So you’re ready to embark on a weight-loss journey. You want something fairly easy and painless – who doesn’t? But when you decide to lose weight, it’s important to examine diet plans to see if they fall into the “fad diet” category.

The bottom line is if a diet isn’t a way of eating that you can stick with for the long-term, then it probably isn’t going to work for you. Other red flags to look for when determining whether a plan is a fad diet include characteristics such as eliminating entire food groups, like carbohydrates or fats. And if a diet restricts you to only a handful – or just one – type of food, like grapefruit or cabbage soup, then it’s probably not going to work in the long-term to keep weight off. After all, you can’t subsist on only a few types of food. If a plan promises huge weight loss – more than one to two pounds per week – then it’s probably not only a fad diet, but also an unsafe one.

If you’re lucky enough to lose a large amount of weight in a short time, then it’s likely you’ll gain it back just as quickly. A loss of fluid, not fat, is usually responsible for this type of loss. Any diet that claims weight loss by just taking a supplement while you eat what you desire is probably too good to be true. Lasting weight loss occurs when you adopt healthy eating habits and get moving. Bottom line: If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.