Top 10 Fad Diets All-Time

The CDC reports that about half of U.S. people strive to lose weight each year. Some take a balanced approach, modifying lifestyle habits and diet to accomplish their target slowly.

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1. Atkins Diet Modern Atkins lets you choose from 20 grams (mimicking the ketogenic diet), 40 grams, or 100 grams of carbs each day. Stricter carb goals accelerate weight loss. 

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2. Zone Diet Jennifer Aniston popularized the Zone diet, which is 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat.  

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3. Keto Diet Research shows that the keto diet, a high-fat, extremely low-carb diet, was devised in the 1920s to treat epilepsy. It took 100 years to become popular at large:  

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4. Grapefruit Diet  Atkins lets you choose from 20 grams (mimicking the ketogenic diet), 40 grams, or 100 grams of carbs each day. Stricter carb goals accelerate weight loss.  

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5. Paleo Diet The Paleolithic diet consists of hunter-gatherer foods. Paleo dieters get half their calories from lean animal proteins, eggs, fruit, nonstarchy veggies, unsaturated fats, wine, and water. 

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6. Gluten-Free Diet Many patients with celiac disease or gluten allergies must avoid gluten (the protein present in wheat, barley, and rye).  

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7. Master Cleanse For her role in Dreamgirls, Beyonce lost 20 pounds in two weeks on this liquid-only diet of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for 10 days, according to USA Today.  

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8. Whole30 Whole30 is a 30-day elimination diet that's a trend. According to the Whole30 website, the plan was created in 2009 and has rigorous food restrictions. 

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9. Low-Fat Diet Remember when SnackWell's fat-free cookies were healthful in the 1990s? At the height of the low-fat fad, many tried to reduce weight by eating fat-free salad dressings, chips, ad frozen yogurt. 

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10. Special K Diet In the early 2000s, the Special K diet recommended eating Special K for breakfast and lunch and a regular dinner to decrease two jean sizes in two weeks.  

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