The Mayo Clinic Diet is a fad diet purported to help people lose 50 to 55 pounds during a 10-week span. It has no connection to the respected Mayo Clinic, a top research hospital, in Minnesota.

The basic premise of the diet is that dieters should ban all complex carbohydrates, but can eat as much protein and fat as they want. One of the "rules" of the diet even states, "At any meal you may eat until you are full -- until you can't eat any more."

Experts agree that a diet based on unbalanced nutrition and limited food choices, like the one recommended in the Mayo Clinic Diet, can be unhealthy. Plus, the boredom associated with eating the same foods over and over can prompt a return to old eating habits once someone goes off the diet.

The quick weight loss associated with the plan is also unhealthy. A better option than the Mayo Clinic Diet is the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid, a lifestyle plan that includes a variety of healthy foods and daily exercise -- and is actually associated with the Mayo Clinic. It offers personalized menus, shopping lists, meal plans, results charts and dining-out tips.

Learn more about diet hoaxes that can sabotage your weight loss plans and check out That's Fit's Fitness page for tips to get in shape.

What would you think if someone suggested you drink a concoction of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't chug-a-lug that foul mix if somebody paid me. But Beyonce used the lemonade diet, and she's not the first -- the lemonade diet (aka Master Cleanse) has been around since 1941.

Just like clothes go in and out of style, so do crazy diets. "Glamour" shows us seven decades of wacky diet trends:

• 1930's-1940's. Not only is this the era where the Master Cleanse first appeared, ad campaigns also touted smoking as a way to keep off unwanted pounds.
• 1950's. The 1950's paved the way for a kinder, gentler form of weight loss. What was it? Prayer. That's right. Pray yourself thin. "Pray Your Weight Away" was published in 1957 and was the first of many prayer-based weight loss theories.
  
• 1960's. We have the 60's to thank for the horrible cabbage soup diet. A more helpful trend that was born in the 60's is the weight loss support group. (Overeaters Anonymous and Weight Watchers were both formed in the decade.)
• 1970's. The quest for weight loss in a pill started in earnest in the 70's. Dexatrim and the unfortunately named Ayds appetite suppressants were all the rage.
• 1980's. After the unsuccessful quick fixes of the 70's, self-discipline came back into vogue in the 80's. Plans such as the super-restrictive Scarsdale Diet were the diets of the decade. Low-fat was a term that was sneaking into everyone's vocabulary.
  
• 1990's. Low-carb plans like the Atkin's diet were all the rage in the 90's.
• 2000's. We're still not immune to silly diet trends. How about the Morning Banana Diet or the Cookie Diet (which has actually been around in one form or another for quite a long time)?

What's the craziest diet plan you've ever tried?

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Have you ever watched those late-night infomercials touting the newest piece of exercise equipment? Personally, I'm not a big fan of home workout equipment. Most of them limit what they can do for your body and they just take up so much space! But sometimes you have to wonder ... is the latest, greatest machine really what you need to get a toned, firm body? Or is it just bound to become a dusty, expensive, clothing rack in your bedroom?

Some fitness experts rated six fitness fads to see if they're really as great as they say they are:

• Skorcher. This claims to be the world's best butt exercise, but it garnered mixed reviews from the experts. One said that all of the exercises the Skorcher offers can be done effectively without the machine. Another, however, thought it could really rev up your workout.
• Slanted Riser. These risers that angle your step aerobic bench got a decent review, because they add a new dimension to your step aerobic workout.
• The Brain Muscle Workout. This fitness DVD didn't strike the experts as anything new. But the mind/body connection the workout promotes is beneficial.
• Yoga fusion. Many DVDs and fitness classes have tried to add to the popularity of yoga. But one fitness expert doesn't like the trend. She feels that yoga is for meditation, and the new trend is trying to turn it into a weight loss or fitness activity.
• RealRyder. This indoor cycling bike that tilts and turns got rave reviews from one fitness expert, but another felt that the bike offered only slight advantages.
• Gravity. This machine is supposed to provide a full-body workout. One fitness expert says that the machine can provide what it claims, however, it's big and bulky (not to mention expensive) and adjusting the resistance is tricky.

