To lose weight, one woman decided to eat nothing but canned sardines for three months — and apparently, it's working out great for her.
That's despite health practitioners warning it's a terrible idea and not a sustainable way to keep healthy.
"This is not a diet," explained North Carolina resident Jane Crummett in an interview with Fox Digital about her peculiar food choices. "To me, a diet insinuates a beginning and an end. This is my lifestyle and I have no intention of introducing plants back into it."
Crummett's decision to eat nothing but tinned sardines and medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil supplements for 135 days came after she switched to what she calls a "zero carb/carnivore" diet that consisted of zero plants and lots of meat. After switching to only sardines, however, she lost 35 pounds — which could more than likely be because she was at a caloric deficit on such a strict regimen.
After making the change, the woman said that aside from losing weight, she also experienced less pain from her plantar fasciitis, a foot disorder, and lower inflammation. She also said that after checking in with her own doctor and being "tested [for] all kinds of things," she was given a clean bill of health.
"I'm a firm believer that if you don't figure things out for yourself," Crummett said, "you'll never know."
While those are all positive results, an expert who spoke with Fox said that such an extreme diet is neither healthy nor sustainable.
"In the short term, I would imagine that any type of change she's making is going to show immediate results," dietician Kim Shapira told the website. "And it sounds to me like she had some issues with her gut and that she's removed some of the foods that [may have been] causing inflammation."
Despite those accolades, however, the Los Angeles-based doctor said the weight Crummett lost probably won't stay off.
"When you go on a low-carb diet, you're actually dehydrating your system," Shapira said. "So when you say 'quick weight loss,' it is quick weight loss only in the fact that it's water loss. It's not actually fat loss."
Though she didn't directly address the woman's choice to have no plants in her "carnivore" diet, the doctor said that sustainable weight loss comes from sticking to eating "a balance of everything" is best.
"I wish people would see historically that any time there is a diet trend and people jump on it, it doesn't last," Shapira said. "It's not sustainable."
More on diet: Scientists Reveal Grim Results of Eating Two Slices of Ham Per Day
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