Fad Diets: Here's the facts

Fad diets seem to have gained a lot of traction in the fitness industry, which is apparent now more than ever with the explosion of social media. Anyone can just hand out advice that is not backed by evidence; and people will listen! I certainly do not know everything, but if there is one thing I have learnt through studying science and nursing; it's how to source quality information. So I've used my science background and bodybuilding knowledge to compile some facts about a few fad diets for you:

1. Keto Diet

Ketogenic "Keto" diet is high in fat and low in carbohydrates. It was originally developed in the early 1900's to treat children with epileptic seizures- some studies show that this approach has been quite effective in reducing seizures, whilst others highlight that the diet comes with serious side effects. So does the Keto diet have a place in the fitness industry as a weight-loss tool?

The idea behind Keto diet is that it puts you in a state of Ketosis. Lets quickly visit the energy cycle; our body's preferred and default energy source is glucose which is the main substrate to create ATP (energy). ATP is generated in the Krebs cycle. So when we run out of glucose, our body turns to glycerol (fat). Glycerol jumps into the Krebs cycle and creates Ketones which can produce ATP, however they also produce acetone which is acidic. Our body needs to buffer the acidity, so it excretes the acid in our breath and urine.

Although our brain can function on ketones, really LOVES and prefers glucose, so some common side effects with the keto diet is fatigue, poor concentration and memory.

SO does the keto diet work for weight loss??

I had a browse of some randomised controlled trials, so my following statements come from evidence, not anecdotes. These studies showed that people who followed a keto diet did in fact lose weight. I read further.

Of course these people lost weight, not because of the composition of their diet, but because they had a limited calorie intake. So whether you eat 800 calories worth of keto diet, or 800 calories worth of any other diet, you will lose weight. (I am not suggesting you eat 800 calories because that is too low, it simply serves as an example).

2. Isagenix (shake diet)

Here's a day on the Isagenix diet plan:

2 x Isagenix shakes

2 x Isagenix snacks

1 x 400-600 calorie meal of your choice

This adds up to 1150-1350 calories per day.

Whilst on the Isagenix diet you get to eat heaps of expensive highly processed crap and have one meal a day of your choice. I don't know about you, but I'm already starting to think this sounds like a shit time. Most shake diets work in a similar fashion.

The important question, does the shake diet work? In the short term; yes. If you do the shake diet you will lose weight because it will put you on a calorie deficit. There's no magic in the shakes, it's just a method to reduce calorie intake. Which would be great, if you could stick to it and not hate your life. As soon as you get tired of eating nothing but shakes and one shitty salad a day, you'll fall right back to your old habits and gain all the weight back. And THAT is why shake diets don't work.

3. Intermittent Fasting

This trend involves shortening the window of time that you are allowed to eat in a day. For example, you fast for 16 hours and eat during the remaining 8 hours of the day. This window varies. My research on this topic concluded that when you place two groups of people in a trial;

Group A is fasting on a fixed amount of calories

Group B is eating the same fixed amount of calories throughout the day

Here's the results: both groups achieved similar amounts of weight loss.

Why?

BECAUSE THEY WERE BOTH PLACED IN A CALORIE DEFICIT.

There seems to be trend happening here...

Look I could sit here break down 100 different fad diets; the banana diet, the cotton ball diet (yes that is actually a thing, people eat cotton balls to fill their stomach), the werewolf diet, but here's the fact: It doesn't matter what method you use to get yourself in a calorie deficit, as long as you are placed in some kind of calorie restriction, you will lose weight. There is no magic in the fad, it is just a marketing method to sell you a product which just so happens to place you in a calorie deficit. I hope that this has been insightful for you, and if you want some further reading I've pasted some links below. If you liked this article, please subscribe :)

The Fit Nurse x

https://www.jci.org/articles/view/108519/pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673604169869

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2011.00873.x