The Fashion of Fad Diets

This innate need to change ourselves arises at the start of the year and it fails shortly after. As registered dietitian and certified personal trainer Hannah Deacon says, there is no magic pill — it takes time and patience to eat the right way. Fad diets promise quick weight loss and seem easy to follow. Take the cabbage diet for example, where for one week you only eat cabbage soup. Delicious, right? Except you’re restricting your calorie intake and nutrients during the week, only to go back to your original diet and regain the weight you just lost. “Variety is key in making sure your body can function at its best,” Deacon says.

“It’s not a healthy way to live and so people end up in this vicious cycle of restriction, binging, guilt and frustration, and then restriction again,” says Deacon.

Diets and cleanses often result in the loss of muscle mass, increase in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, and can negatively impact your mental health. They end up being short-term solutions that, in the end, aren’t worth the effort.