Diets You Should Never Try

For 10 weeks in 2010, a Kansas State University nutrition professor cut down on their daily calories and ate mostly Twinkies, powdered doughnuts, and other junk food. They lost 27 pounds. This may sound crazy, but they showed the basic rule of weight loss: Burn more calories than you eat, no matter what that might be. Bad news for junk food junkies, though. The lack of nutrition in this diet makes it a lousy idea for your overall health.

Put down the office supplies. This is dangerous, and it doesn’t work. The idea is a lot like acupuncture: A surgical staple is placed in the bowl of your ear. Some people say it decreases their appetite and helps them lose weight. But there’s no science to back that up, and it can lead to infection and may even change the shape of your ear.

Yes, some people have actually tried this: Dip a few cotton balls in your favorite juice and swallow them. The idea is that they’ll fill your stomach so you eat less and lose weight. What could possibly go wrong? Choking, intestinal blockages, and eating harmful chemicals, to name a few. Seriously, don’t do this.

This combines severe calorie cuts with a drug mainly used to help women get pregnant: human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Studies show it doesn’t help you lose weight, and it can have side effects. It might make you feel super tired, grumpy, restless, or depressed. It could also lead to fluid buildup in your body and even blood clots. Need more reasons to skip this? Doctors say drastic calorie cuts can be bad for you.

Some people say they sip a bit before meals to curb their appetite and burn fat, but there’s little proof it works. It’s mostly harmless, but it could stop insulin and some blood pressure meds from working the way they should. There have been adverse events reported with apple cider vinegar tablets and with vinegar taken daily for several years. The risks for hypoglycemia or hypokalemia are also concerns with long-term use or when used with some prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, and herbal supplements. Plus, all that acid can be bad for your throat. 

In the 1920s, Lucky Strike cigarette company told Americans to “reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.” And, boy, did they. Cigarette sales zoomed, and the idea that smoking prevents snacking is with us to this day. Whether that’s true is unclear. What is clear is that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.

How did a health hazard become a diet fad? Yes, there are people who swallow a tapeworm -- on purpose -- to lose weight. An adult worm can live up to 30 years in your body. It stays alive by stealing nutrients from your food. Its eggs can cause cysts and infections. Just say no.

Guzzling gallons of coffee may curb your appetite and help you burn a few more calories, but not enough to make you lose much weight. Plus, too much caffeine can boost your blood pressure, make you sick to your stomach, and keep you up all night. The result: Those extra pounds come right back. And some caffeinated beverages, like soft drinks and special coffees, are high in calories, fat, or both.

There are many versions of this diet on the Internet. Some have you replace one or two meals a day with a couple of jars of baby food and have an “adult meal” for dinner. Others tell you to eat a jar of baby food every couple of hours. Most jars have less than 100 calories and don’t contain enough of the nutrients adults need. So you’re likely to be hungry a lot. That can be a recipe for overeating.

The soup you’d eat two to three times a day in this diet is relatively healthy. But you have only the soup and a few other foods, depending on which day of the plan you’re in (for example, fruit on the first day, and beef and vegetables on the fifth). You get as little as 1,000 calories a day. Any fewer than that will put your body in “starvation mode,” which can slow your metabolism. That won’t help you slim down.

Most of us could stand to eat more fruits, vegetables, and nuts. But this diet lets you eat only plant foods that haven’t been heated to more than 116 F. So food safety can be an issue. People who eat exclusively raw end up with low levels of important nutrients like vitamin B-12. It’s also hard to get the calories your body needs. You may lose weight at first. But you’re likely to feel less than your best.

Eat cookies and lose weight. It sounds fun, but don’t bet on it as a slim-down strategy. Under this diet, you’d eat nine 60-calorie cookies and one 500- to 700-calorie meal a day. It may help you slim down in the short term. But chances are you’ll get too few vitamins, minerals, and calories. That can sap your energy, making it hard to exercise and get through your day.