Diet trends and fads are something we all know we should stay away from but find ourselves inching towards it the moment the scale shows an increase in the kilos. “How to drop 10 kgs in 1 month?” “How to lose weight without exercising?” “Which is the best diet?” We unconsciously find ourselves googling these, falling in the trap. 
With enough motivation and informing your entire family you start your diet on ‘The Monday’ and find it fizzling by the weekend. Your control reduces and that leftover ice-cream in the fridge seems all the more too yummy. And the diet breaks! This vicious cycle continues over and over. We have noted down some such diet trends that you should be cautious before starting. 

The Keto Diet

The Keto diet, short for ketogenic, is a diet where you keep your carbs in extreme control while replacing it with fat. The idea is that your body goes through ketogenesis and burns fat more efficiently and effectively. It is also promoted with the basis that it turns fat into ketones which can supply energy to the brain.

Now, coming to the harmful effects there are plenty! It can cause a ‘Keto flu’ which happens when your body goes through a shock because of the sudden dietary change. Highly fatty foods such as cheese, fish and meat contribute to the majority of the diet and may push you towards a higher chance of kidney stones. By restricting yourself, you might deprive yourself of some essential nutrients leading to deficiencies.

Moreover, the diet is tricky to maintain and sustain leading to sudden weight loss and gain. 

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting doesn’t dictate what you should, but it aims to control when you eat it. You are supposed to eat in different hourly windows, for example – eating for 8 hours a day and fasting for the rest 16. It aims to reduce blood sugar level, aid in insulin insensitivity and weight loss.

The side effects of this popular diet are plenty. From increased cravings, dizziness, dehydration, sleep issues this diet becomes tricky to follow. Since there aren’t any restrictions on food, people might end up eating out of control in their window in turn resulting in weight gain. Intermittent fasting may also generate an unhealthy relationship with food and lead to eating disorders.

The Paleo Diet

The key principles of this diet lies in eating like our ancestors did in the paloe-lithic times. That means completely restricting yourself from processed foods. If that doesn’t scare you enough, you also must go off dairy, any and all types of grains and sugars in readily available foods.

You can only rely on fruits, meat, berries and some veggies to keep this diet going. Though it sounds healthy and in tune with the organic food, the diet takes a very extreme route restricting yourself from essential nutrients and vitamins. Because there are only certain foods you can eat, you might also overindulge in them, making it an unbalanced diet. 

The cleanse diets – AKA the New Year diet

The cleanse diets as the terms suggest aim to detox your body from all the trash, junk and unhealthy foods you are eating. One does this crash diet usually before wedding birthdays or famously as a New Year’s Resolution. By drinking either juices or following an extreme diet control, like eating only one type of food like salads, the cleanse diet is a recipe for disaster. One ends up giving up on the diet sooner than later only leading to mood upsets and an unhealthy relationship with yourself.

Conclusion

In all, these diets are just temporary fixes which hardly lead to optimal results. Maintaining a healthy balanced diet with ample nutrients and exercising regularly should be the only mantra to follow for a healthy life. As they say, success does not have shortcuts!