1.) Diet Pills. They are a short term fix only. Once you stop taking them, you will be hungry again and will go back to your normal eating patterns, which means you will regain all of your weight. They are not well regulated by the FDA and their diuretic effects can cause you to become dangerously dehydrated, especially in the summer. Their side effects can be headaches, dizziness, nausea, and heart palpitations.

2.) Health food fads like ephedra. "Herbal" and "all-natural" does not mean safe. Deadly Nightshade is all natural. So is rattlesnake venom. Ephedra has been tied to a number of deaths, and is now banned for sale in the United States. Don't assume that because a diet supplement is being sold at the grocery store, it's healthy.

3.) Fasting. Fasting quickly sends your body into starvation mode, and your metabolism slows down so that when you start eating again you will be astonished at how fast the pounds pile back on. And it may take a long time for your metabolism to return to normal again. Fasting also causes your body to start burning muscle for fuel; you don't want less muscle, you want more! Long term fasting can cause serious health damage. Your heart is a muscle, and your body does not differentiate between what types of muscle tissue it raids for fuel.

4.) Fad Diets.Trendy diets come and go. Scarsdale Diet, Cabbage soup and grapefruit diet are a few for example. Although those particular diets still aren't healthy they are better than the 3 day diet, or mayo clinic diet or cookie diet. The problem with all of these diets is that they often rely heavily on changing your diet in an unnatural way and consuming mostly one kind of food, which does not give you the variety of nutrients that you need and which are impossible to follow long term.

5.) Eating prepackaged diet foods. Yes, they are conveniant, but these meals are surprisingly high in sodium and fat. Sodium leads to high BP and the people who are overweight are the exact types of people that should not have this. The American Heart Association recommends not exceeding 2000 mgs of sodium a day, but many prepackaged diet foods contain that much in a single meal.