TOP 5: Fad diet plans you should beware of!

Listed below are some of the worst diet plans which shouldn't be followed without consulting a practicing dietician.

A lot of people opt for short cuts to weight loss. Pills, crash diets, starvation etc are just some of the few ways to lose weight.

These ways generally do provide immediate results and prove to be beneficial, but only for a short duration of time. More often than not, these diets have the worst effects in the long run.

Sonal Talegaonkar, a nutrition expert at VLCC says that these many of these emphasise on one nutrient and cut down the rest. "This way your body gets an overdose of one nutrient instead of getting a wholesome diet. The weight lost with these diet plans also bounces back very quickly. Even if some of these diets seem to work, it is advised that you don't stay on them for a long time."

Moreover she reiterates the side effects of these diets that can range anything from health concerns to skin diseases, hair loss etc.

Listed below are some of the worst diet plans which shouldn't be followed without consulting a practicing dietician.

Cabbage soup diet

This is one of the worst fad diets around for more reasons than one. Firstly it has a lot of variations in which people can be mislead and secondly majority of the weight loss of this diet is water.

The diet plan is like this

• Day 1 - Cabbage soup plus as much fruit as you like, excluding bananas
• Day 2 - Cabbage soup plus vegetables including 1 jacket (baked) potato with a little butter
• Day 3 - Cabbage soup plus fruit and vegetables excluding potatoes and bananas
• Day 4 - Cabbage soup plus up to eight bananas and as much skimmed milk as you like
• Day 5 - Cabbage soup plus up to 10 ounces of beef and up to six tomatoes
• Day 6 - Cabbage soup plus as much beef and vegetables (excluding potatoes) as you like
• Day 7 - Cabbage soup plus brown rice, vegetables (excluding potatoes) and unsweetened fruit juice

Along with this a person can have beverages like water and unsweetened fruit juice only on dates when fruits are allowed.

The criticisms, apart from the loss of water are also that this diet reduces the nutrients from the diet instead of water. So much of the weight loss is not fat. Also this diet doesn't provide any proteins for 8 days making people feel weak and light headed.

This diet emphasises that people should eat food specific to their blood group which will help them in keeping fit and eventually aid weight loss.

Research has confirmed that this diet has no health benefit in the long run whatsoever and only leads to inappropriate weight loss. Moreover this diet hardly meets any nutritional benefits and only makes you feel more malnutrioned and fatigued.

The diet defines body type according to blood group and lists ou specific foods accordingly

Type A – Vegetarian blood type
You should avoid meats and dairy products in your diet and instead you should eat unprocessed fruits and vegetables, and to some extend combine the vegan diet with fish and seafood.

Type B – Omnivore blood type
This blood type can eat a wide variety of foods, although they should not eat seafood, poultry, nuts or fatty oils. However they have been proven to gain benefits from diary products.

Type AB – Mixed type
This blood type is slightly more sensitive than the type B, so they should avoid all meats except lamp or rabbit meat. They should mainly eat raw salads, fruits and vegetables.

Type O – The carnivore.
Type O's must eat meat, fish and seafood along with eggs as animal proteins a good for them. This can be combined with just a little  raw vegetables and raw fruits. Sweet fruits or too little meat is harmful to Type O people. If you are type O you will also have good effects from an active way of living.

This diet aims at the reduction of carbohydrate for weight loss. It reduces the intake of carbohydrates as much as possible while increasing the fat and protein intake drastically.

The diet has its ill effects as with the reduction of carbohydrates the body goes into of ketosis and burns its own fat to produce energy. Another side effect of this diet is the loss of water which eventually causes weight loss. Due to this there is a huge initial weight loss which is the main cause of this diet's popularity.

The diet follows the following four stages

• Phase 1 (Induction Phase) Carbohydrate intake is restricted to 20 grams per day. The source of carbohydrate can be salad and some non-starchy vegetables.
• Phase 2(Ongoing weight loss)- Here you can add carbohydrate in the form of nutrient-dense and fibre-rich foods, by increasing to 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week and so on until your weight loss stops. Then subtract 5 grams of carbohydrate from your daily intake so that you continue sustained, moderate weight loss
• Phase 3 (Pre-Maintenance) This stage makes the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance by increasing the daily carbohydrate intake in 10-gram increments each week so long as very gradual weight loss is maintained
• Phase 4 (Lifetime Maintenance)- In this phase you can select from a wide variety of foods while controlling carbohydrate intake to ensure weight maintenance and a sense of well-being.

Also known as the Hollywood diet this is another short term fad diet based on grapefruit's fad burning properties. Though the idea behind this diet is marvelous -- as grapefruit is hish in fibre and vitamin C -- using it as a sole foundation for weight loss is unwise.

Grapefruits does loss quick weight loss, as it reduces the fluids in our  body, but the diet doesn't trigger a huge weight loss.

It only helps to jumpstart a weight loss program. Another drawback of the diet is that grapefruit can interfere with medications and also citruses can be allergic for some people.

The diet follows a period of 12 days with a two day off. This is what a typical menu contains per day --

Breakfast
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
2 Eggs (any style)
2 Slices Bacon

Lunch
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
Meat (any style, any amount)
Salad (any kind of dressing)

Dinner
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
Meat (any style, any amount) (fish may be substituted for meat)
Vegetables (any green, yellow, or red vegetables cooked in butter or any seasoning)

Bedtime Snack
1 glass tomato juice or 1 glass skim milk

Vegetables allowed
Red onions, green onions, bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, peas.

Vegetables to avoid
White onions, potatoes, celery.

This diet is much like the cabbage Soup diet only difference being the type of soup.

You can  have breakfast in the morning followed by unlimited amount of Chicken Soup in the day. But remember its just chicken soup, nothing else.

The diet immediately comes across as a fad diet as you are basically off cereals, pulses, yoghurt, fruits etc. Unless you take supplements, this diet by no chance provides you with any kinds of vitamins and minerals. And supplements have a risk of their own.

It is hence advised, that even if the diet is followed, it shouldn't be followed for more than a week as your body will feel malnutrioned due to the lack of vital nutrients by then.

The chicken soup can be prepared in the usual manner. Following are some choices for the breakfast to break the monotony throughout the diet plan

Breakfast 1:

• 1 cup vanilla nonfat yogurt combined with 1/2 cup chopped fruit salad and sprinkled with wheat germ.

Breakfast 2:

• 1 cup ricotta cheese combined with 1/2 tsp. of sugar and a dash of cinnamon.
• 2 pieces while-grain bread, toasted
• 3 dried figs

Breakfast 3:

• 1 1/2 cups Total cereal
• 1/2 cup nonfat milk
• 1/2 cup calcium enriched orange juice

Breakfast 4:

• 1/2 cup prune juice
• 1 small whole-wheat bagel, topped with 1 oz of fat-free cheddar cheese melted.

Breakfast 5:

• 1 1/2 cups cooked Wheatena Cereal
• 1/2 cup nonfat milk