The 1977 “wine and eggs” diet has been crowned the most pointless weight loss fad of all time, according to British dieters

Researchers surveyed 2,000 British dieters, of all ages, and revealed, “the wine and eggs diet”, which was originally published in Vogue magazine, but has recently been rediscovered by influencers on social media, is officially the most pointless (50 percent).

The diet consists of three to five eggs per day, plus a bottle of wine, including wine at breakfast.

In second place, with 49 percent was “the baby food diet”, created by Tracy Anderson and followed by a number of well-known celebrities. The diet involves replacing one or two meals a day with baby food, jars of which range in calories from 20 to around 100.

The raw food diet, which restricts followers to raw veg, fruit and meat, became popular with well-known celebrities in 2012, and came third (39 percent), according to the data, while the same number voted for the cabbage soup diet, which became popular in the 1980s and involves eating nothing but cabbage soup for at least one week.

But Brits voted for more popular diets such as Atkins, juice cleanses and Paleo as pointless also, because they are simply too difficult to stick to, according to the 2,000 surveyed.

According to the poll, dieters will sign up to five restrictive eating regimes in an average year, of which just SEVEN percent will be successful.

In fact, the average diet lasts just 14 days according to the study, which was commissioned by food tracking app, MyFitnessPal.

Overall, 62 percent said they have signed up to an extreme new eating plan this January, despite 98 percent of those polled admitting that modern diet and fitness fads are often ridiculous.

The research comes after MyFitnessPal launches its new nutrition plan to help those looking to lose weight avoid the trap of trying to meet unrealistic and unattainable goals.

The 7-day Small Steps, Big Wins plan provides easy-to-implement tips and small daily changes, including daily nutrition tracking, that will not only help Brits to understand both the quantity and quality of what they are eating, but to help them create healthy, long-term habits.

Katie Keil, Chief Marketing Officer at MyFitnessPal, who commissioned the research, said: “It’s clear from the findings that fad diets aren’t an effective, long-term solution for those trying to lose weight or meet their health goals. We now see so many new fad fitness and diet trends pop up across social media platforms but at best, many of them don’t work. At worst, some of them can even be harmful. It’s also so demoralising when people fail at an unrealistic New Year’s resolution – something most of us are guilty of.

“We believe the best way to lose weight is not a complete overhaul of your diet and routine through fad fitness and diets, but to instead regularly track your nutrition to bring about awareness of what you’re putting into your body – and incorporate small, healthy changes so you can eventually build up long-term, healthy habits.”

An optimistic 93 percent feel hopeful they will find the right diet and lose weight in the near future, however, 72 percent are struggling to understand and manage their calorie and carbohydrate intake.

According to the poll, by January 14th, most Brits will have thrown in the towel on their New Year diet.

THE TOP TEN MOST POINTLESS DIETS (ACCORDING TO THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED THEM)

Wine and eggs diet (50 percent)

The baby food diet (49 percent)

Raw Food diet (39 percent)

The Cabbage soup diet (39 percent

The Alkaline diet (31 percent)

The Military diet (23 percent)

Atkins (20 percent)

Juice cleanse diet (25 percent)

Dubrow diet (16 percent)

Paleo (14 percent)

Survey conducted by Perspectus Global in January 2024, polling 2000 Brits.