The Dukon diet is on-trend in France and claims to help you lose pounds in a matter of weeks and yet like many other fad diets it’s not until a celeb admits to using it does it become headlines and grabs everyone’s attention.

This diet is used by J-Lo as part of her healthy living regime. So what do you have to do?

Basically the Dukon diet involves three stages:

Stage 1: Cuts out all carbs and for those who’ve already tried the Atkins diet will apparently find this regime even harder, furthermore one of the side effects is dreadful smelling breath which has been given the delightful name of ‘camel breath’!

Stage 2: This involves ‘cruising’ between low-carb veggies and protein-rich foods. During the ‘consolidation’ stage you are allowed to include the evil carbs, by being allowed two celebration meals a week.

Stage 3: Appears that you can eat what you want with the exception of one day a week!

It seems the Dukon Diet really may be too good to be true, how can anyone survive low carb diet plans and have a healthy diet when they’re depriving the body of essential foods for three weeks and then eating anything, except for one day, for the last week?

What is fact is that the French eat a very healthy diet which has plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, water and yes, wine!

In the past fad diets were just a gimmick, something that only celebrities and the truly desperate of us tried… jump forward to 2008 and it seems like everybody has tried a fad diet or two!

A trendy diet is the Zone diet, it is perceived as a fad diet because the program is very rigid. To get into the ‘zone’ you must follow the program to the letter, which means you can only eat at certain times of the day while maintaining the 30:40 ratio of protein to carbohydrates. The meals consumed should be no more than 500 calories and snacks must be less than 100 calories.

Any ‘eat one type of food only’ is a fad diet. After only eating one certain food such as bananas over one or two days is bound to have a dramatic decrease in weight, however, once other foods are reintroduced the weight will return,. This fad diet is unhealthy in as much as vital sources of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins etc. are not balanced or consumed in sufficient quantities to maintain health.

Food combining diets are popular fad diets which claim to work on the premise that dieters only eat fruit and fruit juices in the morning and lunch and dinner cannot be ‘combined’. For example protein foods such as meat and dairy products cannot be eaten with carbohydrates. Weight loss is achieved by reduction in calories consumed.

Low carbohydrate and high protein diets are based on the premise that by reducing intake of carbohydrates the body uses reserves of fat for energy, thus causing a weight loss.

Other fad diets include the use of slimming pills which is a popular way to try and lose weight fast.

The Grapefruit diet plan is based on low carbohydrate intake while eating grapefruit with every meal! Rapid weight loss is achieved initially but soon returns when normal eating is resumed.

The 48 hour Hollywood diet is a fad diet which claims you will lose 10lbs over 2 days. It basically comprising of a juice fast. The most important part of this diet is the juice which you have to purchase. This ‘juice’ cleanses and detoxifies your system; the weight lost is predominately water.

The Apple Cider Vinegar diet has been used for many years and claims that by drinking the Apple Cider Vinegar tonic stored fat is burned and weight loss will ensue because the body will use its reserves of fat.

Popular fad diets do not provide a lasting solution to weight loss, the restricted calorie intakes are usually far too demanding or impossible to follow and as soon as a normal diet is resumed so the weight returns.