Is the Cambridge diet right for you? With around 50% of the population on some sort of diet at any given time, losing weight is an industry in itself. There are so many different types of diets available that it can be difficult knowing which one will help you lose weight and keep you healthy. One diet that has been around for over thirty years is the Cambridge Diet.

This very low calorie weight loss plan – called the Cambridge diet as it was designed at the UK's Cambridge University – was developed in the late 1960's/early 1970's by Dr. Alan Howard.

At first it was used exclusively in weight loss clinics, but was then launched in 1980 as a commercial product in the US, with the UK starting to sell it 1984.

There are claims that the Cambridge diet has helped over 15 million people to lose weight.

How it works is that patients follow an extremely low calorie diet – from 415 calories a day up to 1500 calories depending on how much weight they need to lose and other factors. The idea is that, according to the Cambridge Company, the formula for the diet harnesses "the excellent weight loss properties of starvation".

Dieters are encouraged just to eat three of the Cambridge Diet pre-packaged meals daily for the fastest weight loss, or to use a combination of the meals plus regular foods for slower weight loss.

The meals are typically shakes, soups, and nutrition bars which, the makers claim, eliminate a sense of hunger as well as giving the right levels of vitamins and minerals, and the other nutrients needed to maintain good health.

While the makers may claim that their diet provides the nutrition you need when on their diet, long term starvation-type diets are really not a healthy way to lose weight.

And while crash diets like the Cambridge Diet may be used for a quick fix for an event coming up in a week or so when you want to feel svelte, long term faddy diets confuse the body and are not a healthy way to lose weight.