Five weird fad diets we’d be terrified to try!

The whole world seems to be on a clean eating buzz at the moment, and while it makes your Instagram feel a lot more annoying to scroll through, things could be a lot worse.

Forget juice cleanses and raw food, over the last few decades any number of crazy fad diets have come and gone. Some of them seem kind of legit, and others are just plain bizarre.

Here are a few that would send us running for the nearest Burger King…

1. The Baby Food Diet
In theory this seems like it could be a good idea. After all, food intended for babies is probably super-healthy, right? Yes, if you subsist solely on jars of puréed baby food your diet will be low in sugar and fat… but it will also be devoid of taste and texture. Puréed beef? Sounds delightful!

2. The Cabbage Soup Diet
This famous diet apparently leads to weight loss of up to 10lbs per week… along with a serious amount of bloating and flatulence. Yay! Along with some severely restricted meals, you’re only permitted to eat low-sodium cabbage soup for the duration of the diet.

3. The Master Cleanse
Beyoncé reportedly endured this awful diet to lose weight for her role in Dreamgirls. Lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water are mixed into a special drink, of which almost two litres must be consumed every day. This is combined with a special laxative tea to keep things moving. This one is just a bit too drastic for us…

4. The Grapefruit Diet
To complete this diet, a grapefruit is eaten before every meal. While many have reported weight loss, it’s thought to be due to the fact that dieters are only allowed to consume three meals per day, all of which are seriously low in fat and calories. So what you’re saying is that if I eat a grapefruit before every pizza, I’m not going to lose weight? Oh. Okay then.

5. The Sleeping Beauty Diet
Getting enough rest is key to maintaining a healthy weight, that much can’t be denied. But the premise of this diet, as favoured by Elvis (whose weight loss journey didn’t end well, if you recall), is to sleep excessively, so that you miss lots of meals at once. If you can’t naturally sleep for days on end, don’t worry, you can take sedatives! Charming.