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Here at That's Fit, we're always telling you to run far, far away from any sort of fad diet. You know, the ones that promise a quick fix but don't ultimately seem healthy or sustainable. But do some of them actually work? British Journalist Anna Richardson recently tried three quick fixes -- Hypnosis, the Maple Syrup Diet, and a Raw Foods regime. Here's what she has to say:

• On Hypnosis: "By the end of the [treatment,] I feel lighter, happier and, for the first time in years, in control of food. I want to eat healthily, and have no problem refusing fatty or sugary meals. And I've lost 3lb! ... [it] addressed my emotional relationship with food and made me realise I often eat when I am feeling emotionally vulnerable."

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Brie Cadman over at Divine Caroline gives a humorous and right-on run-down of the 10 worst fad diets. Sure these diets, like Slim Fast, The Cereal Diet, The Subway Diet, and Dr. Siegal's® Cookie Diet™ might work -- try them and chances are, you will lose weight -- but if you're looking for weight loss that sticks around or if you want to just plain enjoy your food, these diets are, as Cadman calls them -- just plain ridiculous.

Cadman says of Slim Fast that yes, you will lose weight, "until you grow so bored and tired of eating the exact same thing for two meals a day you quit, and realize that -- wow -- there are a lot of other foods out there that cost a lot less. Say, fruits and vegetables."

About The Writing Diet, Cadman can't figure out why all writers are not size twos because according to Julia Cameron, author of the new book The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Sized, they should be. Cameron says that people overeat not out of hunger, but because of emotion. Says Cadman: "By writing daily, we tap into our emotions, and put them on the page instead of in our mouths. While I can concede that having your hands on a keyboard will prevent them from grabbing a bag of Doritos, I can't figure out how sitting on your butt is supposed to make it smaller." One of Cadman's readers disagrees, stating that the book does a pretty good job of promoting exercise too.

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We've all fallen for a fad diet at some point in our quests for health and fitness, and maybe even tried a crash diet or two before a big event (you can read about all of our personal dieting foibles in the Meet the Bloggers feature) but obviously fads and instant fixes aren't the way to go for healthy, long lasting results. But are all the different crazy diets out there completely bad? Most of them are just different spins on the same basic principle of eating fewer calories than you burn, with crazy creative ways to go about it, so it seems there may be some good to be found!

Women's Health is helping us out by breaking down 4 common "fad" diets and separating the good from the bad. In a sense, you can build your own personalized plan by taking just the best parts of all the different trends and leaving the unhealthy 'fad' stuff behind. Here's a little of what they found:

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Corsets were the height of fashion in the late-19th and early-20th century. Used as a device to help create a desirable hour glass shape by squeezing in the waist and making the bust and hips appear larger, the garment was often worn so tightly that it cut off oxygen and often made the wearer faint.

These fashion torture devices were replaced by free-flowing flapper dresses in the 1920s and should have been banished forever in my opinion. But in recently years, the garment has made a comeback (often as outerwear) and as this piece points out, they're just as bad for your body now as they were a century ago.

Wearing a constricting corset for too long can lead to gastric reflux, fluid retention and even the potentially deadly Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), the same condition that those on long-haul airplane flights are at risk of developing. So before you fall for this fad, decide whether conforming to what fashion dictates is the norm by squeezing yourself into the smallest size possible is really worth it.

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Have you heard of the Beverly Hills Diet? Yeah, me neither, but it's popular enough to warrant and upgrade, so Ta-Da ... The NEW Beverly Hills Diet has been unveiled. While one might assume that the traditional Beverly Hills Diet would consist of starving yourself after shamefully gorging on a salad without dressing, it's actually a somewhat sensible--albeit slight fad-ish--diet that focuses on food combinations. Here's how it works:

• Eat fruit for breakfast -- you can have an much as you want, but you must eat it by itself and you can only pick one fruit
• The next thing you eat can be a carb of your choice, which you can enjoy as much as you want of
  
• As soon as you eat a protein, the rest of your day must be 80% protein.
  
