How Do You Pick A Diet Plan?

So many people have lost weight, only to have it return. And a lot of us have tried multiple diets, enough to claim, “nothing works for me”. Yet, there we are, clicking on weight loss promises on social media with hopes of a new tool that will melt pounds easily. I understand the desperation of wanting to lose weight and the self-loathing of gaining it back. I’ve come to realize that most diets will work, but it’s not about the particular diet, it’s about having tools to maintain your achievements.

That said, I will warn against fad diets. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There aren’t always right decisions, but some decisions are clearly wrong. If you get your information on social media, you are more likely to believe misinformation.

Have you heard of the Cotton Ball Diet? This “diet,” involves soaking cotton balls in juices and then eating them to drastically cut caloric intake. You heard that right. You eat the cotton balls. Choosing to eat cotton balls soaked in juice is an extremely dangerous form of disordered eating that can lead to medical emergencies such as intestinal obstructions, malnutrition, hormone disruption, and/or infection.

How about the Vision Diet? This is a diet not designed to improve your eyes, but actually involves wearing blue-tinted glasses to make food seem less appetizing, thereby reducing your caloric intake. Foods in the red/yellow spectrum look the most appetizing, whereas blue was found to be the least appetizing. There is no evidence that wearing them results in weight loss.

There’s also the Sleeping Beauty Diet that was popularized by Elvis Presley. This extreme dieting method involves sleeping for long periods of time to avoid eating meals. Elvis would sometimes be put in a medically induced coma for days. Sleeping is not a sustainable goal in the long term and can have negative consequences in the short term if one misses too many days of work. Taking sedatives to artificially sleep longer than normal to avoid eating is just a bad idea.

And then there’s the Medical Medium Diet. Anthony William Coviello, known professionally as Anthony William or the Medical Medium, is a self-proclaimed medium who offers pseudoscientific medical and health advice based on alleged communication with a spirit. He lacks medical training but offers health advice based upon his communications with a spirit. In my opinion, you shouldn’t trust the dead to help you lose weight. There is no research or scientific evidence to support the claim that diets recommended by spirits and/or paranormal beings are effective.

The term pseudoscience suggests something is being presented as science inaccurately or even deceptively. Pseudoscience is differentiated from science because, although it usually claims to be science, pseudoscience does not adhere to scientific standards.

So what do you do? Use critical thinking, utilize good science, and look for gaps in the logic. Choose your information source carefully, such as your physician or a nutritionist. Then choose a diet plan. There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to diet plans, and it’s key to find one that fits your lifestyle. The best diet is one you can safely and realistically stick with for the long term, plain and simple. It should be flexible enough to fit into your everyday life.