7 Quick Tips To Help You Spot A Fad Diet
Losing weight healthfully, and keeping the weight off, requires a long term commitment. The promise of being able to lose weight quickly appeals to many, but these diets rarely keep the weight off permanently. The trick is to know how to spot a fad diet. Here are seven tell-tale signs that the diet you are looking at is a fad diet:
- Promises quick weight loss (more than 1 to 2 pounds per week).
- Promotes magical or miracle foods.
- Encourages bizarre quantities of just one food or type of food, like tomatoes, grapefruit, or beef one day or cabbage soup in unlimited amount.
- Offers rigid menus where you can only eat at a specific time and day.
- Combines specific foods like soup and sandwich.
- Suggests that weight can be lost or maintained without doing exercise or changing your lifestyle.
- Lacks warnings for people who are diabetic or have high blood pressure that some of the fad diets can raise blood glucose or blood pressure.
A Checklist For Successful Weight Loss
Here are key ingredients to successful weight loss. Ask yourself the following questions to see if you are on the right path to safe and healthy weight loss:
- Have you checked with your doctor to let them know you were beginning a weight loss program?
- Have you asked your doctor to help you develop a safe and effective weight loss plan?
- Do you eat at all meal times?
- Do you eat a variety of foods, such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits?
- Are you getting your daily nutrients?
- Are you limiting saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium?
- Are you limiting the amount of sugar in your diet? Remember, foods high in sugar are often higher in calories and lower in nutrients then their less sugary counterparts.
- Have you reduced the number of calories you drink? Think about eating whole fruits, rather than drinking juices, and avoid soft drinks and alcohol as they are high in sugar.
- Are you watching your food portion sizes? Keep telling yourself that smaller portions are better than big.
- Are you exercising regularly? Have you chosen activities that you can continue to do and that you enjoy? Are you physically active for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week?
Fad Diets: The ‘Quick Fix’ Approach
The dieting industry promotes a number of diets that promise drastic weight loss in a short period of time. In an era of ‘quick fix’ approaches to our problems, these dieting plans are very appealing. You might recognize some of these diets:
The Low Carbohydrate Diet:
20% or less of the calories in the diet comes from carbohydrates, or there are less than 100 grams of carbohydrates in the diet.
The Very Low Fat Diet:
Less than 10% of the calories in the diet are from fat.
Liquid Only Diets:
Just liquids and nothing else. This diet is usually not able to be used more than five days.
Fasting Diets:
The dieter simply does not eat for an extended period of time.
Diet Pill Diets:
Commercial chemical and herbal dieting remedies like Dexatrim Natural, Hydoxycut or Metabolife 356.
Source: Wellness Council of America
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