What TikTok diets work – and what to avoid – per an expert

Lemon water, apple cider vinegar and doing shots of ginger in the morning — there’s no shortage of wild and wacky diet ideas on TikTok.

“They’re interesting in that they’re all over the map — from old-fashioned calorie counting to intuitive eating which is anti-diet,” Lisa Young, a registered dietitian nutritionist at New York University and the author of “Finally Full, Finally Slim,” told The Post.

Young recommends “picking and choosing” what works for you from the various dieting approaches but not going too far down the rabbit hole of any of them.

She cautioned that many of the diets you see on TikTok can create disordered eating and sometimes even slow down the metabolism.

“There comes a toll when we just try every single diet and fail,” she said. “Failing is when you gain it back, lose weight and not a success — keeping it off is a success.”

Have a look at some of the trending TikTok diets and Young’s thoughts on each.

Calorie counting

With 1.8 billion views on the video-sharing app under the hashtag #CalorieCounting and 8.7 billion for #CalorieDeficit, this classic approach is one of the most widely shared online.

Women are typically advised to consume 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day, while men are given a range of 1,500 to 1,800 calories.

While Young said this can be an efficient way to lose weight, there are a lot of downsides to it.

“It promotes a feeling of deprivation,” she said.

And, the dietitian explained that people can get swept up in the total calorie count of what they’re consuming, rather than thinking about proper nutrition.

“[People] often lose sight of the big picture which is eating more fruits and vegetables and protein, healthy fats, and they just hone in on counting calories,” Young said.

Chlorophyll water

On TikTok, hashtag #ChlorophyllWater has 254.5 million views, with people convinced that adding the plant compound to your water glass helps weight loss, detoxes the body and even improves skin.

Young is skeptical.

“There’s nothing magical to it that you can’t get from eating real foods,” she said, calling the fad “ridiculous.”

“If you eat plants, you’re gonna get chlorophyll, [but] if you want to drink chlorophyll, go for it,” she continued. “It’s not magic and people need to realize that.”

One benefit Young noted is that it does increase some people’s water intake.

“You’re actually thinking about the fact that you are drinking more water.”

Baby food

On TikTok, there are over 17 million views on clips relating to eating baby food for weight loss, with many suggesting foregoing all adult meals in favor of consuming about a dozen jars of baby food throughout the day.

Young isn’t going gaga for the goo goo.

“You lose weight if all you eat is baby food but it’s not sustainable,” she said. “Traditionally, baby food is going to be low in protein and fiber [and] it may not give you the right nutrients.”

It’s also not good for mental health, Young believes.

“It’s gonna control your life,” she said. “Where would you want to go out for lunch?”

Military diet

The hashtag #MilitaryDiet has 31.2 million views on TikTok and promises fast weight loss– up to 10 pounds in a week.

Proponents alternate restricting calories to 800 to 900 calories per day for three days and then eating normally for four days for a month.

The name comes from the dedication of sticking to the diet, “just like the willpower and discipline it takes to stay in the military,” the site notes.

On the three days of restricted eating, the only foods allowed are caffeinated coffee or tea, grapefruit, bananas, apples, green beans, broccoli, carrots, peanut butter, eggs, canned tuna, hot dogs, meat, whole wheat bread, saltine crackers, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese and ice cream in limited quantities.

Young said that, although people do lose weight, it’s mainly water weight. She believes it’s an unhealthy approach.

“It’s designed to help you lose a lot of weight, you know, in a short amount of time, which you’re not going to keep off,” she said. “It might actually lead you to gain even more weight than you initially lost.”

Cabbage soup diet

The popular diet of the 1980s is back on TikTok — with 7 million views on the app under the hashtag #CabbageSoupDiet.

Some people use the diet — which involves eating soup made from white cabbage and other low-calorie vegetables, along with consuming some low-calorie foods on their own — to kick start their diets or healthy eating.

Others use it as a crash diet to lose a few pounds.

“One of the benefits of the cabbage diet is you’re getting fluid and you’re getting fiber,” Young said. “You lose weight fast but it is not sustainable.”

She added the diet is also “nutritionally deficient.”

“You’re not getting protein, you’re not getting fat — it’s very low calorie,” she said. “So it is not something that you want to do for the long term. It’s also super, super restrictive.”

Coffee with lemon

Squeezing half a lemon into your morning coffee is trendy.

Hashtag #LemonCoffeeChallenge has 6.9 million views on TikTok, while #LemonAndCoffee has 5.8 million views.

Users swear it helps burn fat and reduces bloating, but experts say it’s not all the influencers promise it to be.

“If you are having coffee with lemon instead of a frappuccino or instead of a pumpkin spice latte [then] you will lose weight,” Young said. “But you’ll also lose weight if you have a Greek yogurt with blueberries.”

Bottom line: “There’s nothing magic in the coffee or in the lemon that’s going to lead to weight loss on its own.”