Lots of people will resort to extreme measures in order to lose extra pounds. Here are some of the weirdest diets around...
1. Tongue patch
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Developed by a cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills, this involves sewing a postage stamp-sized patch of plastic mesh onto the top of your tongue, making it too painful to eat solid food. If you don’t remove the patch within a month, though, the tongue may start growing over it. It also costs around $2,000, which might be a bit hard to swallow.
2. Tapeworm
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Not for the squeamish! This parasite interferes with your digestion and how you absorb nutrients, so in theory you can consume more calories and still lose weight. However, tapeworms can grow up to 25 feet long in your intestine and can cause seizures, serious infections and lots of other health problems, as well as possibly giving you a pot belly.
3. Breatharianism
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Breatharians believe you can give up food, and sometimes water, and live purely off prana, the vital life force in Hinduism. It involves sungazing to get nourishment from the sun’s energy. Unsurprisingly, several people have died from starvation and dehysration when attempting this.
4. Cotton ball
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A fad that started in the modelling industry. You consume cotton balls dipped in liquids such as juices, or smoothies. The cotton is meant to make your stomach feel full without you putting on weight. Cotton isn’t digestible, however, and experts say this ‘diet’ can cause choking, malnutrition and life-threatening obstructions in the intestine.
5. Fletcherizing
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Horace Fletcher was a Victorian health-food enthusiast who argued food should be chewed for a very long time and then spat out. His theory was the body would take in most of the nutrients without any of the bulk. ‘Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate,’ he was fond of saying.
6. Blue Vision
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As most foods that look appetising are in the red and yellow spectrum, with this diet you wear glasses that make your food look an unappealing blue color. Your body isn’t fooled that easily, though, and will soon start adapting your other senses to make up for it.
7. Hallelujah
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This takes God’s diet plan from Genesis 1:29 in the Bible, so 85 per cent of it consists of the raw garden foods God told man to eat. The rest consists of cooked plant foods, freshly made juices and a herbal colon cleanser. It was invented by the Rev George Malkmus, who claims it saved his life after he got cancer.
8. Sleeping beauty
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Elvis Presley was said to be a fan of this one, which is based on the idea you can’t eat if you’re sleeping. Basically, you’re sedated heavily for several days in order to sleep off your extra pounds. There’s no evidence it produces any sustainable weight loss, though, and the sedatives can be dangerous.
9. Shangri-La
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With this diet you have to consume 100–400 calories a day of flavourless food between normal meals. This can be extra-light olive oil, unflavoured sugar water, or bland food eaten with your nose clipped shut. It‘s cheap and relatively safe, but just adding oil and sugar water to a diet of junk food won’t help you lose weight.
10. Eat all you want!
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It might sound odd, but some people believe you can get slimmer by just eating whatever you want whenever you like. The idea is once you’re allowed to eat anything and everything, you’ll quickly become bored with food and lose weight. Maybe this should be renamed the wishful thinking diet!
Have you tried any strange diets? Let us know below.
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