With every year people are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of fitness and a healthier lifestyle in general. There are more and more resources and information available online, on TV, radio and in print. But with everything good comes something bad. A lot of people become obsessed with healthy living, loosing weight and exercise to a point where its not healthy anymore and becomes purely ridiculous.
A big craze of the 21st century is dieting. Everyone with a half a brain comes up with some sort of a diet that will work miracles and take all your fat away within a blink of an eye. With people being so desperate to get a quick fix for their weight problems and believing everything the internet says, there has been a massive surge in the number of insane diets floating around the web. Looking at some of the diets circling around the internet, I have to wonder if who ever has put those diets out there, has a really dark sense of humor, trying to see how many people will actually be crazy enough to latch on to it.
I have never been a big supporter of strict diets and cutting out on specific nutrient groups. I believe in eating healthy, balanced meals and being smart about what you put in your body, so looking at some of these diets just makes my head spin & makes me want to shout ” WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???!!!”.
So here we go…
1. The Ice Diet
This diet consists of you eating a litre of ice every day. The ice also needs to be melted in your mouth and not chewed. The reasoning behind this is that melting ice is basically hard work and it burns a lot of calories. It might be hard work for your mouth as ice is bloody cold, but no way on earth melting a litre of ice in your mouth will end in significant calorie loss, all you will do is waste your time on trying to melt all that ice every day. Spend that time wisely and go for a run or do a quick workout.2. The Cookie Diet
So this diet is another wonder of the dieting world. Basically what do is you eat 6 to 9 eighty to ninety calorie cookies a day.[ There are various different brands available online.] The awesome reasoning behind this is that the cookies provide you with necessary nutrients to live through the day, but control the overall calorie intake which allow you to loose weight. This might all be dandy for few weeks, but how long are you going to live on 810 calories a day at most? First of all that sort of calorie intake is not healthy for a full grown human being, especially if you have taken on exercise or a more active lifestyle. Second this will only be a short term weight loss solution, as soon as you get back onto eating normal food, you will start gaining weight again. Cookie diet is not good for you unless your the Cookie Monster of course!3. Cotton Ball / Tissue Diet
Now this one is a big favourite of mine! You are allowed to eat up to 5 cotton balls or the equivalent of tissue during one meal. To make the process a bit more enjoyable you can dip the tissue or cotton balls into orange juice, smoothie or lemonade for better taste. How crazy is this? How does anyone imagine your stomach and digestion system will be able to cope with this?! Not even to mention you would be taking in pretty much 0 zero nutrients on daily basis. Your body and mind needs food to survive, remember that.4. The Master Cleanse Diet
Heres another great diet that prohibits you from eating and consuming nutrients your body oh so needs to function properly. All you are allowed to consume is tea and lemonade with cayenne pepper and maple syrup. This of course will lead to weight loss, you are not eating, your body is deprived of proteins, carbs and everything else and it will start burning all that's been stored in your system, but this again is only a temporary solution. As soon as you stop the diet and start eating again your weight will come back.5. The Grapefruit Diet
Another great diet that does absolutely nothing for you. So I’m pretty sure many of you know of this fad, that eating grapefruit will help you burn more calories. Basically how it works you can eat what ever you want and just finish your meal off with a grapefruit or a glass of fresh grapefruit juice and all the calories you have consumed during your meal will be burned away. WRONG! Grapefruit as healthy it might be, is not a miraculous fat burning tool. The fruit doesn’t contain any fat burning enzymes or similar properties. It is however high in Vitamin C and Vitamin A, low in fat and reasonably low in carbs.6. Paleo Diet
Oke, so if you follow this diet, you are only allowed to eat the food that was eaten by cavemen in Paleolithic era. Before taking on this diet all you need to do is just think rationally about how long ago was that, and how far has the world and the food industry gone since the Paleo era. I very much doubt that in the 21st century we can find a single food item that could be classified as the same as what cavemen used to eat in Paleo era. Also just because the cavemen didn’t eat it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. Our ancestors had no clue about healthy eating or nutrition. All that mattered was survival which at best let them live till maybe 35 years of age. Just to prove my point of the absurdity of this diet.These are only a few of crazy, scientifically unsupported diets floating around internet in the 21st century. People need to finally accept that there is no miracle cure or solution for long term fat loss. You loose fat by working out, eating healthy and balanced meals and just having an active lifestyle.
