5 Fad Diets Nutritionists Say Won’t Help You Lose Weight

Sorry to burst your bubble, but these are the worst diets to follow if you’re looking to lose weight. Drinking celery juice, eating grapefruits, and cutting out sugar are all healthy approaches to losing weight, but they aren’t exactly the most practical or sustainable ways to lose weight. Read on to discover the fad diets that nutritionists want you to stay away from!

Zero Sugar Diets

Suzanne Dixon, MPH, MS, RDN, a registered dietitian with The Mesothelioma Center says, “Many celebs swear by cutting out every last smidge of sugar. They ban even a gram of the sweet stuff in order to achieve their beach bodies. Sherri Shepherd favors this approach.” While it’s always a good idea to cut out candy, pastries, and baked goods, zero sugar diets also insist on cutting out foods with natural sugars. These diets insist that you have to cut off healthy, nutrient dense foods like fruit and vegetables; making vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes and fruits like bananas and berries totally off limits! What’s worse? Dixon points out, “You’ll miss the vitamins, minerals, and disease-fighting phytonutrients” when you eliminate these foods from your diet.

The Celery Juice Diet

Celery juice has become a popular juice among celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Lea Michelle  and Busy Phillips, due to its ability to reduce inflammation and assist in muscle recovery post-workout — however, this is one diet fad that won’t help you lose weight. “There is no benefit to juicing celery and drinking it at any specific time of the day. Celery is a lovely, nutritious vegetable, but juicing it does not compound any of its benefits explains Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RD, a nutrition consultant for RSP Nutrition. She continues, “The expense, the overload of antioxidants, and the lack of fiber, fat, and satiety from drinking liquids all make the celery juicing trend an ineffective diet,”

Whole30

Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN, author of The Protein-Packed Breakfast Club says, “While I think parts of Whole30 are great, like avoiding refined and highly processed foods, it prohibits all sugar (real or artificial), grains, dairy, beans and peanuts. It’s nearly impossible to follow, and I never recommend diets that eliminate whole food groups, especially when it’s more than one.” Whole30 can be a great way to kick start a diet and start eating clean, however this is a diet that will ultimately set you up to fail. A diet with this many restrictions can be overwhelming and hard to follow – leading people to think that eating healthy is too hard.  

The Grapefruit Diet

The Grapefruit Diet is a 12 day plan that encourages you to eat a high protein diet, with a grapefruit at every meal. During this time you’ll also restrict your calories to 1200 calories a day, which will help you drop about 10 pounds. None of these claims are backed by science which makes the Grapefruit Diet a total weight loss dud. “It’s not great for weight loss because it’s not sustainable. It might lead to weight loss in the short term because you’re taking in fewer calories, but it’s very likely you will gain that weight right back when it’s done” explains Michalczyk.

The Blood Type Diet

Eat Right 4 Your Type was written by a naturopathic physician, and it’s also the cornerstone of the blood type diet. This diet emphasizes eating and working out in a specific way that’s based on your blood type, to help you lose weight and boost your health. Michalczyk says, “All four suggested ways of eating are based on real, whole foods, which can prove beneficial for anyone who eats a diet high in processed foods and sugar.”