Will the Scarsdale diet help you lose weight? The Scarsdale diet will help you lose weight, but as with all fad diets, it won’t help you keep the weight off.  In addition, there are some serious pitfalls with the Scarsdale diet such as nutrient deficiency, harmful effects from herbal appetite suppressants and overall health concerns due to the lack of exercise. The Scarsdale diet allows three meals per day and does not allow snacking.  Breakfast allows a slice of dry protein toast, a half a grapefruit (or other fruit) and black coffee or tea.  Lunch allows lean cold cuts, tomatoes and another calorie-free beverage.  Dinner is fish or shellfish, salad, dry protein toast, grapefruit or seasonal fruit, and coffee or tea.  Fats such as butter or oils are not allowed.  Lemon and vinegar are allowed as seasonings.  Alcoholic beverages are not allowed.  The only beverages allowed are coffee, tea and other zero calorie beverages such as club soda and diet soda.  And there it is, the Scarsdale diet.   Do you want to know how one loses weight with the Scarsdale diet?  The same way a person loses weight with Atkin’s, the grapefruit diet, the maple syrup diet or any other fad diet:  Extreme calorie restriction!  Whatever the gimmick may be, the bottom line is that the diet restricts calories to sometimes dangerous levels.  We all know that starvation isn’t a recommended way to lose weight, but tack a name to it and have one celebrity recommend it and boom!  Instant dieting miracle!  The Scarsdale diet is seriously lacking in vital nutrients.  Without a reasonable amount of whole grains, the Scarsdale diet is lacking in insoluble fiber which will lead to gastrointestinal problems such as constipation.  In addition, fiber has been shown in scientific studies (not anecdotal testimony) to aid in weight loss, lower serum cholesterol and prevent certain forms of cancer such as colon cancer.  Other vital nutrients lacking in the Scarsdale diet are calcium and iron.   Herbal appetite suppressants are encouraged with the Scarsdale diet.  Herbal weight loss supplements and appetites suppressants such as ephedra have been linked to serious cardiac complications such as increased blood pressure, stroke, myocardial infarction and even death.  Need I say more, really?  Of course I do, because people continue to take ephedra products especially when they are recommended by the latest miracle diet.  Again, ephedra and other herbal appetite suppressants can have serious side effects.  Ephedra has shown the most extreme side effects, but others such as St. John’s wort can interact with certain prescriptions.  In addition, most herbal appetite suppressants are highly reactive to caffeine and side effects may be increased with the amount of caffeine in the Scarsdale diet. Amazingly enough, with all the information out there about how great exercise is for a person, the Scarsdale diet not only doesn’t promote exercise, it actually discourages it amongst people forty and over.  The daily calorie allotment in the Scarsdale diet simply doesn’t support safe exercise for people above forty.  We know that exercise not only promotes healthy weight loss, but it is proven to improve cardiovascular health and emotional well-being.  Exercise improves lives for people with diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and COPD.  The list of the benefits of exercise goes on and on.  Tell me why anyone would subscribe to a diet like the Scarsdale diet that discourages exercise?   People subscribe to this diet for the same reason they subscribe to any fad diet.  When you’re overweight, you want to lose weight.  When you’re obese, you’re desperate to lose weight.  There’s so much misinformation out there that it’s difficult to decipher between what’s real and what’s just another gimmick.  The Scarsdale diet is a gimmick and proven, safe, long-term results just aren’t there. Here’s the real secret to healthy weight loss that the Scarsdale diet fails to teach.  Slow and steady!  Losing weight involves the understanding that what goes in must come out.  Take in fewer calories than you put out.  In other words, if your daily requirements are 2000 calories per day to maintain weight, work towards eliminating 300 of those and go for a long walk to burn an additional 200.  Believe it or not, much of what you need to know about healthy eating habits can be taken from a kindergartner’s lesson plan on healthy eating. It’s about balance, consistency and knowing how to make healthy living a part of your everyday life.There’s hope for weight loss.  There just aren’t any miracles except for the one you can perform yourself!  The Scarsdale diet is no miracle diet.