So what’s the problem? What are the naysayers saying on the other side?

First of all, while everyone agrees that weight loss is weight loss, there is something to be said for the difference between healthy weight loss and unhealthy weight loss. Going on a fad diet like the cookie diet, the lemonade diet, or the cabbage soup diet may help you lose weight fast, but will it help you lose weight healthfully? Will you get all the vitamins and minerals and daily requirements for calcium and iron and protein on a daily basis? Will you starve? I hope you’d agree that starving is not a legitimate (i.e. healthy) way to lose weight! And the final question from the anti-fad diet dieters is: Will the weight that you lose so magically and effortlessly actually stay off?

Let’s go back over these questions and figure out if a fad diet is a good idea: Is it healthy? ‘ For this question, you’ll need to look at the specific diet, but for the most part, the answer is probably no. Crash diets usually don’t give you all the nutrients or calories or food groups that you need to survive. Will you starve? If you go on a crash diet long-term, you run the risk of doing serious damage to your body. You’ll see the effects in your skin, nails, and hair, as well as your internal organs, and even your brain. Will the weight that you lose stay off? No. When you go off a crash diet and start eating normally again, you’ll gain the weight back. So while it may seem like the final answer is NO, that you shouldn’t crash diet.

I’d like to suggest a few things you can do to make a crash diet work for you:

1. Do it short term. If you have a dress you must fit into by next week, then a week of unhealthy eating won’t do any long-term damage—just make sure you’re not starving yourself.
2. Take a multivitamin.
3. Drink a lot of water.
4. Don’t be upset when you gain the weight back.
5. Take a diet pill like Herbal Phentermine to help you curb your appetite naturally.

There is a catch—you’ll need to acquire a taste for black coffee; you’ll want your coffee to be calorie free, which means you can add Splenda or another non-caloric sugar substitutes, but you won’t be able to add milk, or at least not more than a drop or two of non-fat milk.

You’ll have an easier time drinking five cups of coffee a day (which is what’s required of the diet) if you invest in high quality, strong bodied coffee. You can get flavored brews, just so long as they are calorie free.

Since drinking five cups of coffee (1000ml) in one day can have some negative side effects, you’ll want to make sure that you follow this diet carefully. Make sure you spread out the cups of coffee evenly throughout the day. You know yourself best—if coffee keeps you up, then make sure to have all your coffee before 5:00 or 6:00pm. If you notice you’re getting jittery or that your heart rate is increasing, try reducing your intake and working your way up slowly. Also, you may not want to consume any additional caffeine during the day.

In addition to drinking coffee, make sure you drink at least 1.5 liters of water each day as well as eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly.

If you are pregnant, nursing, or have a heart condition, please speak with your doctor before consuming large amounts of caffeine.