Fad Diets — How They Work

You just need to look at the names of some of the fad diets to see how they work: the grapefruit diet, the no-carb or low-carb diet, the cabbage soup diet, the fat flush diet...

Anyone who has been on a fad diet will tell you: Well, it seemed to work for a while, but then... it seemed to stop working, they "fell off the wagon", maybe they even got sick.

Whatever the reason, it likely had far less to do with self-discipline or just falling into old bad habits -- than with the fact that your body, and your mind, will simply rebel if you try to trick it into starvation and / or deprive it of essential nutrients it needs to process food and regulate its normal, healthy functioning.

So How Do Fad Diets Work?

Fad diets are called fads because they come and go. In the meantime, many of them leave behind a trail of long term damage to many people's physical health, nutrition and even mental health and self-worth.

Most fad diets work on the basis of either total abstention or an extreme increase in consumption of a particular food.

For many people, a fad diet was the beginning of their yo-yo experience of gaining and losing weight and lifelong struggles with weight control.

If you are looking at a fad diet, the first question you need to ask is whether you are prepared to eat according to that diet's requirements for the rest of your life, whether it means indulging in certain foods or eliminating others from your daily diet.

Are you prepared to never again eat potatoes, rice, pasta? If not, what do you think will happen when you leave behind the low carb diet? Yes, you've left behind some weight, and here it comes back again, along with those normal, healthy carbs that your body has been demanding all along.

Many fad diets even package up nice, convenient meals and meal plans -- they add up to not-so-nice and not-so-convenient hits on your pocket book, not to mention your long term weight management health.

Your body's individual daily vitamin and other nutritional requirements are unique to you: they depend on much more than simply cutting out one thing or boosting your daily intake of another food or vitamin or nutrient.

You need to develop personal weight loss plan, in consultation with a qualified nutritionist and / or doctor.

There Are No Miracles in Fad Diets!

It's true that many of us could benefit from a diet of some kind. That kind is a "balanced diet", the kind that balances calories in against calories out, which is only achievable with the proper mix of all of your personal nutritional needs and regular physical activity.

Losing weight can be difficult for many of us, and the rising incidence of obesity in North America is a real cause for concern; but, before you dive into that latest fad diet that promises to show you the secret to the miraculous properties of some particular food, spend some time finding out about the miraculous ways that your body uses all of nature's vitamins and other nutrients.

Boostdailyvitamins.com will help inform you about daily vitamins and your health, and there are a huge number of other online sources and books by qualified nutritionists, scientists and doctors.

Walk to your local library or bookstore and load yourself up with information about basic nutrition and how fad diets work. You'll be able to see how that next fad diet on the way could actually damage your health and thwart your efforts to maintain a healthy weight.