Quick fix diets, are these the answer to our prayers or the diets that nightmares were created with. I believe they are the latter. You will loose weight if you only drink lemonade (the Beyonce diet) however this is not maintanable and will only make you feel rather ill, dizzy and tired. Lets face it if we were meant to live on lemonade or cabbage why have we got teeth.

The reason why quick fix diets dont work is our bodies are designed to survive during times of starvation. If you suddenly decide to reduce your calorie intake by either just drinking lemonade or eating rice cakes your metablolic rate will be lowered in order to preserve the fat still present. This enables your body to survive on less. This would be great if you were living during the ice age but in todays society you will probably (if your anything like me) be eating cakes again next week. The important thing to remember is every time you return to "normal" eating patterns your body requires less food to keep you going and will really hang onto the fat stores it already has.

Even more disheartening is the kind of weight that you lose on these diets is often water not fat. If you are often bloated it will be water you are losing and this will quickly return once you resume normal eating. . You won't be losing much fat, (the body is only capable of burning 1-2 lbs of actual fat per week.) There is no quick fix. There are many different quick fix diets with various names including "Beyonces Lemonade Diet", "The Cabbage Soup Diet", The Celery Stick Diet", well the list is endless.

My advice and the way I lost weight following the birth of my son was to follow quick fix diets for a few days to give me a boost. I then replaced this with a healthy eating plan and exercise, yes exercise.

Then start a well planned heathly eating programme combined with good, old fashioned exercise. The exercise is a sure fire way to increase your metabolic rate and you wont then carry any extra pounds following the quick fix diets.