The Skinny on Fad Diets
Jessica Johnson
DeVry University

FAD DIETS You had to stay over at work, pick up the kids, taking them to their various activities, running through the drive through for a quick meal, and begin to unwind on the couch. You could have gone for a walk on your lunch break, hit the gym after work, and made a well-balanced meal for all to eat at the dinner table but with deadlines, a demanding job, and a family to raise with an even crazier schedule; by the end of the day you are beat. However, those extra thirty pounds are just sitting there, waiting to be shed. One day, a thought occurs to seek out a solution, naturally this leads to the internet. A quick Google search and you are now being overloaded with a list of diets, pills, and drinks that will completely change your life around. All without having to rearrange your daily planner to make the life style changes needed for healthy weight loss. Sites with stories of “I lost 20 pounds in the first 2 weeks on diet ABC.” or “Diet XYZ gave me energy to accomplish everything I wanted in the day, while becoming and looking like the person that I want to be.” In other words, the search has brought up results on fad diets. As the schedules of Americans become more and more jam packed, the rate of becoming an unhealthy adult is rising. Currently 69% of Americans are overweight or obese (Jadhav, 2010). Stress from family life, a job, and a tight schedule has a way of causing one to gain weight and having a lower activity level than needed. The effects of one weighing more than ideal causes concern in most Americans, and because of this they want a diet that will fit into their crammed schedules. People want to see quick results and know that what they are doing is working. This leads to searches trying to find ‘solutions’ in everyday life–from TV commercials, magazine ads, top selling