Do extreme fad diets work??

That entirely depends on how you define "work".

As far as I recollect she was taken to court.

We should start on a brand new "diet" called The SNIKTA diet and everyone would be on it instantly.

It would be advertised as low-carb with a new twist - let's see now, kinda like Atkins but you would have to eat your salad AFTER eating your meat/fat, and never BEFORE - yeah, that's it...so backwards eh?......

Who could we get to be our celebrity? I vote for the Barefoot Contessa.

The diet. That whole Kimkins thing is the main reason I despise Jimmy Moore.

I personally think that fad diets are intentionally created to be unsustainable....so that we never STAY thin. They'd be out of work if we all followed their "diet plans" for a few weeks and stayed thin forever.

My cousin (who is not heavy at all, but still obsessed with her weight) wanted to lose 15 lbs so she could fit in a smaller size dress for a wedding last summer. So, for a month before the wedding she followed the lemonade diet: she drank ONLY water mixed with fresh lemon juice, maple syrup (for calories) and cayenne pepper (apparently to kick-start her metabolism?!?!?) for a whole month. Sure, she lost the lbs and fit into the dress, but now she's gained back the 15 lbs plus 5 more. And I'm sure she'll do another month-long lemonade diet once this summer starts coming closer. This, in my opinion is totally flawed and unhealthy. ANYONE would lose weight only consuming 300 calories worth of fluid every day.

Personally, the health of my internal organs is more important to me than fitting into a certain sized dress. Being healthy and being thin are two very different things. By my height and age my healthy BMI states I should be 112 lbs, but the last time I weighed that much I think I was 12 years old. I can't imagine being able to sustain that sort of weight now. I just don't think it's healthy for me. So, in terms of BMI, I'll NEVER be in the "optimal" range. I'll always be considered "overweight", even once I'm 130 lbs. Fad diets are for people who are willing to risk their overall health for the sake of the image in the mirror.

For some, though, fad diets help 'kick start' weight loss. Maybe not healthy, but it gives people the confidence that they can lose weight and then sometimes move on to healthier eating to maintain or continue loss. I don't see a problem with this as long as the long-run result is continued fat loss and life-long health. Those people, though, are few and far between, but they do exist.

Dang, the things you learn on this forum! I was not aware of the whole kimkins / Heidi Diaz phenomenon when somebody mentioned it above.

Talk about a massive time suck. When I start searching for information I find numerous >2000 response threads dating back to 2007 which led to many other websites. What a piece of work. I kind of wish I had never started looking into the whole dirty business as previously I had never read a negative word about Jimmy Moore.

Beernutz, I just did the same thing. The curiosity absolutely killed me. I've been reading tons of different threads and articles about it. This "diet" is clearly ridiculous. The fact that some consider it to be low carb is also retarded... it's low everything... it's an eating disorder (a.k.a. anorexia nervosa) waiting to happen.

After everything came out about Heidi Diaz people backed away from it pretty quickly. IIRC not too many people here did Kimkins anyway. But dear Cthulhu, Jimmy Moore's blog was an absolute trainwreck when everything was going on.

Surprisingly enough, her website is still going.

I agree that these diets can instill confidence that it's possible to lose, since I think that anytime you reduce calories to an extremely low amount you're bound to lose. For example - anyone would lose weight eating only one slice of whole grain bread per day, but it's certainly not helping them healthwise. Even if you move on to healthier eating from there, you're increasing calorie intake which will likely put you into a major stall - which deters most from continuing. Thus the fad-diet roller coaster. It may be slower, but healthy eating with realistic calorie amounts is, in my opinion the only way to naturally obtain "continued fat loss and life-long health".

Absolutely, fad diets work. Interestingly, they all work the same way: Carb restriction.

