Skinny, slim and sexy: America’s new and improved dream girl. Who wants curves or meat on their bones? Working for a body that is fit and healthy just sounds like too much, well, work. The “cure?” Less food, less workouts and, ultimately, that super great body. Right? Wrong.

Dieting has gone too extreme.

Once a means for becoming healthier and helping to lose weight, dieting has become a new and improved system that instead glorifies unhealthy habits. Examples of this shine brightly through the HGC diet, calorie counting, cayenne pepper diet and misuse of smartphone weight loss apps. Dieting has become dangerous and misconstrued as a quick fix to achieve that “perfect body.”

The HGC diet: One of the more extreme weight loss schemes, the HGC diet consists of an unhealthy intake of calories (their website encourages 500 calories per day) accompanied by HGC drops that help to drop pounds faster than they can be gained. The average person should be taking in an average of 2,000 calories per day in order to keep organ functions working properly and feed the body the proper nutrients it needs. Taking in less than 1,500 calories can be hazardous and have negative effects on the body.

Calorie Counting: Calorie counting doesn’t encourage healthy eating, but rather a set system that allows someone to eat whatever they want as long as they don’t go over their personal calorie intake. Calories are not the enemy; it’s what’s inside the food that can cause an individual to gain weight. For instance, eating one serving of icing vs. eating a serving of peanut butter is going to look better on paper, but at a second glance is much worse health wise. Peanut butter has lots of protein in it while icing consists of lots and lots of sugar. If tallying the number of calories is the only thing an individual is concerned with, they would miss that important aspect.

Cayenne Pepper Diet: Originally called the Master Cleanse, the Cayenne Pepper Diet lasts 10 days and only involves a lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup and water concoction (no solid foods). While this trend started out as nothing but a fast to help clean out the body, it was transformed into what people are now calling a diet and talking beyond the standard 10 days. While it may be a quick way to lose pounds in a hurry, once started back on solid foods, without a lifestyle change, a person would gain all of the weight that they lost back.

Smartphone Apps: While a great idea, weight loss and calorie counting Smartphone apps can easily be misconstrued work counteractively. Many dieting apps promote a set calorie intake rather than healthy eating habits and workout routines. The best way to a healthy, happy body is to work out regularly and eat the right kinds of food, not limit what’s being eaten.