Come summer, and there is always a diet that promises to help you lose lots of weight in a ridiculously short period of time. These diets are examples of fad diets. A fad diet is one which promises fast weight loss with little effort. Its operative principle is to eliminate certain food groups and achieve weight loss through rigid menus. Fad diets achieve amazing popularity within a very short span of time; they may also attract a lot of criticism or may fade away quite as quickly.

Fad diets have a number of drawbacks:

• They promise too much too soon
• They are not based on sound principles of healthy eating
• They starve the body by cutting calories drastically
• They may affect your metabolism in a negative way
• They recommend stringent dieting for unhealthy weight loss
• The menus they offer are not suited to everyday life
• Their success may depend on specialized products and supplements
• They remain silent on the need for exercise
• They are seasonal and disappear almost as fast as they become fashionable

As you can see, the widespread popularity of a fad diet comes from the possibility of losing weight without effort.

Fad diets can help you lose some amount of weight quickly. That is because they manage to structure your eating patterns in such a way that there is a serious calorie deficit in your body. However, it is very difficult to stick to fad diets over a long period of time. The food patterns, which are central to the diet, are quite unnatural. So, it is impossible to carry on such a diet over a long period of time. The moment you go back to your regular eating patterns, you will put back all the weight you lost.

Another grave disadvantage of a fad diet is that it can lead to episodes of bingeing or emotional eating. Since a person has to exercise strict discipline over their eating habits on a regular basis, there is always a lurking danger of losing control and indulging in overeating. Fad diets have indirectly encouraged yo-yo dieting. When the diet depends completely on controlling food intake, even a single episode of bingeing may undo the effects of the diet.

Long-term weight loss is possible only through sensible eating patterns balanced by a healthy lifestyle. Do not believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Nutritious food is as important as exercise when it comes to losing excess weight and maintaining desired weight. Any program that promises to help you lose amazing amounts of weight without exercise is doomed to fail in the long run. Fad diets become popular because of the inherent laziness of people who want to lose weight without effort. Little wonder that they fail.