Weight is a topic that consistently stays hot on the minds of people young and old. Societal views of what healthy looks like often fuels people to take drastic steps in changing their lifestyles to fit within those standards. Human constantly look for ways of self-improvement. What better way to make a change than the pattern of eating? Diets are typically always the first step people take, and being introduced to a new style of eating can often times be very tricky. Clever businessmen take the opportunity to create new diets that promise to melt away fat and magically make a person healthy because everyone wants to fit within the model of society’s standard of good looking. To a newbie dieter, these kinds of diets catch the eye, and are easy to buy into when testimonials both left and right support the diet. To make the correct decision when it comes to dieting, a person must be educated on macronutrients, and how eating patterns can change the body for better or worse. While not all diets are considered fads that end up fading or failing, people should be educated on how to spot a fad, and recognize the health benefits and complications that all diets may impose on the body. 

The first “diet” was introduced by William Banting in 1863 when he decided that his current weight was not his dream weight. The diet he planned to follow prohibited the consumption of starch and sugars, and was centered around consuming the necessary amount of protein, veggies, fruits, and dry wine in every meal (Luke). This diet consisted of four meals per day, which may have inspired the popular Atkins diet (low-carbohydrate diet plan) many decades later. Diet fads date all the way back to ancient history in which people would take shots of vinegar in hopes of keeping their weight down (Nacamulli).  Vinegar was believed to enhance metabolism which in turn burned calories faster. If fads such as the vinegar diet have been around for what seems like an eternity, then it paints the picture as to why people still buy into them if they don’t work. Fad diets are created specifically to draw attention to a new product and create marginal temporary results.  Buying into a diet that is marketed as healthy but truly has no scientific value behind it is known as a fad diet. Many fads such as Fat Burners, Low-Carb diets, and Gluten Free diets are becoming more and more popular as a means of weight loss. 

The Gluten-Free diet is arguably one of the most popular trends in society. Everyone looks to buy gluten free products because the media and the food industry has blamed many issues such as Obesity and Diabetes on the consumption of gluten. According to The New York Times contributor, Elissa Altman, “Many gluten-free eaters who don't have celiac disease feel they can also avoid discomfort by avoiding wheat.” This is primarily because the gluten laden foods they are expelling from their diets typically have processed sugars (Cadenhead). Unless a person has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, there is literally no real reason to cut gluten from a diet. Gluten contains beneficial components that promote heart health and balance, and provides energy and Vitamin B to the body (Cadenhead). Cutting out gluten without medical recommendation can actually be harming and ridding the body of necessary nutrients. Hopping on the gluten free bandwagon has become an easy out for people looking to blame their poor nutritional decisions on something other than themselves. Medical advisement is necessary prior to eliminating a major component to a healthy life because of how it has been portrayed. 

The established health and fitness industry has blindly fallen victim to their own form of fads. Fat Burners are among most unnecessary products circulating throughout the health industry. Without sufficient exercise and clean eating, they do not effectively increase the rate at which the metabolism works. Fat Burners are considered supplements which are used to enhance the natural process of weight loss through diet and exercise. They are not meant to do all the work and magically melt fat away, but give the body an extra boost in furthering results. Fat Burners target the extra fat your body doesn’t need, so when a person’s diet is filled with junk and foods that don’t fuel the body, the fat burners work overtime to burn away the excess calories recently consumed before targeting the unnecessary fat stored within the body (Clark). Fat Burners can help give your body a boost if used with healthy diet and exercise, but cannot be expected magically transform the body simply on their own. 

An up and coming fad diet known as the military diet, is extremely intense and restrictive which is why many people have been fearful to try it out. Due to its restrictive nature, it is not appealing to people looking for an easy way to help them lose weight. However, this diet sparks enormous interest in true health buffs within the fitness world because it cuts caffeine out completely, and limits portion sizes to very minimal amounts of food (caffeine elimination is beginning in the fitness world and could make its way to becoming a fad diet). Since this diet is so intense, it can only be followed for three consecutive days, throughout the course of one week (Yanyi).  Malia Frey stated in her review of the diet, “This is NOT a three day diet. There are no days off,” because even when the restrictions of what food is available to eat, there is still a tight restriction on the calorie goal for those four days. The military diet has been proven to work due to the fact your body is not used to eating the highly limited foods the diet plans out for those three days. Not only are the foods limited, but the calorie count is very minimal with “off” days consisting of 1500 calories, and “on” day beginning at 1400 and ending at 1100 on the third day (Frey). Foods such as black coffee, cottage cheese, canned tuna, and plain wheat toast are not the standard go-to foods when you’re starving. Although sticking to this meal plan requires strong willpower to stay true to it, if successful, then tremendous results will be seen. Since this diet works, it is not considered a fad, however, it is important to understand what each individual body needs before joining in on a random popular diet. This diet works to increase your metabolism to break down foods your body typically isn’t used to processing (Frey). In this specific diet, weight loss is more common due to the consumption of food that activates the metabolism, and the extremely low calorie intake target.

Many times, a calorie is often promoted to be just a calorie in the sense that all calories are created equally. In all actuality, calories have different compositional structures which are broken down and absorbed by the body in different ways. Macronutrients are the “daddies” of calories which means that fats, proteins and carbohydrates all account for different amounts of calories per gram, and are absorbed by the body at different rates (Braff). When beginning a diet and trying to stick to it, it is necessary to be careful of consuming empty calories, or calories from foods that won’t keep you full for very long, or don’t have much nutritional value. Jellybeans or potato chips could be an example of foods that contain empty calories. They taste great, and keep getting eaten, but after a while, people are still hungry but have just consumed a high number of calories. Sometimes dieters get lost in the saying “a calorie is a calorie,” no matter where that calorie is coming from. It is necessary to examine the origin of a calorie because you don’t want your body to be taking in too many calories from fat. Many diets that promote eating whatever you want by still losing weight typically put a limit on how much quantity of food you are allotted due to the higher caloric value of the specific type of food. Eating foods with high caloric values ultimately reverses weight loss due to the fact the caloric deficit needed to lose weight over a long period of time, is eliminated. 

