Eating practices that are popular with exaggerated excitement.
Diets which become a craze. They are often based on inadequate or unproven assumptions, and though effective temporarily, for example for weight reduction, they are frequently ill balanced and therfore fraught with danger in the long run.
Weight-loss plans that may not be based on scientific findings. In the past, examples have included a high protein low-carbohydrate regimen and an all-grapefruit diet. Fad diets often are unhealthy because they lack many vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. A balanced diet is required to provide the necessary nutrients for growth, tissue repair, and physical activity.
“Get-thin-quick” diets that promise substantial weight loss in a relatively short period of time. Many fad diets are starvation or semistarvation diets, requiring 600-800 calories per day or fewer. Fad diets usually stress one food or food type to the exclusion of others and require drastic changes in the dieter’s eating patterns. They are typically “one-size-fits-all” diets, promising success for any person following the prescribed diet regime. Because fad diets emphasize such a limited range of foods, they tend to be both poor in nutrition and difficult to sustain for long periods.
Fad diets are often successful in the short term. Nutritionists agree, however, that they are an ineffective way to achieve and maintain weight loss. They usually involve drastically cutting calories. Typically, they are deficient in essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, and the deprivation they demand may result in reactive overeating. Most significantly, fad diets rarely teach dieters what to eat after the diet is over. Therefore, when the dieter returns to normal eating patterns, lost weight is usually quickly regained.
A diet that requires a major change in eating habits and promises quick weight loss.
A popular diet that may help a person lose weight but without proper regard for nutrition and other matters of health.