I have this thing about diet tips and fitness tips. And by thing I really mean hatred for. I am fully aware of how strange that may sound. I’m also sure you’re wondering why. What exactly is my problem? How could a person actually HATE diet and fitness tips? Well, it’s pretty simple. I just happen to hate useless things, and, in my humble opinion, the majority of diet tips and fitness tips are completely useless. Not just useless either… but plain old stupid. That’s a combination of useless and stupid. Can you really blame me for hating them?

So, if diet tips and fitness tips are indeed stupid and useless like I claim, why do they continue to exist? Honestly the only real reason for this that I see is for the purpose of selling something… usually magazines. Go check out the magazine rack at a store and tell me what you see on the covers.

10 Weight Loss Tips!
3 Diet Tips For Getting Sexier Abs!
5 Fitness Tips For Getting Bigger Arms!
20 Calorie Burning Tips From Celebrity Trainers!

People see these headlines and then buy the magazine or read the article. After all, who wouldn’t want to know all of these fantastic tips? The one tiny little problem here is that there are only so many actual pieces of useful diet and fitness advice and information. Come to think of it, there’s probably not even enough to fill one whole magazine, let alone 1000’s of magazines and newspaper articles every single day, week or month. So then, how do they come up with these new useful diet and fitness tips all the time?

The answer is, they don’t.

1) I mean, there will be a heading that includes the words Diet Tips or Fitness Tips, and they’ll probably be in bold.

2) And yeah, underneath that there will be enough words to form some sentences, usually short ones.

3) And sure, the sentences will very likely be on separate lines.

4) And of course there is a 99% chance of those sentences being numbered.

5) But that’s all it is.

6) Nothing useful there.

7) Just a way to fill pages of a magazine or newspaper (or website) in a format that’s appealing to you, the reader.

What, what’s that you say? You don’t believe me? You think I’m making this up? You want to see an example? Ok, you got it. Here’s my personal favorite of all diet tips and fitness tips. Actually, I’m not really sure if it even qualifies as either. All I know is every single weight loss or workout article I’ve ever read always includes this one on its list of tips. Let me know if you’ve heard it before…

“Take the stairs instead of the elevator.”

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so.

Listen… “taking the stairs instead of the elevator” will cause you to walk a little extra during the course of your day, and extra walking is always a good thing. However, unless you live or work on the 1,384th floor, IT WILL NOT CAUSE YOU TO LOSE 50LBS!!! I don’t know if it’s just me, but when I see stupid diet and fitness tips like this one I always get this picture in my head of someone who needs to lose 30lbs reading this article and thinking “Hey… I can cancel my gym membership now. I’ll just take the stairs instead of the elevator.” Or sometime later on that day thinking “Hmmmm, ya know what? I’m going to eat this bag of potato chips. After all, I did take the stairs instead of the elevator today.”

Can you now understand why I used the word “hate” to describe my feelings towards diet tips and fitness tips? Not only are most of them stupid and borderline pointless, but they can actually do more harm than good. Never once have I seen a list of diet tips include something like “Tip #1 – Figure out how many calories you eat each day and then add or subtract 500 to it depending on whether you are looking to lose weight or gain weight.” You know why I’ve never seen that before? Because that one tip gives it all away. People would read it and do it and get results and therefore have no need to buy next week’s issue to see the newest diet tips.

No matter what your goal is, it is going to take REAL work to get there, and to me, these stupid diet tips and fitness tips make it appear as though there are these other little things that you can do that will get you to that goal. That’s just not true. The only real tip you need is this… eat right and workout correctly. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, this tip is still the only real diet and fitness tip you need.

And for the people who think the tips that I refer to as stupid are in fact helpful to people who don’t have the time to “eat right and workout correctly,” here’s what I have to say to you. If you have the time to read tip lists in the first place, it means you have time to organize your diet and “eat right.” If you have time to take the stairs instead of the elevator, that means you have time to do a real workout. Figuring out that diet and doing that workout is what’s going to make real results happen. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is just going to make you late for work.

