ATLANTA -- If you're desperate to lose weight, you may be willing to try just about anything. This diet falls into that category. The concept is pretty simple: you eat or you don't. It's the "when" in this diet that sounds bizarre: you have to watch the moon.
Celebrities like Madonna and Demi Moore are credited with slimming down using a werewolf-style diet.
On a full moon or a new moon, you fast, drinking only water or fresh juices for 24 hours. The idea is that, just like the ocean, the moon affects the water in your body. Dr Taz Bhatia says science can't disprove the theory.
"We don't know looking at the research that the energy of the moon is not playing in to how our digestion works or how we metabolize things or how we accumulate water or store weight," she told 11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross.
Advocates for the diet say if you time it right, you can lose up to 6 pounds in a day by obeying the moon. While Dr. Bhatia says 2 pounds is a more realistic goal, she agrees that fasting is a good place to start.
"Long-lasting sustained weight loss often begins with a detox, so it's a great way to reboot," she said.
PHASES OF THE MOON | See when the diet stages would hit
And she says most people could use the restart on their diets.
"Excessive sugar, caffeine, bad foods, eating in a way that we're not meant to eat - we have to give the body a break, give it a rest," she said.
But diets that involve fasts should be carefully managed. She says a true fast should never last more than 24 hours -- and like a werewolf, the plan should fade away after the full moon.
"It's not sustainable long term. It's something you could do for a month, try it out. But it's not something you can do over a long period of time," she said.
The next new moon is February 18.
