Fad diets are an American tradition. What was all the rage a few months ago is dropped in the proverbial blink of an eye for the latest and greatest way to "easy" and "fast" weightloss. These fads may be a great way to lose about five or ten pounds quickly as an emergency measure, but they can never be a lifetime plan due their extremely restrictive nature, and lack of balance.

These types of diets are only good for the short term, and in fact, may make you fatter once you're off of the plan since they often lead to "rebound over-eating" and yo yo dieting, both of which harm your metabolism by constantly leaving it in a state of confusion. If you are thinking of trying one of these fads, you may want to also try a quality, natural appetite suppressant since most of these diets will leave you in a constant state of hunger.

We'll examine this year's fad diets. Believe it or not, some of these have actually been circulating for a while and are still a popular diet for quick weight loss - mostly via word of mouth. These diets have aquired somewhat of a mythology about them over time. A person you know probably knows someone or heard stories of someone who lost a drastic amount of weight on them.

Popular Fad Diets, Summarized

1.) Cabbage Soup Diet

What It Is: You make a cabbage soup concoction consisting of broth, lots of cabbage, onions, celery and a few other acceptable veggies. You consume nothing but this soup for days, or for as long as you can stand it, and get to gradually add in very small amounts of normal food.

Why It's Hard: You may never want to eat soup or look at another carrot or onion again after this diet. Your hunger is never satisfied, because largely what you are consuming is water based, and that is why you can drop weight so quickly - you are not eating anything of real substance. Your stomach is in knots with gas pain and hunger. Bottom line is, this diet is very tough to stick to. When you first try the soup, you think "Hmm, not bad", but you will soon change your mind. The reward is very rapid weight loss. The problem is, as with all other fad diets, it comes back on just as rapidly if not quicker than it came off when the diet is over. Doctors actually prescribe this diet for patients who need to lose weight quickly for surgery.

2.) The Famous Atkins Diet

What It Is: This is basically "The all you can eat - as long as it's pure protein diet". This diet gained a huge following almost immediately after Dr. Atkins released the Atkins Diet book to publication, and experienced another resurgence in about 2001 as a quick and easy way to melt the pounds off quickly without sacrificing too much. It attracted quite a bit of criticism due its extreme and unbalanced nature, as well as a concentration on high fat and cholesterol foods, with little fiber and sometimes little nutritional value.

The foods it centers around are cheese, bacon, chicken, eggs, turkey, beef and snacks like pork rinds. Although the Atkins diet is extreme in nature, it paved the way for more balanced, heart and health friendly diets such as The Zone Diet and the South Beach Diet (two of my favorites), which preach more of a moderation mentality, balance, and a focus on more healthy, whole and unprocessed foods and a somewhat restricted calorie plan that doesn't leave you hungry.

Why It's Hard: Your body goes into a state of ketosis due to a lack of carbs and sugars. You get bad breath. You may feel malnourished and weak - a sign of ketosis. The lack of fiber often leads to constipation. When you get hungry, you get HUNGRY! You may never want to look at another egg again in your life, and feel nauseous at the sight of meat.

3.) The All You Can Eat for Seven Days Diet

What It Is: You get to choose from one food group each of the seven days. One day may be all chicken, one may be all fruit, and one may be all vegetables, with minimal restrictions on which ones are not allowed. You can eat as much as you want as long as it is within that one food group for each assigned day.

Why It's Hard: Try eating one food group all day. It's very hard. This diet is almost guaranteed to cause a grumbling belly, since no one food can usually satiate anyone's appetite or sustain a feeling of fullness for any length of time. Variety is the spice of life, and this applies two-fold to diet boredom and how it leads ot overeating and binges. Once you go off of this diet, you will almost surely gain the weight back, and fast. The problem with diets like this is that they trigger an overeating response due to severe deprivation.

4.) The Snickers Diet

What It Is: You get to eat only Snickers candy bars and may drink coffee or water only with this fad diet. I'm actually not sure how many Snickers bars are allowed per day, but do know someone that has a friend who lost over thirty pounds following this diet, but sacrificed her health, her skin and mental well being in the process.

Why It's Hard: The first and most obvious reason this diet is unhealthy is that it is based on a calorie dense, high sugar content food, which leads to: high blood sugar, hunger, terrible skin problems, terrible breath, constipation, immune breakdown, unhealthy heart, loss of mental focus and clarity.

There are, of course, many other fad diets that have come and gone, but these are some of the more extreme and interesting ones. While fad diets are tempting to try as a quick fix for drastic and fast weight loss, they should be regarded with caution. Most fad diets lead to larger subsequent weight gains because they are based on deprivation. So, as long as you know what you're getting going into it, and don't expect to use it as a long term solution to losing weight or maintaining weight loss, then you'll be prepared for the outcome.

Visit Diet Reviews for more information on different diet methods, supplements and technology. Danna Schneider is the founder of Dieting Magazine Online Resource for Weightloss and Dieting.