There are many popular fad diets around these days. In fact, they are so popular that I can safely say that if you have ever been in search of a weight loss program, you have very likely come across most of these fad diet plans. In some cases I can even go one step further and say that these fads are so popular right now, some people might not even be aware that it’s possible to lose weight without using them. In this article I will explain exactly what makes certain diet plans fad diets, and how weight loss is indeed possible without them.

(I’m a big fan of standup comedy, and although I’m not a Jeff Foxworthy fan, his “then you might be a redneck” routine happens to be the perfect format for explaining fad diets. So, here goes…)

- If your weight loss program has a name, then it might be a fad diet. Seriously, if someone asks you what you are doing to lose weight, and you can answer them with a 1-3 word response (for example, “Atkins” or “South Beach” or “Weight Watchers”) then you are the proud owner of a fad diet. When weight loss diets have a name, it usually means there is some sort of marketing behind them. And, when there is marketing behind them, it usually means they are fad diets.

- If your weight loss program requires you to do something that you don’t actually NEED to do in order to lose weight, then it might be a fad diet. You see, weight loss only happens when certain very specific things occur. Knowing this, if whatever you’re doing to lose weight involves doing something other than these things, you can pretty much consider your diet plan a fad. Sometimes it’s eating low carb, sometimes low fat, sometimes it’s eating only cabbage soup (seriously, there is a diet called “The Cabbage Soup Diet”) and sometimes it’s some other very similar, yet very unnecessary thing. When a weight loss program is based on doing something that is unnecessary to losing weight, you can safely add it to the list of fad diets.

- If you decided on your weight loss program based on the testimonials you read, then you might be on a fad diet. A testimonial is basically when someone says really good things about something for the purpose of getting other people to get/use/buy it. For example, when a person goes on a certain diet plan and actually loses weight, they might says something like, “I was overweight all my life. I tried everything! Pills, diets, exercise, supplements… none of it worked! I just couldn’t lose weight! But then I happened to see a commercial for ::insert Fad Diet here:: and in just 5 weeks I lost 5,000 pounds!!!” If a diet plan has testimonials… it’s a fad diet.

- If your weight loss program costs money… it’s a fad diet. If you had to buy a book, a manual or a guide… if you had to order specialty food, supplements or products of any kind… if you had to pay for support meetings, online membership or ANYTHING online or offline, then you just spent your hard earned money on one of the many fad diets. Besides obvious things like a gym membership or a treadmill or good food, weight loss is free. It always has been, it currently is, and it always will be. You do not have to spend money to lose weight. No matter what anyone tries to tell (or sell) you, you DO NOT have to spend money to lose weight… unless of course you like fad diets.

So, now that you know what fad diets are, you should be wondering if they actually work. The answer to this question is… yes. Most of the popular fad diets around these days will indeed allow you to lose weight if followed correctly. That is a fact. But honestly… after reading what you just read, do you really want to try a fad diet? Do you really want to base your weight loss program on doing something unnecessary to losing weight? And then to do want to have to continue doing this unnecessary diet task for good in order to keep the weight off? And… do you really want your diet plan to cost money?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

So, what’s left? Without all of the popular fad diets, what other way can a person lose weight? Well, as I’ve explained a million times throughout this web site, weight loss only happens when you are in a calorie deficit. What that means is, there is a certain number of calories that your body needs each day in order to maintain your current weight. For example, we’ll say it’s 3000 calories a day. So then, if you were to start eating 2500 calories a day instead, you will lose weight. That’s it… it’s that simple. No fads needed.

You will of course want the calories you do consume to come from the right food sources, and you’ll also want to workout correctly, but that is the very heart of what is required from an effective weight loss program. It doesn’t have a name. It doesn’t make you do something unnecessary. It has no testimonials. And, oh yeah… it’s free. There are fad diets, and then there is simply what works. Which you choose is up to you.