Craziest Diet Ideas Ever
Wackiest Diets Ever
By Jennifer Fields
Fad diets are so alluring, with their promises of fast, dramatic weight loss and their skinny celebrity followers. The problem is that most of them are very restrictive, unhealthy and make outrageous claims that are just untrue. Here's a roundup of the some of the most strict, bizarre and downright ridiculous diets and the famous names that champion them.
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Pain in the Rear
Sure, the Martha's Vineyard Diet calls for herbal wraps and mud treatments, but following it is no day at the spa. You'll also be drinking most of your meals and jumping on a trampoline for 20 minutes at a time, not to mention enduring weekly colonics and enemas. We're not saying Robin Quivers doesn't look great since she tried the detox diet, but with all those trips to the spa, this diet is heavy on the pocketbook and light on lasting results.
Soup's On ... Always
All soup all the time should be the motto of the Cabbage Soup Diet. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a famous follower of the plan in which you slurp soup made from a watery mix of cabbage, green peppers, onions and celery for seven days. It's no surprise that you lose weight on this tasteless diet because you're not eating much, but after your soup fast is over and you start chewing your food again, the pounds pile back on.
Tart Diet
Beyoncé revived interest in the Master Cleanse when she used the juice fast to slim down for 'Dream Girls.' Drinking a mix of maple syrup, lemon juice, water and cayenne pepper for days is hardly a healthy approach to weight loss. Even Beyoncé said she wouldn't advise anyone follow her diet lead.
Diet in Vein
Any diet that requires a test of your blood type raises our eyebrows. And depending on the results, you could be stuck shopping for your new all-veggie diet or one where the main component is veal. Why? the Blood Type Diet claims certain foods react with differently with various blood types. A better idea than eating politically incorrect meat? Cut back on your portions.
Funny Face
Voluptuous Kate Winslet swears the Facial Analysis Diet helped her drop baby weight. On this wacky plan, a so-called facial analyst proposes a special diet based on food intolerances revealed in the texture of your skin, eyes and hair. But the only reason this diet ever works is because people tend to drink more water, get more sleep and eat more fruits and vegetables while on it.
Sour Diet
Claming it has magical fat-burning properties, the Grapefruit Diet calls for eating half a grapefruit or drinking a glass of its juice before every meal and has lured in the likes of Brooke Shields and Kylie Minogue. It sounds easy enough, except that your meals are also miniscule. In total, you'll consume a scant 800 calories a day on this starvation diet -- which is the real secret to its temporary weight loss results.
Royal Flush
Even birth control pills are off limits on the Fat Flush Diet, which aims to detoxify your liver and increase your fat-burning potential. Prepare for two weeks without alcohol or caffeine and barely any carbs on it; instead you'll load up on flaxseed oil, a cranberry juice and water concoction and lots of supplements. Not only is there no evidence that the diet results in weight loss, there's no proof that you even need to flush your liver.
Cuckoo for Coconuts
Another contender in the realm of the single-food eating plan is the Coconut Diet. Jennifer Aniston swore by this plan where you load up on coconut oil (Almond Joy doesn't count), which is supposed to boost metabolism and help you lose weight quickly. Most experts agree you should limit coconut in your diet because it's rich in saturated fat which can raise cholesterol, so it's best to avoid this one.
Fitness Phobic
If you hate to exercise then you'll no doubt be tempted to try the which asserts that cardio workouts are bad for your health so you skip them altogether. The diet, which has fitness and nutrition experts up in arms for the author's disregard of mountains of evidence that cardio workouts are essential to good health, is another case of an author making outrageous diet claims to sell more books.
Not-So Magic Pill
When Britney Spears was spotted with a bottle of diet pills in an airport, she helped create a surge in sales of the appetite suppressant Zantrex-3. That, and other similar diet pill products may take some of the work out of weight loss, but with side effects like nervousness, sleeplessness, agitation and diarrhea, we'll stick with the eating healthy and exercise for weight control.
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