14 Crazy Fad Diets That Actually Exist

The Werewolf Diet? Yes, the Werewolf Diet!

The Santa Clarita Diet is the latest entry in a long history of strange, mysterious diet plans.

Sometimes those weird diet plans actually lead to a healthier lifestyle, but these are not those diet plans. Seriously, don't try any of these. They're all terrible and dangerous!

1. The Air Diet

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The Air Diet includes all the fun parts of eating food — the shopping, the prepping, the cooking, and the cleaning up — and takes away all the pesky annoying parts, like actually eating the food. What could go wrong? That you die from starvation? Probably!

2. The Chewing Diet

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This diet, also known as Fletcherism, entails chewing each bite of food 32–80 times, then spitting out the liquified mouth contents. Aside from being totally socially acceptable and completely disgusting, this "diet" is also very dangerous because, y'know, you're not eating any food at all ever.

3. The Baby Food Diet

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Fans of The Baby Food Diet replace two meals a day with a jar of baby food. They don't overeat because most baby food tastes disgusting and nutritional imbalances make them feel awful all the time. So again, they're starving themselves. Boooooo!

4. The Vinegar Diet

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This one has been around for centuries! The theory: Drinking a glass of vinegar (diluted with water) before every meal helps curb one's appetite, so you won't overeat. The downside: Side effects include diarrhea and vomiting. Coooooool.

5. The Ice Cream Diet

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The Ice Cream Diet claims that adding a little bit of ice cream to your diet will actually help you shed pounds. In reality, the calcium contained within ice cream can aid in weight loss and general health. So, y'know, you can just take calcium supplements with a normal diet and get the same effect without the calories.

6. The Cotton Ball Diet

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Originating in the modeling industry, The Cotton Ball Diet requires eating a handful of cotton balls soaked in orange juice to fill up your stomach so you're not hungry. Unfortunately, this diet is considered extremely dangerous for extremely obvious reasons.

7. The Alcohol Diet

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Also known as "The Gentleman's Diet" or "Drunkorexia", The Alcohol Diet involves adding alcohol to every meal, which helps your body process calories. The only problem is that alcohol has the exact opposite effect. So aside from being a complete lie, this diet plan is great!

8. The Wine and Egg Diet

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The Wine and Egg Diet has a complicated two-week plan that basically boils down to consuming mostly eggs and drinking half of a bottle of wine every night for dinner. It's basically just a normal diet plan that's slightly adjusted to make room for wine, so what's not to love?

9. The Abstinence Diet

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In the 1830s, Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham (who also invented the graham cracker) believed that abstaining from sexual activity (along with a sensible vegetarian diet) would lead to weight loss. He was almost right, except that sex burns calories, which totally contradicts Graham in every way.

10. The Fruitarian Diet

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Fruitarians rely on a diet consisting primarily of fruits, which sounds good but actually isn't. Excessive fruit consumption can lead to weight gain, tooth decay, diabetes, nutritional deficiencies, and diarrhea. But if you're okay with those, The Fruitarian Diet might be just what you're looking for!

11. The Sleeping Beauty Diet

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Since lack of sleep can lead to obesity, sleeping all the time should lead to weight loss, right? That's the idea behind The Sleeping Beauty Diet, which uses sedation to curb food cravings. What could go wrong? Y'know, besides drug addiction and death?

12. The Sun Diet

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Sun Diet enthusiasts believe that you don't need food because the sun provides all the nutrients you need to live a healthy, happy life. Unfortunately they're all dead from starvation.

13. The Werewolf Diet

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Also known as "The Moon Diet," this plan requires people to alter their diet based on the phases of the moon, but it's not as difficult as it sounds. Basically, you just don't eat when there's a full moon. You might lose 2–6 pounds in 24 hours, but you'll return to normal pretty quickly...kind of like a...(wait for it)...WEREWOLF!!!!

14. The Tapeworm Diet

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The Tapeworm Diet is exactly what it sounds like: People swallow tapeworms that attach themselves to the intestines and eat some of the people's food for them. Sounds great, right? The only major problems with this diet plan are: a) it's extremely illegal, and b) it's life-threateningly dangerous. So if you don't want to go to jail or die, you might want to avoid this terrible diet plan.

Diets fads can be weird, but the Santa Clarita Diet is a plan you can live by. Eat smart people!

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