Extreme diets have appeal to us because they claim to help us lose lots of weight quickly. Yes it is possible to lose weight in a rapid fashion but it must be done in a way that preserves your muscle and does not just come from water.
Most diets will work if you follow them. There may be different reasons why each one works but the bottom line is that if you reduce your calories you will begin losing weight. But what can happen is that with most diets you begin losing muscle as you are not supporting your muscle.
Fad or extreme diets are not usually all they are made out to be. After all much of the diet industry is about money. What you find is that many people who try these diets end up losing more muscle then fat. Muscle is the main fat or calorie burning part of your body. You want to preserve your muscle mass and even increase it so your body will be better at burning fat.
A healthier way to deal with your weight is start off by figuring out the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight. This will give you a base line that you can use in the future to help determine how many calories you really need. To lose weight you just need to lower your calories by around 400 every couple weeks as the weight begins to come off.
Now this will slowly but surely get the weight coming off. But slow is not what most people want, nor is it the optimal approach. You want to begin adding cardio exercise into your life. Not just any cardio though you want to perform high intensity interval training. You will do this every other day three days a week.
Now after say four weeks you will add into your plan three days of resistance training on the days when you are not doing your cardio. By including weight lifting using say a, Body Solid EXM3000LPS gym, as an aspect to your weight loss plan you will be building and or at least maintaining your muscle mass. This is the foundation of your metabolism and what really burns the fat. Increase muscle mass and you will be much better off.
Use this basic outline cutting calories and adding exercise and before long you will have reached your ideal weight.