The Cabbage soup diet: Not much refined carbs there.
The Maple syrup diet: How much syrup can you eat before getting sick?
The Tapeworm diet: The worm eats some of what you eat, including the carbs. Instant carb restriction.
The "Gone off" foods diet: Carbs "go off" through fermentation, convert to alcohol. Instant carb restriction.
The Apple diet: Raw carbs means less carb absorption. Instant carb restriction.
The Grapefruit and egg diet: Raw carbs, not much of them anyway. Instant carb restriction.
The Avoid "HeartHealthyWholeGrains"™ and fruit diet: Not much refined carbs there. Instant carb restriction.
The Get Sick diet: Not hungry, don't eat much, including carbs. Instant carb restriction.
The semi-starvation diet: Don't eat much, including carbs, but stay hungry. Instant carb restriction.
The bady food diet: How much of that crap can anybody eat anyway? Instant carb restriction.
The Ornish diet: Eat mostly raw plants, can't digest most of it. Instant carb restriction.
The vegan diet: Same as Ornish. Instant carb restriction.
The Kimkins diet: Eat mostly protein. Instant carb restriction.
The HCG diet: Eat 500kcals/day, including carbs. Instant carb restriction.
The lemonade diet: How much water can anybody drink anyway? Instant carb restriction.
The Atkins diet: Restrict carbs. Instant carb restriction. How about that, Atkins seems to have gotten the idea without the BS.
The starvation diet: Eat nothing. Instant carb restriction.

So yes, they do work, and yes they all work the same way. But no, not all are sustainable even for a few days. Those that work best of course are those that directly restrict carbs, like the Atkins diet and AJ's "Avoid HeartHealthyWholeGrains"™ and fruit diet" for example. And those that are sustainable the longest of course are those that work best, with the exception of the starvation diet of course.

Scarily enough, the website does appear to be up & running - at a $59.95 lifetime membership! More than weight watchers... I guess they have to make up for all the money they lost in that dang lawsuit. And likely a severe drop in new memberships.

At the top of the page shows two very real looking testimonials and if you don't pay attention, you might not notice the disclaimer at the very bottom of the page (in gray none the less!). It's clear that they put it in the smallest type humanly possible with the lightest type they could make it. I think it would be enough of a warning if anyone noticed it.

It says:

The California Riverside County Superior Court has ruled in Jeanessa Fenderson, et al. v. Heidi Diaz, Kimkins, Case No. 483005 that Heidi Diaz and Kimkins have engaged in false advertising and fraudulent business practices. The Court found that Defendants Kimkins and Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" during the class period, (January 1, 2006 through October 15, 2007, hereinafter "Class Period") have falsely represented the success of the Kimkins diet in that Heidi Diaz, as creator of the Kimkins diet, lied about her representations concerning the amount of weight she lost on the Kimkins diet. The Court also found that the "after diet" images promoted to be Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" following the alleged use of her Kimkins diet, posted on the Kimkins.com website and advertisements during the Class Period were not Heidi Diaz, but were actually misappropriated images of models who were used to mislead the public into believing that Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" was successful in her weight loss. The Court also found that Defendants, Kimkins and Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" used false testimonials on the Kimkins website during the Class Period to mislead the public as to the success of the Kimkins diet. The Court also found that Kimkins and Heidi Diaz aka "Kimmer" used misappropriated photographs of 41 models that were used with false testimonials on the Kimkins.com website during the Class Period to mislead the public as to the success of the Kimkins diet.

It seems a stretch to say that a diet such as the vegan which is promoted as 80-10-10 ever be considered carb restricted.

Do extreme fad diets work?

I think it depends on what your ultimate goal actually is.
If your goal is to lose weight and then keep it off, I think that extreme fad diets do not work. Extreme fad diets don't work because they don't teach you how to eat to control your weight. They only teach you how to lose.

At some point, we all have to get that we need to learn how to eat so that we stop regaining lost weight. For me, that was learning how to eat by controlling my carb intake.
I've regained lost weight many, many times. I really wanted to get off the yo-yo that I'd been on my whole life. I did it this time by teaching myself a way to eat thats sustainable for me.