Some Old Days Weight Loss Diets

From the past to the present, people have been trying anything and everything they could to shed weight as quickly as possible. Here are some of the most popular (though often misguided) weight loss tips from your parents' dieting days.

The Buttermilk Diet

The Buttermilk Diet involved drinking 6 glasses of buttermilk each day and nothing else, which would only amount to about 911 calories each day. It was one of many unhealthy dieting fads of its time.

The Drinking Man’s Diet

This is a book written by Robert Cameron.

The Drinking Man’s Diet focuses on eating meat instead of carbs and drinking plenty of gin, vodka and wine.

Contrary to the modern opinion, the Drinking Man's Diet characterized alcohol calories as "good calories," while all other calories from food were "bad”.

It touted a weight-loss method that involved drinking as much alcohol as you want and almost zero carbs otherwise.

The Cookie Diet

In 1975, Dr. Siegal introduced the Cookie Diet, which is a calorie-restricted diet focused on eating specially formulated, meal-replacement cookies 6 times per day, plus a few additional “hunger-controlling” foods containing protein.

The Grapefruit Diet

Originally started in the 30s, the Grapefruit Diet gained popularity again in both the 70s and 80s.

The diet consists of eating a lot of grapefruit. This is not the only thing you could eat, but the diet was extremely low carb and low calorie, with grapefruit at every meal. Some of the more restrictive versions of the diet kept calories below 1000 a day.

Cabbage Soup Diet

This extremely low-calorie diet (eating nothing but cabbage soup for 10 days) was not exclusive to the 1980s but it was popular then nonetheless. Dieters may have lost weight with the cabbage soup diet but would have gained it back quickly after resuming normal eating.

The Scarsdale Diet

The Scarsdale Diet was developed in the late 70s but reached fad status in the 80s. It is the first low-carb, high-protein diet to gain popularity.

It was based on a book “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet” by Dr. Herman Tarnower.

The main rules include eating a protein-rich diet, restricting yourself to 1,000 calories per day, and following a limited list of approved foods. You are forbidden from any snacks except carrots, celery and low sodium veggie soups, which are only to be eaten when necessary.

Also, you must drink at least 4 cups (945 ml) of water per day but can enjoy black coffee, plain tea or diet soda.

The Beverly Hills Diet

The Beverly Hills Diet came on the scene in 1981, focusing primarily on eating fruit plus a few very specific combinations of foods. The instructions on how and when to eat everything were just as strict.

It was created by Judy Mazel, author of the 1981 best-selling book “The Beverly Hills Diet”.

Mazel believed that weight loss could be achieved by eating foods in the proper combinations and in the correct order.

The Beverly Hills Diet is based on the idea that the order and combinations in which foods are eaten causes weight gain. Mazel claimed that eating foods in the wrong order could stop some foods from being digested, causing fat build-up. The diet divides foods into four groups: carbohydrates, proteins, fruits and fats.

On the Beverly Hills diet, protein and carbohydrates cannot be eaten together. Fat is allowed to be eaten with either group but may not be eaten with fruit.

Fruit, even different types of fruit, must always be eaten alone. If a different type of food is eaten, such as a protein, the dieter must wait until the next day to eat fruit again.

The order throughout the day in which food is eaten is also very important. Each day, fruit should be eaten first. After fruit, the carbohydrate group can be eaten, then protein. Once a dieter has changed food groups, he or she cannot eat from the previous groups again until the next day. Dieters must wait two hours between eating foods from different food groups.

South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet was created by a cardiologist as a “foolproof plan for fast and healthy weight loss”.

This diet of the early 2000s focused on eating high-fiber, low-glycemic carbohydrates, lean protein and unsaturated fats.

It has several phases with varying restrictions. Phase 1 prohibits almost all carbohydrates, but later phases are more inclusive and aimed at establishing long-term habits.

The Christian Bale Diet (Tuna Apple Diet)

The actor Christian Bale used this diet to lose 63 pounds in four months. He is said to have eaten a diet of only one can of tuna and/or one apple per day for four months. (There are 194 calories in one can (6.5 ounce) of tuna in water (drained) and one medium size apple (about 150 g) has 80 calories.)

Thus it is a very low calorie diet, ensuring only 50-260 calories/day. The “menu” was completed with black coffee and water.

Besides the extremely low calorie intake, the foods chosen for this diet are, by themselves, metabolism boosters. For example, due to the caffeine content, coffee increases the metabolism. And apples are high in sugar and pectin (a soluble fiber), which dampens down the appetite.

The Pineapple Diet

The 2010s brought us raw diets and highly-restrictive mono diets (single ingredient diets) like the Pineapple Diet, promising extreme weight loss in a short period of time. 

In the diet, you simply choose two days a week to eat nothing but pineapples. The rest of your days are free for you to eat whatever you want. However, we need a variety of nutrients to stay healthy, and any weight lost from diet like this is likely to return quickly.