Sam Archer, McPherson senior and KU football player, couldn’t focus in his classes and was having trouble remembering what had happened earlier in the day. He also lacked the energy to complete everyday tasks. It was January 2008 and it wasn’t the cold, dreary weather bringing his body down—it was the way he had chosen to lose a few pounds after football season.

When Archer was looking for an “easy” way to lose weight, Archer says, his friend and teammate Kerry Meier suggested a diet that Meier’s brother had success with: the “cayenne pepper and lemon juice diet.” The diet required Archer to drink six to 12 glasses per day of a mixture that contained 1 teaspoon squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1/18 tablespoon cayenne pepper and 8 ounces water. To abide by the diet, Archer was allowed to drink only water and this mixture for 10 days. After about five days, the misery and hunger were too overwhelming and Archer quit the fad diet.

Fad diets are a common “quick fix” for college students, however, the distress to the body that many of these diets cause can result in short and even long-term damage, says Staci Hendrickson, registered dietician in Lawrence.

“When you do a diet like this, it’s like trying to drive your car to Kansas City without enough fuel,” Hendrickson says. “You’re not going to get there. Your brain starts to shut down and only focuses on essential activity. You’re looking at extremely low energy, loss of memory and an inability to focus on everyday things.”

These diets can be very appealing to college students because of their claims of “fast and easy” weight loss. In an environment where students are prone to unhealthy eating with fast food and late-night calls to pizza joints, many students think that a quick-fix diet is the most efficient way to lose weight.

“I’m good at short-term diets, not long-term. With the stresses of school and so little time, it’s easier for me to have something that is set for a few days versus something that I have to do all the time, for months,” says Charley Ritz, Minneapolis junior.

Ritz was looking for a fast way to lose weight before she went home for Thanksgiving break. She had only a week and heard about a three-day diet. The diet cut her caloric and carbohydrate intake by more than half. She was forced to stick to a strict food regimen, which included canned tuna, black coffee, hot dogs, fruits and vegetables. A friend who also completed the diet told her she could lose 10 pounds in three days.

Although Ritz says she had some success with the diet because her clothes were much looser, Mitzi Dulan, sports nutritionist for the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals, says diets such as this one can actually lead to more weight gain.

“A three-day diet is really silly and to lose that amount of weight in three days is not realistic,” Dulan says. “Diets like this cause someone to ‘yo-yo’ diet. It doesn’t allow a person to develop a healthy relationship with food. They end up severely restricting their diet so once the three days is up, they overeat and then gain back all the weight they lost and many times more than they lost.”

“Yo-yo” dieting and constantly trying different “fad” diets can cause long-term health effects, making weight loss nearly impossible as people get older, Dulan says.

If you are constantly starving yourself on these diets, then your body will eventually cling to whatever food it can and slow down your metabolism, Dulan says.

“It is permanent damage that many times can’t be reversed,” Dulan says. “It goes back to the beginning of time and it is a survival mechanism. Your body’s metabolism will automatically slow down if it is constantly hungry.”

Fad diets are often programs you’re supposed to follow for a few days or a few weeks, but nutrition experts insist that the right approach to weight loss is to change your lifestyle permanently.

“The trick is to follow a common sense diet,” says Marty Glenn, R.D. and advanced nutrition lecturer at KU. “Limit your portions to a sensible amount, incorporate more fruits and vegetables and exercise.”

After talking to a nutritionist, Archer, the KU football player, found that the most effective way to lose weight was by increasing his cardio workout and cutting out bad food, such as pizza or fast food. He has now kept his weight off for almost a year.

“I worked out a lot more and ate a little healthier and I have felt so much better,” Archer says. “Not only did I lose weight. I was feeling better overall.”