In college it's easy to pack on the pounds. From all the delicious beverages we sip and all the pizza we house during "the big game" (insert big game of choice, very versatile) many of us will look fluffier upon graduation than we did as freshmen. That being said, we don't think that the below diets are any sort of way to fix that problem, because we doubt they work. But hey, if you want to try them out, it's no skin off our noses (seriously though, that might actually help you if you follow option #3).

 

 

1. Cabbage Soup Diet: All right, so I bet you can guess this diet has something to do with cabbage soup. Apparently, you make this special cabbage soup (the recipe is on the website) and you eat “as much as you want, whenever you want, any time of the day” according to the site. It then spells out a fairly strategic eating plan consisting of different combinations of fruit, steamed vegetables, bananas, skim milk, beef, tomatoes, baked potatoes and of course...cabbage soup. It's way confusing, and sounds a little too fishy. I'd say it's also likely to give you really bad gas.
http://www.faddiet.com/cabsoupdietp.html

 

 

 

2. The Pasta, Popcorn, and Chocolate Diet: Wow! This sounds like the diet I'm on! Basically you eat fruits, vegetables, salads then throw in the chocolate, popcorn and pasta as fillers. I don't see any sign of meat in this diet...which would lead me to believe you'd be pretty hungry all the time. Maybe that's why you keep eating the popcorn.
This diet comes with a surprisingly strict list of things to avoid:
• Alcoholic beverages
• Salt/sodium
• Sugars (artificial sweeteners are okay)
• Oils
• Oily fruits (avocados, olives, coconuts)
• High sugar/cal fruits (raisins, figs, dates)
• Fried foods
• Dairy products
• Red meats
• Nuts and seeds
• Unauthorized snacks (chips, junk food, candies, cakes, pies, etc.)
• Coffee/caffeine
• Carbonated soft drinks
Okay, so maybe this isn't the diet I'm on. Apparently all you can ever drink is water (regular, mineral and carbonated), and how in God's name would you avoid sodium? Eesh.
http://www.faddiet.com/chocolatediet.html

  

  

 

3. Amputation Diet: This is for the, shall we say, impatient dieter. A chart has been compiled with about how much weight you can expect to lose by making changes to your body. My favorite is “don't wear underwear.” According to the chart you can expect to lose 1 oz. if you're wearing a thong, to 2 lbs. if you're sporting granny panties. HIL-arious, as Jim Rome would say.
http://www.faddiet.com/amputationdiet.html 

 

 

 

4. 7 Day All You Can Eat Diet: Very VERY misleading. It's all you can eat, but only fruits vegetables and steak, and on Thursday, you're only supposed to have bananas and skim milk. Booo.
http://www.faddiet.com/7dayallyouca.html

 

 

5. Lemonade Diet: So um, in this diet, you don't eat any real food. Just lemonade, which produces a lovely colonic effect, while zapping you off all energy and will to live. Hooray!
http://www.faddiet.com/lemonadediet.html

 

 

 

 6. Grapefruit/Fruit Juice Diet:
The Rules:
    * You must drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water daily (64 oz. total per day).
    * At any meal you may eat until you are full.
    * You must eat the minimum listed at each meal. (yep, this diet list the minimum you should eat).
    * You cannot eliminate anything from the diet. Especially the bacon at breakfast and the salads. You must eat the bacon and salads. These combinations of food burn the fat, omitting one part of the combination will cause the whole thing not to work.
    * The grapefruit or fruit juice is important because it acts as a catalyst that starts the burning process. Don't add or reduce the amount of grapefruit or juice.
    * Cut down on coffee, it affects the insulin balance that hinders the burning process. Try to limit to 1 cup at meal time.
    * Don't eat between meals. If you eat the suggested foods you will not get hungry.
    * You can fry food in butter and use butter generously on vegetables.
    * Do not eat desserts, breads, and white vegetables or sweet potatoes.
    * You may double or triple helpings of meat, salad or vegetables
    * Eat until you are stuffed. The more you eat the more weight you will lose.
Whaaa? Okay, first of all, can eat until you're full at meals because all that f*n water in your system doesn't leave room for much else. Second of all, does the “more you eat, the more weight you lose” argument seem strange to anyone else? This diet must be the magic wand to reverse all the rules of the universe. How handy! Supposedly, if this is done right, in 2 ½ months you can lose 52 lbs. *Cough* don't trust it *cough*.
http://www.faddiet.com/grapfruitjui.html

 

 

 

   


7. Negative Calorie Diet: Yikes. From what I understand, the idea behind this diet is that in order for your body to metabolize certain low-calorie foods, it actually burns more than it takes in, which therefore results in a negative calorie deduction. On the site they give the example of an orange, but I guess celery would be the same deal. I'd be weary of this: it would highly depend on your metabolic rate, and think about it, how many foods could this be true for, like seven? And they're probably all water-based. Mmmm.
http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/diets/negative-calorie-diet/

 

 

8. Apple Cider Vinegar Diet: The idea here is that you're supposed to take one, two or three teaspoons of apple cider vinegar with each meal. To clear up what that is exactly, its the byproduct of fermented apples. So next time you see an apple with big brown spots and is squishy to the touch, drink up! The only glitch here is that it hasn't been proven that vinegar has any properties that would help you lose weight...oopsie!
http://www.thedietchannel.com/Apple-cider-vinegar-diet.htm 

 

 

 

9. Beverly Hills Diet: “This diet is dangerously low in daily calories (about 800), and also low in proteins, and many many other nutrients. The theory behind is completely unproven, and fantastical. The promised weight loss is 15 pounds in 35 days.” A dangerous diet that follows an unproven theory...sign me up! Oh, be forewarned that as soon as you eat anything else beside 8 oz. of prunes for breakfast, all the weight comes back.
http://www.everydiet.org/beverly_hills_diet.htm

 

 

 

10. Blood Type Diet: I know all of these are far-fetched, but here's one I really don't buy. Supposedly, the types of food you eat cause a chemical reaction with your blood, so this doctor cracked the code on what blood types should eat what. Apparently everyone with Type A blood should be vegetarians. Is this guy trying to tell me that I'll be overweight if I have Type A blood and eat meat? The Type AB directions are really profound: “mixed diet in moderation.” Thank God he put forth that ground-breaking theory. I'm sure this new information is saving American lives everyday.
http://www.drlam.com/blood_type_diet/ 

 

 

 

 

 

11. The Hollywood Cookie Diet. Now this one sounded like something I could sink my teeth into, but like everything else, it's not what it seems. You are able to eat four cookies per day (but only three are recommended), in the place of breakfast and lunch. Hmm. On the website they suggest eating "a cookie for breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch and mid-afternoon snack." What? I don't think that four cookies would hold most people until dinner. We're not talking huge bakery cookies; they're more the size of a Chips Ahoy. And of course you can't just eat any cookies, they have to be the special "Hollywood Cookie Diet" brand, which only come in 12 packs. I think you can see where I'm going here. Even though this diet sounds awesome, I think it would leave you broke and really hungry...not a good combination.
http://www.hollywoodcookiediet.com/special/