Every couple of years a new weight loss trend starts to get a lot of attention. Sometimes it is thanks to some sort of celebrity endorsement on a supplement that is sure to drain your wallet without making too much of an impact on the scale. At other times it is a behavioral trend—something that everyone will talk about on social media, making you think that you are missing out on something if you don’t give it a try, too. Intermittent fasting is part of this latter group. It is a growing trend that many people are talking about right now, though it may not be as successful as so many wish to believe.

The intermittent fasting diet plan promises weight loss by rotating between periods of eating a low-calorie healthy diet, and periods of not eating at all. The idea is that this actually prompts your body to burn more fat, stimulating your metabolism through nutrient-dense healthy foods, and then demanding fast fat-burn by extended periods in-between meals. The trouble with this dietary trend is two-fold. First, this model of dieting won’t work for some body types. The extended periods in between meals is actually likely to prompt some people to go into starvation mode, actually reducing the rate at which your body burns fat and uses calories. For others, this dietary trend just isn’t sustainable. Headaches, incredible fatigue, and countless other health concerns can emerge after fasting for an entire day. Doing this every other day for the length of your weight loss plan could cause trouble focusing at work, difficulty with relationships, and plenty of other personal concerns.

What’s more, this strategy for losing weight isn’t successful as a long-term solution for weight loss. What this means is that after a couple of weeks of following this diet, when you’ve lost a few pounds and feel like the diet has worked, you are going to return to your normal diet. This is when all the weight is likely to return. The only way to keep the weight that you’ve lost off is to keep following this fasting schedule, and this isn’t recommended.

Rather than trying to lose weight through trends like this one, it is a much better idea to consult with your medical weight loss doctor about the healthy medical weight loss programs that are available to help you with your long-term weight loss goals.