These diets are ineffective in stabilizing one’s equilibrium weight. Some are even dangerous to health and can cause eating disorders.
AT As summer approaches, weight loss diets are flooding social media. “I’m 60 years old, when I open my mailbox, I find ads for anti-wrinkle creams. My young patients, who are all on TikTok, come across without even looking for content that glorifies thinness, dietssummarizes Corinne Godenir, nutritionist in the Alpes-Maritimes. It’s terrible for their self-esteem and their recovery.”
On TikTokinfluencers boast, with unverifiable “before-after” photos and pseudoscientific speeches, the effectiveness of extreme diets, du the strictest fast on sweets with quasi-magical powers. A real trap for users of the platform, mainly young women, but also young men.
The “steak and butter” diet
Lots of red meat and slices of butter. “A high-protein and very fatty diet”translated Nina Cohen Koubi, nutritionist in Paris. This would however be the basis of the diet of the influencer Itscourtneyluna. On Tiktok, where she has 2.4 million “likes” for several hundred videos, the American films her shopping baskets and her eating habits. She can be seen cooking red meat steaks (in butter), sharing recipes from “carnivorous cookies” (with butter) or to prepare cakes with eggs and cream. “And not a day goes by without nibbling on a piece of butter”, she said, biting into a wafer. She claims to have lost 40 pounds (18 kilos) in this way.
For Katell Magoarou Guerin, dietitian in Finistère, such a diet “created deficiencies”. She points “a lack of fiber, carbohydrates, vitamin C”And warns of the risk of developing “very bad breath”. But for its followers, this diet melts the fat mass, thanks to ketosis. “We turn the body upside down: on cuts the supply of carbohydrates to the body, which must draw its energy from the breakdown of lipids“develops Corinne Godenir. But “when we stop, there is a rebound effect”.
In the long term, this diet exposes you to harmful health problems. “The high protein aspect can have an appetite suppressant effect, but in return, we will have an acidification of the organism, an overwork of the kidneys and an alteration of the microbiota”that is to say all the microorganisms that populate the digestive system, explains Nina Cohen Koubi. “Our microbiota ensures good immune defence, physical well-being and mental health”, she details.
There parisian nutritionist also recalls that “consumption in excess of red meat exposes to the risk of colon cancer”. Without forgetting that this diet is probably the worst for the health of the planet: red meat is one of the foods whose production emits the most greenhouse gases, responsible for global warming.
The raw fruit diet
AT the exact opposite of carnivores, the summerNew York iktoker Tribebynoire presents himself as a fitness coach and nutritionist specializing in raw vegan diets, where raw fruits predominate, as well as leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds. His videos are each time watched by several thousand people. The most viral, which explains his diet, has more than 3 million views. On the social network, he stages himself, bare-chested or pecs underlined by tight-fitting clothes, during his bodybuilding exercises or slowly swallowing large bowls of fruit.
Here, carbohydrates are not banned, on the contrary, the influencer praises their ability to “increase the level of insulin sensitivity”which would, according to him, prevent the storage of fat. According Tribebynoirethis regime would have properties “hydrating and oxygenating” facilitating weight loss.
At first glance, this diet promises a 100% natural, 100% healthy diet. “We have fibers, but we are sorely lacking in proteins which prevent muscle wasting”recalls Nina Cohen Koubi. Moreover, “These diets with an obsession with a food or calories can cause eating disorders: hyperphagia, food urges”warns there nutritionist physician. “There is no perfect food on its own. You have to find a good balance, not too much protein, but a little all the same”, abounds Corinne Godenir. “Let’s get some common sense. Eating fruit is great, but it’s not enough. With a diet like that, you lose your hair, you lose your muscle”, she adds.
Prolonged fasting
Want to lose weight ? Stop eating. This is essentially what the Australian influencer offers Christine Crouchwho presents herself as a health coach (with 15-minute sessions billed at $111 each). In one of her most viral videos, 1.4 million views, this follower of fasting in all its forms claims to have lost 20 kilos in 25 days by consuming only water. A figure that the influencer later revised downwards, to 9 kilos.
“It’s a hunger strike of more than three weeks, you see the state in which are the people who do this? It can’t be good for your health. You lose muscle, your brain goes wild, etc.“Corinne is alarmed Godenir. “With these diets, we are creating new malnutrition, while we are in countries of food abundance”is sorry there nutritionist. Dietician Katell Magoarou Guerin also points to the ravages of such a diet. “The body needs fuel. Is it taking care of oneself, of one’s physical, mental and social health, to starve oneself? No !“
“The restrictive diet is an attempt to regain control over the body which fails in three quarters of cases. To stabilize your equilibrium weight, you have to go back to the body’s needs, go towards a natural regulation of eating behavior”adds Katell Magoarou Guerin. IThe National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety recalls that 80% of people who follow a restrictive weight-loss diet regain the weight lost within the year and expose themselves to risks: loss of bone and muscle mass, kidney and heart risks, depression and loss of self-esteem.
Even fasting for a few days is not recommended. “It can be interesting when the body is sick, to give the body time to heal itself. Other than that, I don’t recommend fasting. This weight loss will not be stable. You have to listen to your hunger for good mental and body health”concludes Nina Cohen Koubi.
Morosil sweets
This is the product of the moment: the morosil candy. On TikTok, many influencers make the necessarily enticing promise of these “fat-burning” treats, based on blood orange extract and cider vinegar, which would allow you to lose weight without changing your eating habits or practicing physical activity. Magic. With jars of 60 candies sold between 36 and 50 euros, and 3 to 6 candies consumed each day, these products are enough to make the Tiktokeuses salivate who order bottles by the dozen to resell them individually to their subscribers, with a nice margin along the way. “The fat business [business du gras], these are several billion euros in the world. Money that is made on the backs of people, especially women, who are insecure about their weight”deplores Katell Magoarou Guerin.
However, despite the examples of physical transformation highlighted on TikTok, in “before-after” photos and videos whose veracity is impossible to verify, the effectiveness attributed to morosil remains to be demonstrated. A study published in 2022 (in English) admits he can “to make a significant contribution”but only “as a complementary strategy to a weight management program” which includes physical exercise and a healthy diet. But when the followers and the manufacturers assure that it allows to make “melt belly fat”Corinne Godenir responds bluntly: “It’s absurd, you can’t choose where you lose fat.”
“A candy? We wonder who the target audience is…”, blows Katell Magoarou Guerin. Just look at the profiles that relay the hashtag #morosil: teenagers, young women but also young mothers in a hurry to lose the pounds gained during their recent pregnancy. Nina Cohen Koubi worries about this: “In postpartum, we must not lose weight too quickly, the body has already been put to the test. We must let it regain its bearings!”
In general, the health professionals interviewed agree that the first question that people looking to lose weight should ask themselves is not “chow?” but “Why ?”. “You have to be aware of what you want for yourself, not through the eyes of others“explain Nina Cohen Koubi. “This overvaluation of thinness creates a fear of rejection if one does not have a normal body, that is to say thin. Whereas one can have a naturally overweight equilibrium weight”, concludes Katell Magoarou Guerin.