Debunking Fad Diets For Blokes

Have you ever heard of the expression “too good to be true”?

Well, it’s fair to say that it very much applies to fad diets, which promise rapid weight loss with little effort.

Unsurprisingly, there is very little scientific evidence to support these promises, and they often don’t call for the balance and variety of food necessary for good health.

This short-term diet claims that it can help you lose up to 4.5kg in a single week by eating homemade cabbage soup for every meal, along with one or two additional foods — ideally, fruit and vegetables.

There are about 134 calories in one serving of cabbage soup, so if you try the diet, you may lose weight, but you won’t lose much fat.

In fact, this diet is too low in calories and could slow down your metabolism, which could make it difficult to prevent weight gain once you come off the diet. We don’t advise you to try this one. 

While keto has been hailed as a successful diet for weight loss, you probably wouldn’t want to stay on it forever. Keto severely restricts your carb intake and replaces it with fat. Eating fat over carbs will help you burn more fat via a process known as ketosis.

Due to its strict nature, keto can cause deficiencies in certain essential vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium and fibre, as it restricts the consumption of fruits, vegetables and wholegrains that are abundant in those nutrients. Likewise, since it’s a high-fat diet, if you end up consuming excessive amounts of saturated fat, you’ll run the risk of developing high cholesterol.

Additionally, people who remain on the diet long-term can develop the notorious ‘keto flu,’ which causes headaches, fatigue, and irritability — due to a lack of energy extracted from carbs.

Ultimately, while the keto diet has been shown to offer short-term weight loss benefits, its long-term benefits are still being debated. 

This diet involves solely consuming fruit and vegetable juices for a short time, typically three days to a week. It claims to detoxify the body and produce rapid weight loss. We’re not sure if these claims are entirely true, though.

Protein, healthy fats, complex carbs and fibre are a must for a healthy lifestyle, so the juice-cleanse diet can easily lead to nutrient deficiencies. Additionally, many shop-bought fruit juices are high in sugar and could cause spikes in your blood sugar levels. Throw in the fact that fruit juice's low protein levels may lead to your body breaking down muscle mass, and it becomes apparent that this may not be the greatest option for blokes on a weight loss journey.

This diet involves participants consuming uncooked, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. While it does help promote the consumption of many nutrient-rich foods, it can lead to protein, B12, iron and calcium deficiencies.

Additionally, a sudden increase in fibre consumption (via fruit and vegetables) can cause bloating and uncomfortable amounts of gas. While you may have some initial success, like many of its fad diet contemporaries, the raw food diet simply isn’t sustainable.

The obvious answer is to avoid fad diets! They restrict too many calories and lead to intense cravings, increasing your risk of running back to unhealthy foods. To lose weight, a healthy and balanced diet is the key, and one food that is the essential part of a balanced diet is The Man Shake!