What is a good diet for someone who is really bad at restriction diets?

We Take a Look at the Most Popular Fad Diets of the Past 30 Years and Pick The Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets to Ever Be Unleashed on Dieters. The Fad Diet. Nothing exemplifies the American obsession with quick fixes more than the seemingly endless parade of fad diets cooked up by everyone from modern snake-oil salesmen, to slick Internet entreprenuers, to corporate product marketing teams looking for a new way to sell an old product.

Take a single ”miracle food” , add a little glitz and glamour in the form of a celebrity (nevermind whether she actually uses it, just mentioning it will suffice), sprinkle on some big weight loss promises, mix in some mis-applied clinical research, finish it up with a heaping spoonful of dramatic before-and-after pictures and you pretty much have a recipe for the classic fad diet. The Top Ten Dumbest Fad Diets below go by many names and often have many variations. Like a virus, some of these diets just seem to naturally mutate once they are released on the Internet, so tracking down their origins or even how they work can be difficult.

In this regard, they have more in common with urban legends, than eating plans. How Do You Qualify For The Top Ten Dumbest Fad Diet List? Qualifying for this list of Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets is pretty easy.

Any diet that focuses on a single food as the “secret” to weight loss gets immediate consideration. Also, any diet that includes extreme calorie-restriction, seemingly arbitrary eating rules (or lists of forbidden foods without explanation), or is nutritionally unbalanced earns a place in the list. In most cases, the fad diets below just defy common sense, which is the ultimate definition of “dumbness” in my book.

The Alkaline Diet makes some questionable scientific claims that make it dumb, but in comparison to its company like the Lemonade Diet, it looks downright healthy. Same goes for the Special K Diet, which earned a place on this list not because it’s particularly bad for you, but because it’s a great example of the growing phenomenon of “Corporate-crafted” fad diets used to push a food product. Kellogg isn’t the only company doing this, they just happen to be the ones I’m picking on today.

With the exception of the Kimkins Diet and maybe the Lemonade or Detox Diet, it’s unlikely any of these diets will cause lasting harm. The duration of them is generally too short for serious nutritional deficicencies to develop and the sheer dumbness and monotony of most of them will make them self-limiting. However, serial crash dieting can cause nutritional deficiencies over time, as well as possible health issues, including eating disorders.

So my recommendation is to avoid them, period. In terms of weight-loss, you will probably temporarily lose some weight on any or all of these diets — but the key term here is ”temporary.” Rebound weight gain is almost a given with most of these fad diets, since they typically won’t result in real body fat loss, but rather loss of water weight.

The list of Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets is ranked 1-10, with the dumbest fad diet being Kimkins in the number one slot and The Special K coming in at 10. The Kimkins Diet earns the not-so distinguished distinction of being not only being possibly the dumbest fad diet of the past two decades, but also one of the most potentially dangerous and deceptive. And because it was pitched as a “long-term” diet, it’s potential for causing health issues was much greater than short-duration crash diets.

The diet’s chief-guru was “Kimmer” (aka Heidi Diaz) who plastered her dramatic before and after pictures all over the Internet, allegedly earning herself millions in subscriptions to her site where she and a small army of diet hacks doled out advice to the most desperate of dieters. Problem was, Heidi never lost the weight she claimed — instead the “after” pictures were snatched off from Russian dating sites. In fact, Kimmer … er … Heidi had no business even developing this diet, since she had zero nutrition training and based on her weight, couldn’t lose the fat even on her own diet plan.

Outrage ensued, with former Kimkins followers (who called themselves “Ducks”) taking up torches and pitchforks online to expose the ruse. Lawsuits followed and “Kimmer” is now embroiled in multiple legal proceedings over her claims and alleged misrepresentations. The Kimkins Diet is downright dangerous because it prescribes a high-protein, low-carbydrate and ultra-low fat diet — kind of like Atkins but without the bacon.

These types of “protein” diets were linked to a number of cases of sudden-cardiac arrest in the 70s when the hordes of people jumped on the “liquid protein diet” craze. While there are no reported deaths from Kimkins, former-Kimkins dieters alledge all kinds of health problems as a result of the diet, including loss of hair and skin problems. While the Kimkins website is still active and apparently recruiting new dieters, in January 2009 Diaz filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

This Fad Diet ranks as the dumbest of the dumb. Avoid it at all costs. The Lemonade Diet is a “detoxification diet” that pushes the bounds of stupidity and earns second place in our list of The Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets.

Fueled by tabloid headlines and a very high-profile celebrity dieter (Beyonce Knowles), The Lemonade Diet seemed to take the world by storm in 2007-2008. Forget that Beyonce later distanced herself from it. The Lemonade Diet is originally credited to Stanley Burroughs, who developed it in 1941.

Burroughs was a self-appointed “alternative medicine” guru, with no formal medical training. The diet was recently revived and popularized by Peter Glickman in his book Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days. Like many “detoxification” diets, The Lemonade Diet relies on extreme-calorie restriction to trigger weight loss.

It also makes scientifically-unproven claims around removing toxins from the body. There is zero peer-reviewed research to back up any of the weight-loss, detoxification or health claims of this diet. Just a lot of conjecture and hocus-pocus.

The Lemonade Diet is more or less a water fast, although it’s proponents bristle at that characterization. You eat no solid food during the duration of the diet (which typically lasts 10 days), and instead drink a “lemonade” made from water, lemon or lime juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Since you’re eating no solid food or fiber, you have to take natural “laxatives” each night and morning unless you want your bowls to bind up.

This usually means sipping senna tea and drinking salt water. While Lemonade Diet advocates say the “lemonade” mixture you’re drinking is balanced and contains vitamins and minerals, the amount of maple syrup and lemon juice is actually quite small. There is very little “balance” in this fad diet and very little nutrition.

Macronutrients like protein, fat and carbohydrates are all but non-existant. Anyone would lose weight on this diet, because you are literally starving yourself. A bread and water diet would have been more nutritious than the Lemonade Diet, and probably safer as well.

Bread and water is for convicts, the Lemonade Diet is for superstars. This diet is just plain dumb, especially for anyone who is trying to be fit and in shape. Expect tons of muscle loss during it, since you’ll basically be in a catabolic state 24/7 for ten days.

While following it for a couple days probably won’t cause any lasting health problems in healthy adults, doing it for the recommended 10 days (or longer) probably isn’t a smart move. Cabbage is good for you. All-you-can-eat cabbage soup six times a day is just dumb.

The first of several “mono-diets” that make this list of the Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets, this brilliant eating plan has you pretty much substituting a Dickensian-esque soup made from cabbage, onions, green peppers, Lipton soup mix and V-8 juice (how’s that combo for you) for most of your meals each day. The Cabbage Soup Diet, which also is sometimes called the “Mayo Clinic Diet” or ”The Sacred Heart Diet” has been around for at least three decades. And while it claims to be a legit diet plan, both the Mayo Clinic and Sacred heart Hospital have denied any involvement in the diet.

In otherwords, someone with a love of cabbage just pulled this dumb diet out of their rear and started passing it around. Day One: Eat nothing but fruit (except for bananas) and as much cabbage soup as you wantDay Two: Eat only veggies and cabbage soup, but “reward yourself” with a “big baked potato” with butter! Day Three: Eat all the fruits and veggies you want, but no potato!