Extreme diets share promises of rapid weight loss, often include celebrity endorsements and frequently boast clever names. While moderate diets call for restricting calories to about 1,500 a day for women and 1,800 for men, extreme diets slash this amount by 1/3 or 1/2. Extreme diets may supply inadequate nutrition and could be harmful if not medically supervised.
Identification
You can spot an extreme diet by its advertising claims and celebrity endorsements. On a moderate diet, you might lose 1 to 2 lbs. a week, but extreme diets suggest you can lose 4, 8 or even 10 lbs. of unwanted flab in the same amount of time. Singer Beyonce lost 14 lbs. in 10 days on the Lemon Detox Diet--also known as the Master Cleanse and Lemonade Diet--and her success was widely promoted by authors of the diet, which involves eating nothing and drinking a concoction of water, lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for up to 21 days. Jennifer Aniston and her former husband, Brad Pitt, followed the Zone Diet, Reese Witherspoon tried the Baby Food Diet, and Gwyneth Paltrow helped popularize the Macrobiotic Diet.
Considerations
Some extreme diets sound too good--or weird--to live up to their promises. The Cabbage Soup Diet promises up to 10 lbs. of weight loss in a week--authors say not to follow it any longer--by eating a diet of cabbage soup every day and one or two other foods that change according to the day of the week--fruit except bananas on day one, for instance, and bananas and skim milk on day four. The Purple diet restricts food and drinks by color and the Traffic Light categorizes foods as go, stop or caution items.
Expert Insight
Doctors support and create some extreme diets. The Medifast Diet, a meal replacement program, got its start as a physician-supervised diet. The Medifast Diet favors protein over carbohydrates and shares similarities with the Atkins and South Beach diets, also authored by doctors. The Medifast Diet provides five prepackaged meals and instructs followers to prepare a dinner consisting of 5 to 7 oz. of lean protein and three servings of vegetables. Atkins restricts carbohydrates more than Medifast but does not require portion control for protein. The South Beach Diet , closer to a moderate than extreme diet, provides more carbohydrates than Atkins and places greater emphasis on lean proteins and complex carbohydrates such as legumes and brown rice.
Misconceptions
Neither math nor science support dramatic weight loss claims made by authors of some extreme diets. If you restrict your food intake by 500 calories a day, you will lose 1 lb. a week based on the formula that you need to create a caloric deficit of 3,500 to 1 lb.. On a 1,000-calorie-a-day diet, you would lose 2 lbs., and on an 800-calorie-a-day diet, you would lose 2.4 lbs. Some people lose more than this when they first start extreme diets, but this may be due to losing water or fecal material. Ralph Friedgen, head coach of the University of Maryland Terrapins football team, says he lost 16 lbs. during the first week of a Medifast diet, but says it was mostly from water. The Lemonade Diet, which provides about 800 calories, promotes colon cleansing, which can add considerably to temporary weight loss.
Effects
Weight lost on an extreme diet may be more easily regained than pounds shed following a more moderate approach. To protect itself from starvation, your body slows its metabolism when it is underfed. When you resume normal eating, your sluggish metabolism fails to digest foods at a normal rate. Beyonce says she regained all of the 14 lbs. she lost on the Lemonade Diet and now favors a more balanced approach.
References
- Cabbage Soup Diet: 7 Day Eating Plan
- "Sunday Telegraph;" Celebrity Diet Dangers; Liz Walsh; July 25 2010
- Weight Loss Resources: Traffic Light Diet
- "Herald Sun;" Fight the Fad Diet; Daniel Hoy; March 9 2009
- "The Washington Post;" Terps' Friedgen Finds a Diet He Can Live With; Steve Yanda; May 9 2009
- "Daily Post;" Don't Lose Weight the Way I Did, Warns Superstar; (NO BYLINE) Aug. 17 2006
Member Comments