Why fad diets never work
"Want to lose weight fast?"
"YES" we all say in our heads, as we're paying attention to the carefully crafted social media post, or TV commercial.
Next come the convincing before and after shots, the guarantee on how "it's so easy", a smiling celebrity, and we're climbing on the bandwagon.
The approach is so simple it's almost embarrassing, and yet it's worked on us for decades.
A far back as the 1930s, the Evening Post newspaper spouted 'recommendations' from the US on slimming: two weeks of bananas and skimmed milk, followed by two weeks of whatever you like.
Around that time, we also hailed smoking as a way to combat weight gain, ignoring mounting evidence about its health effects until the 1950s.
Looking back, it all seems so obvious. Smoking is bad for our health. Sugary drinks aren't good for us.
But fast forward to 2017 and we still market sugar to children, we still get sucked in by celebrity weight loss stories, and we're still buying diet soda.
Perhaps the most influential diet of them all was one that peaked in the last decade, with a little help from Instagram filters and hipsters: paleo.
Arguably, paleo isn't restrictive enough to be labelled a fad, but the diet undoubtedly became trendy, peaking in popularity about 2013.
It coasted off the movement towards clean eating, encouraging people to switch out grains and dairy for protein.
Shortly before paleo arrived, the lemon detox diet promoted rapid weight loss through consuming nothing but lemon water, with cayenne pepper and a sugary syrup for 10 days.
Although widely condemned by health professionals, the lemon detox diet is still marketed to anyone "looking for maximum weight loss in a short period of time," according to a New Zealand website which sells lemon detox kits.
Written online testimonials, including one from a 15-year-old, boast fast results, feelings of exuberance and glowing skin.
However, one nutritionist and UK registered dietitian, Siobhan Miller, says "fad diets just don't work".
"Fad diets might help you lose weight, until you get fed-up, start over-eating and choose less healthy foods and pile the pounds back on."
Miller emphasised the damaging long-term effects that quick-fix, drastic diets can do to our bodies.
"Rapid weight loss is not sustainable and yo-yo dieting - where weight is lost and then regained over the years - leads to being heavier than when you first started.
"A very restrictive diet of any kind is most likely to be lacking in essential nutrients."
The tried-and-true celebrity endorsement should be taken with a grain of salt, she said.
"Remember that celebrities are not experts in nutrition and have limited knowledge of nutrition so don't be sucked in by fantastic claims."
Excess weight creeped up over many years, so we had to give our bodies time to adjust to weight loss, she said.
"It's not a surprise that when someone feels the urge to tackle weight they look for a quick fix. [But] there is no magic bullet and weight is not going to be lost quickly."
All this noise just added to the confusion about what and how we were supposed to eat, Tauranga dietitian Fiona Boyle said.
"You have got to think of what you could sustain. Could you see yourself doing it in six months, or six years? Look at the whole picture."
How do you spot a fad diet?
The Association of UK Dietitians defines a fad diet as: the kind of plan where you eat a very restrictive diet with few foods or an unusual combination of foods for a short period of time and often lose weight very quickly.
Written by Rachel Thomas. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.