A misconception about weight loss is that it is a bottomless pit of shedding pounds. People think they will either lose every inch of fat on their body, or magically reach their perfect goal weight. While this would a be a great concept, only so much weight can be lost before a body’s metabolism adjusts, or the body begins to plateau. When people begin their weight loss journeys by making a distinct change in eating habits, they may see a higher number of pounds start to fall off. This is caused by a process called Diuresis. Diuresis is especially common in low-carb diets because the glycogen stores found in the liver and various muscles excrete a solute of intracellular fluid because the body is only consuming the necessary amount of starch (Bray). After a while, the body begins to recognize the foods being consumed which causes the metabolism rate to slow, and weight maintenance then kicks in. When dieters shoot to lose upward of three pounds per week, lean muscle mass tends to be included in the dropping numbers (Clark). One cannot lose fat without losing muscle mass through simply dieting. In order to target fat loss through dieting, some form of weight lifting must be incorporated into your life to add muscle, in order to make certain the weight being lost is purely unnecessary fat. 

Fats and carbohydrates are critical components necessary for healthy working bodies. Many diets advertise that either fats, or carbs are the sole reason people are obese. Fats get the reputation of causing socially unattractive features such as muffin tops or love handles, while carbs are blamed for people being bloated, or not being able to fit into their skinny jeans. People are quick to believe marketing strategies that paint fats and carbs as the devil, simply because they’re easy to blame. Fats have many purposes within the body, and trying to rid yourself of every inch of fat can have devastating effects on your body. Carbohydrates are the body’s first source of energy, carbs are not the enemy, however, not all carbohydrates are created the same, nor do they have the same effects. 

Low-Carbohydrate diets draw attention because they tend to help people lose weight right off the bat, which in many cases is all the dieter is concerned with. Carbohydrates are a macronutrient that provide the body with its first source of energy. By lowering the intake of carbohydrates, it forces the body to convert the excess fat being stored for energy. This can be stressful for the body, and can damage a person’s health if not enough energy is being produced from the fat. For this reason, it is common that people on low-carb diets tend to be moodier, and more tired. People who are uneducated about carbohydrates tend to believe there is no difference within the carb family. Carbs come in two forms, simple and complex, which are absorbed at different rates by the body. 

Research used to suggest that complex starches lead to a spike in blood sugar level, however, more recent research shows that Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) are responsible for sugars in the body, and the digestibility of carbs (Moyad). The Glycemic Index is a numerical which measures the rate at which glucose enters the blood stream from different foods. Typically, most of the refined and processed foods have a higher GI while natural veggies have a low GI. Diseases such as Diabetes type 2 occur when people consume foods with high Glycemic Indexes over the course of their lives. However, while the GL is very important, people tend to overlook it and focus solely on the GI of certain foods. Diabetics typically only focus on the GI of certain foods even though it is necessary to be aware of the GL as well. Guides such as the image below are very commonly used when dieters are using a low-carb diet. The Glycemic Load is the weighted average of the GI and the percentage of dietary energy of carbohydrates multiplied together. Matthews states, “the average person eats more than 200 grams of carbohydrates,” on a daily basis, low-carb diets, consist of less than 50 grams of carbs per day, causing the body to enter ketosis. Being in a ketogenic state means that the metabolism will start breaking down stored body fat to fuel everyday actions (Deprospo). Being in a ketogenic state is appealing to many people because it forces the body to create energy from stored fat, whereas in high carbohydrate diets, the body does not have to work hard to find energy. 

Being misinformed when it comes to health is a major problem that could potentially lead to a domino effect of other problems. Food should have one main purpose: to fuel the body. With that being said, it is rare that people eat to simply give their body what it needs, rather than splurging on yummy delicacies more often than not. Eating comfort foods can be very helpful in maintaining one’s mindset, and not being so overwhelmed and defeated by not eating any of the foods they truly enjoy. Flexible dieting refers to an eating style in which most of the time you eat clean foods that promote the body, while occasionally enjoying a slice of pie to keep your sweet tooth happy. People who follow this pattern of eating typically stay committed longer, see better long- term results, and often have an overall more positive outlook on their bodies. Progress slows when people restrict themselves from eating anything unhealthy at all which leads to mental depletion and an ultimate relapse of a diet.  

While not all diets are considered fad diets, many of them exist to simply take your money and catch the eye of weight loss hopefuls, and others exist truly want people to be healthy. Even if certain diets are not trying to take your money, you must be educated in how they will affect your body in the long run. If there is no true science behind the diet, then odds are, it isn’t truly the best for your body. Eliminating entire food groups or macronutrients is never the answer. It is important to remember that not one specific diet fits the needs of every individual body. Diets should not be looked at as a “one size fits all” ordeal. Just as each person likes different things, each body needs different components to keep it healthy and functioning properly. Each person needs to learn what types of foods fuel their bodies and how many calories are suitable for desired weight loss goals. Reasonable goals should be set and maintained over a long period of time rather than one big goal that focuses on short term success. Diets can be successful if used to promote overall healthy living/eating and not just immediate weight loss. Clean eating is the most important component to truly see the best results over time. Staying on track while trying to diet can make or break a person’s weight loss journey. 
