Crash test

Among the many diet fads that have come and gone over the years, the one terribly dangerous approach to weight loss that, for reasons well beyond me, remains is the crash diet.

Not only does the crash diet lead to the yo-yo effect (when weight loss occurs, only to be followed by excessive weight gain), but it also toys with your lifespan, say researchers from Glasgow University in Scotland. Citing the researchers' findings, Men's Health reports that constant feast and famine is believed to encourage abnormal cell formation, due to a lack of nutrients and irregular growth spurts caused by binging.

As part of their study, the researchers conducted tests on fish they allowed to eat heartily for some time but then starved them for a short period thereafter, finding this back-and-forth of calorie abundance and calorie restriction cut their life expectancy by 25 percent.