Fad diets are diets designed to be followed for only a short period of time. Fad diets are also diets that quickly become wildly popular, last for a short time, then become a footnote in popular culture. The Hollywood diet, the Atkins diet, and Jenny Craig are just three examples.
Fad diets are a subcategory of food fads. A food fad is a phenomenon in which some food or category of food suddenly becomes very popular. These all have two things in common:
- The food is attributed with miraculous powers. – Other foods are removed from the diet because they have negative properties that should be avoided.
The Atkins diet displays the characteristics of one of these fad diets. Carbohydrates are avoided like the plague, because a carbohydrate low diet can do amazing things for your body. Carbohydrates take on both of the common elements in that removing carbohydrates from the diet creates a near magical metabolic state in which fat is burned at an incredible rate.
Although it is a long-term diet, it did have short phases during which carbohydrate cutting was taken to the extreme. But Dr. Atkins did intend that people could eat this way for the rest of their lives.
The Atkins diet was also one of these fad diets in that huge popularity was fairly short-lived. For a number of years the Atkins diet was everywhere, and everyone seemed to be following it . Every movie star, singer, and sports figure claimed to use the Atkins diet when they needed to lose weight. Although still around today, the diet is far from as popular as it was at its height.
Fad diets can be unhealthy. Even a seemingly healthy diet like the Subway diet could be dangerous. It revolves around the extreme weight loss case of Jared who ate Subway sandwiches and baked chips to lose over 250 pounds in the span of a single year.
But Jared had made a radical shift in his caloric habits. That could have killed him. The diet did include many positive aspects such as exercise, like walking.
Be careful when taking on some of these fad diets. A long-term eating strategy combined with moderate exercise is usually the better bet.
To learn more about fast fat loss diets, strip that fat diet system, head to my blog to read my honest strip that fat review and start striping those extra pounds starting today.
categories: weight loss,health and fitness:weight loss,dieting
