A fad diet is any type of diet that promises almost miraculous weight loss results in a very short period of time - usually about 7 days! Such diets are common features in women's magazines, particularly around the Christmas, New Year and summer seasons when the pressure on women to look good is upmost.

Common fad diets include the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, the zone diet, various detox diets and the sugar busters diet, however, there is usually a new one every few months.

Will I lose weight on a fad diet?

Most fad diets are crash diets so you probably will have lost weight by the end of the diet. However, once you return to your normal eating patterns you will put the weight straight back on again.

Also, because you lost the weight very quickly your total weight loss is likely to include loss of lean tissue - muscle and water - rather than fat. This can have very serious health risks. It will also reduce your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) making further weight loss increasingly difficult and weight gain much easier.

Successful weight loss lies with following a balanced diet and taking regular exercise and takes time and hard work. A dietician can help in providing information about the right type of food to choose as well as helping to keep you motivated. If you really do want to succeed in losing weight, an appointment with a dietician is the best first step to take. Go to http://web.archive.org/web/20060110004936/http://www.indi.ie/ for a qualified dietician near you.

Common fad diets

The sugar busters diet

This diet is based on the false premise that eating sugar causes obesity. While it is anti-carbohydrate - bread, potato, pasta, noodles, rice, bread or cereal are not allowed and refined or processed carbohydrates are considered 'toxic' - fruit, which is also a source of carbohydrate, is allowed. It is essentially a low calorie diet containing 800-1200 calories each day. These calories are derived from fat and protein rich foods only.

The sugar busters diet is unusual in that it discourages you from drinking large amounts of fluids at meals suggesting that it may result in partially digested food. This is bad science. Although some dieters may achieve success on this diet, it will be because of the low calorie content of the diet and not for any other reason.

The zone diet

This diet suggests that food is like a drug and that it should be eaten in a controlled fashion and in the correct proportions. It is based on an allowance of 800-1200 calories per day and this energy must come from 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein and 30% fat exactly. Each meal must be eaten in these exact proportions also. It is not an easy diet to follow, simply based on these rules alone, which are not based on any scientific research. Pasta, bananas, cereals, potatoes, bread and carrots are 'unfavourable' and take you out of the 'zone' and into 'carbohydrate hell'. For anyone trying to follow it this diet is a type of hell in itself.

Detox diets

These diets mix up a very small bit of science with a lot of make believe. Generally, they are very low in calories and very high in water, fruit and vegetables. The water, fruit and vegetables part is all very good. However, excluding large groups of food such as complex carbohydrates, protein and dairy is neither healthy nor nutritionally balanced.

The body has a daily requirement for fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals that simply cannot be provided by these diets. Because they are so low in calories they may have a weight loss effect in the short term. In the long term they will result in nutritional deficiencies.

Grapefruit diet

This diet expects smart, intelligent people to believe that grapefruits dissolve/eat fat from the spare tyre around your stomach, from the tops of your arms and the fat that is stored on the buttocks! Many vulnerable women, desperate to lose weight have tried this diet. If you are tempted, first test the effectiveness of the diet by leaving a slice of grapefruit on top of a knob of butter in the fridge overnight. Has the grapefruit dissolved the fat by morning?

Slimming pills

Information leaflets advertising and promoting slimming tablets make various claims about the success of these products. The common theme running through this advertising material is that the tablets promise effortless weight loss.

However, no such weight loss method exists. The information often suggests that the tablets will help with weight management but do not spell out exactly how this will be achieved, leaving you with the impression that your weight will be lost in a non-specific but seemingly 'magical' way.

Miraculous slimming pills are often expensive and a complete waste of money. Weight loss is not as easy as taking a tablet and products that suggest otherwise are grossly misleading.