fad diet

plural fad diets

1. A restrictive diet whose main goal is short-term weight loss.

   The diet revives old food friends unjustly scorned by fad diets: breads, cereals […]

   1979, Nathan Pritikin, The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise

   1 more example

   Last week, another in a seemingly endless stream of fad diets hit the best-seller list. If as many Americans as bought these miraclepromising books actually lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off, the market for future fads would soon disappear.

   1981 June 3, Jane E. Brody, “Another Entry in the Annals of Fad Diets”, in New York Times

2. A diet that is popular only for a short time, a novelty diet; a fad in food.

   Usually a fad diet will take one idea that research has shown to be somewhat beneficial and take it to the extreme. A good example of this is the statement “Eat seaweed at every meal.”

   2009, Brandi Sentz, Kelli Glass, How to Eat Fried Chicken, and Be Thin Too, Strategic Book Publishing, →ISBN, page 33