The Earnfast diet Losing weight is hard to do, but the basic prescription is simple: cut your calorie intake and jack up your exercise. Here's the government-approved word on what to stuff in your yap. If that's too boring, check out a more alluring diet. We're not talking about our "Lose 84 pounds in 7 days!" diet. We invented that one. But diet-surfing on Yahoo! revealed that Diet Riot "offers a humorous, non-diet approach to permanent weight loss," while First Place is a Christ-centered health program. Hugs International has information on "non-dieting." To feed your love affair with Hostess Twinkies, dial up the Fast Food Diet. Nachos followed by double-brownie fudge cake, anyone? What makes a good diet, and how can you distinguish the reputable from the bogus? Diane Quagliani, a dieticitan who speaks for the American Dietetic Association, offers these counterfeit-diet warning flags. Too good to be true. For example, the ads for "fat-burning pills" on late-night television promise "You can eat what you want, without exercise, and still lose weight." Faced will this level of drivel, Quagliani suggests "Your common sense should kick in." Says who? "Evaluate whether the person is impressive or not," she says. "Credentials matter, but sometimes you have doctors writing things that are not so good, either." Food _______ is evil! Diets that demonize fats, carbohydrates or proteins are likely sham-filled, Quagliani says, observing that the current craze for high-protein, low carbohydrate diets mirrors a similar fad from several decades ago. The simple truth about weight loss, Quagliani stresses, is that calories count and exercise matters. Exercise -- whether vigorously chewing gum or pounding the pavement preparing for a triathlon -- is the only way to burn calories. But instead of sensibly reducing your energy intake and increasing your energy expenditure, why not try cider-vinegar pills? According to the ad, they are "the most natural fat eater of all times." And if vinegar's a bust, how 'bout the diet that works "faster than starvation"? When it comes to humbug weight-loss schemes, Quagliani favors the "magic Chinese earrings" that are guaranteed to take the pounds off. Read our weighty bibliography on weight loss.

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