There are a lot of crazy fad diets out there, but how do you know if any of them work? Instead of putting your wellbeing through the mill, we’ve taken a look at a few of the craziest diets out there, and what you might expect if you give them a try.
1. The Paleo Diet: On this Stone Age–inspired regimen, you can forget about your modern favourites. No wheat, no dairy, no legumes and you can say goodbye to fruit juices. Instead, the Paleo diet features hunter-gatherer staples such as lamb, poultry, bison, and other lean game. While the diet asks you to ditch junk food – and that certainly is no bad thing – as of yet there are scant studies to prove the Paleo’s efficacy. There’s also an issue of convenience here, as you’re required to swap easy options for home-cooked meals, such as grass-fed meatloaf with almond meal, vegetables sautéed in coconut oil, and cocoa-covered nut balls with coconut shreds. This means less time in the gym, and more time preparing and eating foods that will send you into a sluggish food coma. While the Paleo Diet brings you life without processed foods, all that red meat isn’t great for your cholesterol. So maybe “back to basics” isn’t the best plan for your wellness.
2. The Karl Lagerfeld Diet: Based on the 2004, the Karl Lagerfeld Diet was devised for the Kaiser by Jean-Claude Houdret. This nutrition specialist helped the designer drop 90 pounds in the early aughts, based on a three-phase plan of a 900 calorie-a-day limit for two weeks; 1,200 a day for one week; and then maintenance at 1,600. Unfortunately, the phase one bland shakes and petite portions of vegetables (sautéed or raw) will leave your stomach and taste buds longing for more. You get more substantial options later on – including grilled chicken, avocado on toast, and Greek yogurt – but still the portion sizes are brutal. Sure, this can lead to fast weight loss and better skin, but there’s no way you can sustain the Karl Lagerfeld Diet long-term. Still, if it gets you trimming a little off your portion size in future, it can’t hurt to try.
3. The Pil-Sook Diet: This crazy diet fat comes from hit K-drama Dream High, which is a South Korean television series – I’m not making this up. In the show, pop-star wannabe Pil-sook wants to drop 65 pounds in 200 days, so her teacher paraphrases twentieth-century nutritionist Adelle Davis’ famous rule: ‘Eat breakfast like a queen, lunch like a commoner, dinner like a pauper.’ This diet also includes cutting out liquids after 7pm and taking part in daily 30-minute jump-roping sessions. At least the Adelle Davis rule has science on it’s side; according to an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study, eating a high-protein breakfast reduces the release of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger. Initially, you might find those queen-sized breakfasts a bit of a waste if you have little appetite in the morning, but once you’ve had a few nights of starving on your Pauper meal-plan, you’ll wake up ravenous. In some ways, knowing a big breakfast is on its way makes it easier to have a little dinner, especially if you can eat pretty much what you want for breakfast, guilt-free. And, if skipping ropes aren’t really your thing, you can trade it in for some other form of cardio and still reap the weight loss benefits. So, even though it comes from South Korean TV, it seems as though the Pil-Sook Diet may be the most logical option on our list – now who saw that one coming?