I probably have the longest record of gross diet history on record. I love low-carbing! I can eat and I feel great!

The worst of the worst for me was the CAMBRIDGE DIET! Boy that was terrible. It was a total liquid diet and you bought these cans of Cambridge powder that came in chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or eggnog. You mixed it up in the blender and drank it three times a day.

The distributor had support groups at her house a few times a week and I went to those. Imagine, a support group for the starving! The woman who distributed the stuff, was absolutely thin and gorgeous so that kept us chunkies going!

Cambridge was a multi-level sales program and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to one of their big conferences. Some of the original sellers had gotten quite rich off the stuff. I never signed up to be a distributor in spite of the pressure. They had great little films about how to get rich off of Cambridge.

I felt completely and totally like crap. I fainted a lot. It led me to binging behavior and I blamed this on my personal weakness rather than the fact that my body was demanding food and calories.

I lost about 50 pounds but then I got to this point where I had an instant gag reflex when I tried to drink it. Years later, I tried slim fast and the gag reflex stayed with me. Even now, when my partner drinks an Atkins shake I cannot even look at it without gagging.

Well, that is just one diet of hundreds I have tried. Actually, I don't feel like a failure - I feel strong as someone who never gave up the fight even when I kept losing battles! What horrible torturous diets have you tried????

Orchid

I guess I would have to say that my worst dieting experience was the time I went to a diet doctor (a la Dr. Bernstein). He put me on a low carb diet that was also very low calorie.. about 750 a day and a big handful of vitamins. Little skinny nurses weighed me in twice a week and showed me plastic foods to help me learn portion control. I met with the great doctor once a month and when I stopped being able to stick to his diet after a few weeks, he declared that I had emotional problems and would never successfully lose weight until I dealt with those. Um.. ok.

I too did lots of horrible diets, but that was the most degrading, I think.

I tried one similar to the Cambridge and I lost 90 lbs and kept it off for 13 years! Wow, I'm so impressive! Actually I used the laxitive and vomiting diet to keep it off all those years. That caused major dental work (2 caps, 2 bridges), and I always felt like crap. That has to be the grossest diet ever!

My most memorable diet was about 20 years ago. My whole office went on the Skim milk and metamucil diet. It was toutted as the home made Cambridge diet (which I also tried.) All you drank was Metamucil mixed with skim milk. Yuck................However, I was quite regular.

Nanci

It's a toss up between a grapefruit diet and all that Stop The Insanity insanity.

Slim Fast!

What a starving nightmare...

I remember once as a teen-ager...my parents had gone away for a couple of weeks on a holiday and I convinced my sister to "diet" with me. We ate fish ( breaded and deep-fried) and corn everyday for 2 weeks. To this day, I don't know where I ever got the idea that fish and corn would cause me to lose weight. We were starving the whole time and didn't lose any weight! Go figure!

I have never even heard of the Cambridge Diet, but it sure doesn't sound like anything I'd like!

Vel- I can't believe that story about the doctor! That's horrible! People like that in the medical profession should definetely be reported! Or was he really IN the medical profession?

The "miracle soup" diet was the worst. What GAS! I had to run out of an aerobics class because I was exploding. I stayed on it for the days prescribed and was supposed to lose 10 pounds or so-- I think I lost 2.

Herbalife, blech!

I guess Phen/Fen wouldn't be considered a diet, but it ended up being the worse thing I've done to myself. It seemed great at the time, but in the end it became a nightmare. I was exercising 4-5 hours a day and hardly eating a thing. I would ride a stationary bike for 90 minutes a day and pop jelly beans while I rode to nowhere. It was insane. I lost 60 pounds in 3 months, but who knows what damage I've caused myself long-term.

I tried one with some black gunk you were supposed to have before each meal. That diet lasted about a day before I started dumping black gunk down sink. Some vitamin thing...was disgusting!
And the cabbage soup diet wasn't fun either.

The don't look in a mirror diet works quite well until a mirror surprises you and you have to face reality again.

That's the one I was on for a long time!

Has to be the evil 3-day heart patient diet! You eat like 700 calories a day for 3 days. Sample Menu: Breakfast 1/2 piece wheat toast, lunch Tuna with no mayo and 2 crackers, dinner was 2 hot dogs, 1/2 c cabbage and 1/4 c vanilla ice cream! Guaranteed to make you lose 10 pounds in 3 days and gain it all back in 2!

My worst diet was the cabbage soup diet....I LOVED it the first 3 days, then ugh...coudln't stomach to look at it, but I stuck it out - lost 20 pounds and gained it all back plus more when I went off it....but now, even 10 years later, the smell of cabbage still makes me sick!

I also did phen phen which still scares the hell out of me!

MEDIFAST!
It was another liquid diet. No solid food for about 3 months. I don't know what I was thinking - I weighed about 140 pounds and thought I was HUGE! (of course I was 18 years old - anything over 110 was huge ) I did lose about 20 pounds and unfortunately lost my gall bladder as well due to stones - all thanks to medifast! I also developed severe gagging nausea just at the sight or smell of the stuff.
Cheers,
Gypsy