Extreme Weight Loss Diets

Sometimes people who are really desperate to lose weight can turn to extreme measures. There are plenty of extreme weight loss diets out there. Many of them will work in the short term, but all are bad for our bodies over the long haul.

3 Extreme Weight Loss Diets

The Cabbage Soup Diet

This diet is kind of crazy, but it has been around forever, so it obviously is one of the extreme weight loss diets that works, at least for a while. Here’s how it works. You make a soup from low calorie vegetables like cabbage, onions, tomatoes, along with tomato juice and flavorings.

You can eat as much of this soup as you desire, along with other foods on prescribed days. For example, there is a day you eat only bananas, and other days where you can eat any fruit except bananas. The diet promises you can lose 10-15 pounds in seven days.

The Grapefruit Diet

On this extreme weight loss diet, you eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice before every meal. You can also eat onions, bell peppers, radishes, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, green onions, leaf spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, chili (no beans), mayonnaise, any cheese, hot dogs, coleslaw's, regular salad dressing, green vegetables, 1 tsp dried nuts. This diet also promises you can lose about 10 pounds in 12 days.

The Lemon Detox Diet

This is one of the most popular extreme weight loss diets in Hollywood. It is reported to have been used by Beyonce and other celebrities. Basically, for two weeks, you consume water, fresh lemon juice, cayenne pepper and natural maple syrup.

The diet is meant for both weight loss and detoxing. The acid in the lemons assists the cleansing process, and the cayenne pepper helps speed up your metabolism promoting circulation and a greater release of toxins from your body.

It is supposed to help you cleanse your body, which should make you feel better when you’re done.

The Damage Extreme Weight Loss Diets Do to Your Metabolism

Extreme weight loss diets can often help you lose weight quickly for a short period of time. However, in the long run, they make it harder for you to lose weight and keep it off.

You see, when your calorie intake falls extremely low, as it does in these and other extreme weight loss diet, your body puts up defenses. It begins to behave as though you’re in a famine, slowing down your metabolism and going into “starvation mode”.

After a few bouts of extreme weight loss diets your metabolism isn’t able to get back into a normal routine. Over time, your metabolism gets slower because of these diets, which, in turn, causes you to gain more weight. Then, you diet again, and the circle continues.

Avoid dieting for a “specific event”, feeling that you have to lose 20 pounds in a hurry to look better for your class reunion, or that you have to fit into your skinny jeans by the weekend. A slow paced weight loss with a sensible diet and exercise is the way to go.