20 Crazy Celebrity Fad Diets

Celebrities, always in the public eye, will go to great lengths to maintain that “look,” whether it be for a new role, or to get rid of postnatal baby fat. Most of the time it’s through crazy crash diets and odd eating habits that they maintain their shape — albeit, temporarily. The promise of a svelte figure is alluring to the masses, but remember that regular exercise plus a well-balanced diet are key. Here are 20 outrageous fad diets, and the celebrities that follow them.

TrimSpa

TrimSpa, backed by the late Anna Nicole Smith, was a weight loss drug that supposedly staved off hunger. It previously included ephredra in the mix, until the drug was banned in the United States. The supplement did act as an appetite suppressant but the ingredients had negative side effects, including raised blood pressure. After Smith’s death in 2007, the safety of the drug was heavily scrutinized, and eventually in 2008 TrimSpa’s parent company went bankrupt.


Acai Berries

It seems the nation’s women hang on Oprah’s every word. She had the famed Dr. Oz on the show while talking about how she lost weight (again), and proclaimed that the acai berry had amazing antioxidant properties. That’s when things got crazy. Winfrey and Oz have since sued over the false claims that have blown up our e-mail inboxes and cluttered the Internet’s ad space. It’s just a berry. Don’t depend on it.


Master Cleanse

The Master Cleanse: a terrifying and potentially dangerous diet. Beyonce has supposedly dropped 20 pounds in two weeks on this diet of homemade lemonade, maple syrup, water, and Cayenne pepper. No solid foods for 10 days. Are you kidding me?


Raw Food Diet


Veggies are good for you, right? So, you’d think that eating all raw vegetables would boost your energy with live enzymes normally destroyed during cooking. Demi Moore swears by this diet; it even extends to raw meat. Here’s the down-side: It’s been connected to such things as nausea, kidney and liver problems, and even eye infections. Not to mention the fact that some components of fruits and vegetables are better absorbed if cooked.


Facial Analysis Diet

On this wacky plan, a facial analyst proposes a special diet based on your skin, hair and eye texture. There must be some magical formula that tells you what your mineral needs and dietary deficiencies are. Kate Winslet apparently lost her baby fat by following the regimen. Seriously? It really only works because people drink more water and eat more vegetables while on the diet.


Baby Food Diet


Okay, Reese Witherspoon is super cute and sweet, but following a baby food diet is pretty silly. You can’t maintain a healthy lifestyle with less than 600 calories per day, so this is just a no-no. Oh, and you’re not a baby.


Grapefruit Oil “Diet”

Jennifer Lopez carries around a vial of grapefruit oil to sniff. Why? The aroma is supposed to affect your liver enzymes, activating nerves that cause fats to be broken down. If you start toting one around you might start whispering to your liver to work faster or something.


Fish Facelift Diet

Some proclaim that weight and health problems are caused by “inflammation,” so if salmon is eaten three times a day, inflammation will be combated. Sounds to me like Kim Cattrall just really likes fish. Oily fish is good for you, but you should never consume even one healthy thing to excess, including fish.


Cabbage Soup Diet

You’re allowed to eat as much of the cabbage soup as you’d like. Sounds great if you like cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and unsustainable food in general. Sarah Michelle Gellar likes to do this, especially for quick weight loss. After seven days on this diet, you do lose weight, but it’s all water weight. Guess what: once you start eating normally again, you’ll gain it all back. Plus more.


Sundowner Diet

I know, I know, Kate always looks amazing, but I can’t help thinking that her “sundowner” diet concept is goofy. It’s pretty much a re-packaging of the old wive’s tale that you shouldn’t eat after 6pm — and there’s no evidence backing up the theory that high-calorie foods eaten in the evening get stored up as fat.


Grapefruit Diet

Grapefruits have fat-burning properties, and this diet requires that you eat half of one before every meal. Kylie Minogue follows this diet, and she does seem to stay thin. In the small print though: your meals have to be tiny—taking in less than 800 calories a day. That’s called starvation.


”Eat Like a Bird” Diet


Victoria Beckham is thin, sure, but she also eats next to nothing. She’s been reported to live on a diet of soya beans, strawberries, and lettuce, and to drink two pints of algae and a seaweed shake every day. That sounds gross. Also, where’s the variety?


Macrobiotic Diet

Madonna eats mostly whole grains, raw and cooked veggies, beans and miso soup. It sounds healthy but it’s super restrictive (which means you’ll most likely stop following it) and it’s low in calcium, iron, and protein, amongst other things. It leaves you feeling pale, gross and tired — basically like Madonna.


Juice Diet

Gwyneth Paltrow recently followed a three-week detox juice-diet consisting of two liquid meals a day, with one solid meal in between. It’s supposed to free up more energy, but a diet with no proteins, dairy, fiber or carbs will leave you feeling drained. I also like the feeling of chewing something. Maybe that’s just me.


7-Day Color Diet

Christina Aguilera discriminates… her food that is! She likes to follow a color/texture diet where she groups kinds of foods together, one type per day of the week. Unless you’re six years old, that’s just stupid, or OCD.


Coconut Diet

The coconut diet requires that you load up on the metabolism-boosting oil of this giant tropical seed. Jennifer Aniston was a fan until someone probably informed her that coconut oil is high in saturated fat, which can raise cholesterol.


Cookie Diet
Cookies? Really? Everyone loves cookies, but I’m sure common sense would step in at some point to scream “STOP.” It’s another one of those starvation diets where you replace two meals with two cookies each, consuming less than 800 calories a day. Kim Kardashian has tried this diet. Her ass is still huge.


Ice Cube Diet

Renee Zellweger seems to ride a weight roller-coaster. She’s tried many diets, but the crazy one that sticks out is the ice cube diet. She did a daily grueling hike, ate low carb meals and snacked on ice cubes throughout the day.


Purple Food Diet


Another food discriminator, Mariah Carey swears by purple foods and claims that they prevent her from getting wrinkles. So what does she do? Three days a week she eats nothing but grapes, plums, beetroots, and other purple-hued foods. Those foods just sound healthy and should be integrated into a normal, daily diet.


Martha’s Vinyard Diet


Robin Quivers, radio-personality from the Howard Stern Show, must believe that “beauty is pain.” Sure, mud baths and spa treatments sound nice, but following them by drinking your meals through a straw and enduring weekly colonics and enemas does not sound like fun. This diet doesn’t only sound miserable, but it’s heavy on the pocketbook and light on lasting results.