Fad dieting and psychological well-being

Fad diets--the popularity of which is often spread through social media--promise unrealistic weight loss with unrealistically easily employed methods in short periods of time. Many such diets are known to carry risks from a purely nutritional perspective (e.g., juice diet, grapefruit only diet) and overly restrictive diets are also suspected to be a risk factor for psychological well-being.

Data was collected from 584 respondents. To our knowledge, the current study is one of the first of its kind to explore the extent to which fad dieting is in fact associated with psychological well-being.

We found that participants who engaged more with fad diets were at greater risk of depression (t[580] = -2.25, P = 0.025), body shame (t[580] = -2.67, P = 0.008), and disordered eating behaviors (t[580] = -2.73, P = 0.006). Despite the popular notion that women are the majority of dieters, women and men were equally likely to engage with fad diets (P > 0.05).

Our findings suggest an association between fad dieting and deleterious outcomes. Future research into causal relationships is recommended.