There’s no shortage of people trying to lose weight. Some are willing to try just about anything and to believe the most outlandish theories in an effort to avoid eating right and exercise.
Over the years, plenty of weird diets have popped onto the scene. Some are odd diets that work better than others, but most are simply strange and foolish.
Let’s take a look at a list of some of the crazy fad diets that people come up with over the years.
10 Weird Diets You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Everyone is trying to lose weight and get rid of the extra pounds that stick around. Because of this, there are lots of weird diets and fads that have come and gone throughout the years. Here are a few of them.
1. The Cigarette Diet
With all the information we now have about the dangers of smoking cigarettes, it’s hard to believe that at one time they were promoted as a great way to lose weight.
Believe it or not, back in the day before Surgeon General warnings, cigarettes were considered good for your health. Thus during the 1920’s, several cigarette companies went so far as to advertise the appetite-suppressing benefits of smoking.
2. Slimming Soap
This one sounds too funny to be true, but in the early 1930’s some soap companies marketed products that they said could wash your fat away. Users would lather up with slimming soap in hopes that their unwanted pounds to go right down the shower drain with the rest of the dirty water.
Of course, these products contained no magical ingredients, yet women still spent a fortune on products like “Fatoff,” and “La-Mar Reducing Soap,” making some smart soap company executives very rich.
3. The Tapeworm Diet
This one became popular for a short time in the 1950’s. Scientists discovered that parasitic worms living inside human intestines would consume their nutrients and thus naturally cause weight loss in the human host.
You’d be shocked at how many people thought this was a great way to slim down. They would ingest a baby tapeworm so that they could eat whatever they wanted without worrying about gaining a pound.
As much as you might want to look like Margot Robbie, this diet plan is not the way to go.
4. The Breatharian Diet
This might be one of the crazier diet ideas on our list. There are some people who believe that humans become most in harmony in with the universe when they no longer require food, water or sleep. These people call themselves, wait for it…Breatharians.
That’s right. These folks not only give up meat, sweets and dairy…they claim to not even sleep. They give up everything. Of course, this philosophy is nonsense, and attempting to follow this diet plan would be extremely dangerous to your health.
5. The Ear Stapling Diet
Here is another interesting diet plan, this one originating from Chinese healing therapy. Ear Stapling is the practice of attempting to suppress one’s appetite by stapling the cartilage of your inner ear.
This is basically a form of acupuncture and requires leaving the staple in for up to three months. People who practice ear stapling claim that it stimulates a pressure point that controls your appetite. There is, of course, no scientific data to back up these claims, and doctors warn that this practice could lead to serious infection and many other dangerous side effects.
6. The Fletcherizing Diet
Try this one on for size. In 1903 a gentleman name Horace Fletcher claimed to have lost 40 pounds simply because of the way he chewed his food. His method was to chew each bite of food 32 times (once for each tooth) and then spit it out.
His reasoning was that his body was still able to absorb the nutrients from the food without having to ingest the food itself, thus preventing him from gaining weight.
Sounds like this San Francisco art dealer must have let the paint fumes go to his brain.
7. The Calories Don’t Count Diet
A man named Herman Taller was a doctor who created a diet plan that claimed that as long as you avoided carbs and consumed only foods high in fat and protein, there was no need to count calories.
But that’s not all. You also had to wash down your food with a pill he provided, a pill containing three ounces of polyunsaturated vegetable oil.
Taller’s theory was that the vegetable oil and protein stimulated fat loss. He claimed to have lost 65 pounds following this plan for 8 months. Whatever the truth of his own weight loss, he was later found guilty of conspiracy and mail fraud.
A smarter way to lose weight is to try the egg diet.
8. The Vision Diet
Not so long ago a Japanese company created a pair of glasses with blue-tinted lenses they claimed would suppress your appetite. Their theory held that because certain colors like red and yellow stimulate the appetite, while blue has the opposite effect, wearing glasses with blue lenses would reduce your desire to eat.
9. The Avoiding Swamps Diet
Here’s another fun one from way back. In 1727, Thomas Short made the observation that people who lived near swamps tended to be fatter than those who lived away from swamps. His theory was simple–avoid swamps and lose weight.
It’s hard to argue with that kind of logic.
10. The Prolinn Diet
Back in the 1970s, a doctor named Roger Linn developed a theory that revolved around grinding down slaughterhouse byproducts into a miracle liquid. This included animal hooves, horns, hides, and tendons. This drink contained about 400 calories and zero nutrients.
If you’re thinking that the Prolinn diet sounds interesting, we’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.
There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute
It seems like some people are willing to do anything to lose weight. There is certainly no shortage of weird diets. Even very smart people are willing to suspend rational thinking in the hopes of dropping a few pounds so that they can be more attractive.
And for every person trying to look better, there is someone out there looking to make a fast buck.
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