• You can combine proteins and carbs at one meal a day.
  
• You can have fats with either carbs or proteins

It sounds kind of like the Suzanne Somers Diet, except ... more confusing. Apparently you can lose up 10-15 lbs in the 35-day initiation phase, if you can keep all the rules straight, that is. To find out more about the diet, check out this article from WebMD.

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Ok, so the title of this post might be a bit misleading. I believe that losing those extra pounds is never a bad thing, but sometimes people start working out for the wrong reasons. Fit Sugar has weighed in on what they think are bad reasons to go on a diet, and I have to say I agree. They are:

-Because celebrities do it
-Because you want to look good for an ex
-Because you have to lose weight for an event ... that's in the next couple of days (Two words: ain't happening!)
-Because you've been taken in by promises from a fad diet or quick fix
-Because someone who is not an expert says you should

What bad reasons have you lost weight for?

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My outlook, when it comes to weight loss and beauty fads, is a kind of mix between realistic skepticism and dreamy hopefulness. It's no fun to go through life all pessimistic and negative, shooting down every new invention and medical breakthrough before it even has a chance, but on the flip side you don't want to fall victim to random fads and gimmicks either. But how to know when they're just gimmicks and when they might be the real thing? After all, if that tube of lotion really does melt fat right off I don't want to be the one missing out!

Obviously there's no good answer to that question, except that if a product really does what it says it can then you'll definitely hear about it. But other than that, trying stuff out (and avoiding claims that seem to good to be true) is really the only way, and thankfully there are plenty of people out there willing to do that and share what they think. Case in point? This article from the Seattle Times, where three lotions claiming weight loss and firming properties were tested by real ladies, who share their thoughts and opinions to hopefully save us all some time and potential grief.

And let me encourage you all to please feel free to share your own experiences, so we can all know more of what works and what doesn't!

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Are you a trendsetter or a trend-follower? Or maybe you're the type that goes opposite of the trend, just on principle. Either way, it's good to know what the trends are, or might be. Forbes.com has compiled a list, in their handy "in pictures" format (well I think it's fun, anyway) with expert's opinions on what the biggest health and fitness trends will be in 2007.

Most of them are things I might have guessed, like organic products continuing to be popular and restaurants offering more low-fat items on their menus. But some others were interesting, like a growing number of employers offering health coaches as a benefit to employees. Really? I've never heard of that kind of benefit before, but I know I need it!

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It's no newsflash that a few of us (more like millions) are taking on the new year head-first and vowing to stick to our diet, even if it kills us. However, a mammoth survey taken a while back revealed why diets don't end up working for many people. In fact, over 70% of the 14 million dieters conceded that they are breaking their resolution by eating their "vice foods."

The culprits include chocolate and candy (the most common), cake, cookies and fried food. So what's the deal if that many people are breaking their diets? Well guilt trips certainly won't help considering that 81% said they feel at blame for eating foods they know they shouldn't.

When you take away all the fancy percentages, it is still pretty obvious that millions of Americans are dropping their healthy resolutions and feeling guilty about it. These "vice foods" are a strong indication of why their dieting doesn't work. But this is a new year with new beginnings, so why not try and prove the numbers wrong this time?

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If you're wary of fad diets, as I am, it's sometimes a struggle to find something that works well, but is easy to do. Granted, many would say eating plenty of veggies, lowering fats and eating less in general would take care of things, but sometimes you want a system. The simplest "system" I've found so far? The No S Diet.

What is it? Simplicity itself: no Snacks, no Sweets and no Seconds. Sounds pretty harsh, huh? Well the savior is: except (sometimes) on days that begin with an 'S.' That includes the weekend, and Special days like holidays. As someone who fought the 'blocks' in the Zone for way too long, I can appreciate the utterly simplistic approach.

And if dieting doesn't get you in the shape you like, there's always the Shovel Glove (another creation by the author).

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