Extreme low-cal, Atkins, dukan, south beach, fasting, the hacker’s diet, paleo, keto… the list goes on and on. My personal favorite, the Inedia Diet, proposes that one can live entirely without food, sustained only on the Holy Breath.
Fad diets are a victory for modern consumerism, but the data show they don’t work. After the initial weight loss owing to severe caloric restriction, studies indicate that up to two-thirds of the lost weight is regained within one year, and almost all of it is regained within five years. In many cases, weight increases beyond baseline. This is because diets rarely teach people how to eat healthily in a sustainable way.
Not only do fad diets (like the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting) fail to promote any aspect of heart health, but the yo-yo dieting that often results may actually increase the risk of heart disease, particularly in woman, and increase the risk of all-cause mortality. The literature also shows a consistent link between fluctuating weight and psychopathology, life dissatisfaction, and binge eating.
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There is no quick fix, no “one weird trick to busting belly fat,” no fad diet or detox that’ll yield long-term results. That’s all based on very bad science.
