...one "lean and green" meal at the end of the day. If you don't have a soy protein intolerance, there's nothing in the world wrong with this one, excepting the expense.

Cabbage Soup Diet

Mmmm … cabbage. Good on St. Patrick’s day, not so good every day. Unless you’re trying to lose up to ten pounds in a single week, then maybe cabbage doesn’t sound so bad anymore. But being light headed, weak, and suffering from decreased concentration, as some diet participants have reported, does. Not to mention the inordinate amount of flatulence you are bound to have on a cabbage laden diet. Slim, but stinky.

Done it. Took Bean-o for the expected gas. I didn't feel sick at all, nor light headed. It's great to get into a specific outfit in a week, but otherwise the weight comes right back. I find it obnoxious that the writer makes fun of fruits and veggies here, but promotes them while putting down Slim Fast diet. Make up your mind.

The Atkins Diet

Don’t get me wrong: the Atkins diet can help you lose weight. I’ve tried it, and I lost weight. But man, I felt like crap. And after a week, all I could think about was eating an orange. An orange! Of all the harmless food items out there. Of course, cutting out refined sugars and nutrition-less carbs is a good thing, but not all carbs are bad for you, and the good ones fuel muscles, fill you up, and are pretty damn tasty. Not to mention that the Atkins diet isn’t a healthful lifestyle change; it’s a limiting diet that requires you to eat a lot of not so healthy foods. And chances are you won’t be able to avoid eating carbohydrates for your entire life, nor would many people want to.

Works great for some, horribly for me. I was nursing. It made me shaky, light headed and I dried up without permission, even with the additions. Stopping the diet didn't restart milk production, it was permanent. That sucked. The weight didn't come off, either, that sucked even more.

[julieburns]

I love this forum and always find it so interesting to see how peoples opinions differ so vastly. As I was reading the article I found it humorous and took it for what it was maybe intended to be...a light hearted look at the crazy things we have done to lose weight. Maybe the author did not define/represent each diet correctly but I think the point was the ridiculousness of all of these crazy diets. Thanks Michelle for making me laugh yet another time with this post. It also made me think about how I am going about working my band in the proper way with no craziness!!

[ElaineC]

Of the ones on this list, I haveonly tried Dr. Siegel's Smart for Fife. (The cookie diet.) It actually entailed more than just cookies. It included soups, and shakes as well as appetite suppressents and vitamins and a laxative. I actually lost weight on it, but then ended up in the hospital with fluid around my heart. Let's just say my cardiologist afte the fact told me no more appetite suppressents and I listened and stopped the program becase they were in everything!

Of course, I gained it all back ....

Elaine

[banded4life]

Sadly, I have tried several of these myself! What was I thinking??? I lost weight on them and then gained it all back plus more. I have since discovered that what it all boils down to is portion control and making healthy choices...imagine that!!!!

[Paula Bee]

Cabbage Soup Diet - I have tried this one... I already was familiar with the cabbage soup from WW, so this seemed natural to try..     No, do not try this at home!Slim Fast - tried this one, too... Not enough self control for the other meal and snacks... Besides, I hate slimfast.Blood Type Diet - Yes, I have tried this one - for blood type O... seemed logical at the time.The Atkins Diet - yes, of course. I don't know anyone with a weight problem that hasn't tried this one or one of the hundreds of deviations that sprang up after it. I had a problem with it when I found out Dr. Atkins was about 100 pounds overweight at the time he died in an accident.

I have also done Optifast, Nutrisystem, and a number of others.

[jena]

Cabbage Soup Diet - I have tried this one... I already was familiar with the cabbage soup from WW, so this seemed natural to try.. No, do not try this at home!Slim Fast - tried this one, too... Not enough self control for the other meal and snacks... Besides, I hate slimfast.Blood Type Diet - Yes, I have tried this one - for blood type O... seemed logical at the time.The Atkins Diet - yes, of course. I don't know anyone with a weight problem that hasn't tried this one or one of the hundreds of deviations that sprang up after it. I had a problem with it when I found out Dr. Atkins was about 100 pounds overweight at the time he died in an accident.

I have also done Optifast, Nutrisystem, and a number of others.

Paula, that was a rumor put out by a vegetarian group that had always hounded Dr. Atkins. The truth is that when he was admitted to the hospital after his fall he weighed 195 pounds and was 6' tall. When he died a few weeks later, his weight ballooned up 60 pounds due to water retention and bloating.

Just wanted to set the record straight.

Jena