Can't Lose Weight?

Posts Tagged ‘Weight Loss Scams’

When it comes to weight loss today, many people are searching for the quick fixes and the fad diets to answer their weight problems, when in fact these are the programs that are inhibiting their weight loss in the long run.
Quick weight loss has its initial benefits but understanding the long term affects of this type of weight loss program can help you learn the most effective forms of weight loss and how to maintain weight when you finally reach your goal.
You see, there are actually some quick weight loss methods out there that work, however, the majority of people searching for weight loss information have no idea what these methods actually are. They get fooled by the fad diets that tell them a certain food is the sole cause of their weight gain and go for the pitch with enormous hope.
In a society that is based on the love for a quick fix, many people simply do not have the time in their day for any other form of weight loss program that may have better result but takes up too much time. At least, this is how many of them feel, but nothing could be further from the truth because a great weight loss program does not require a very large investment of time.
Let’s go through the pros and cons of conventional quick weight loss so you can see where the pitfalls are, and then we can explore where the true benefits of a successful quick weight loss program can be found. More importantly, let’s examine how you can get great, long-lasting weight loss results in your own life.
Pros Of Most Fad Diets
* Choosing to utilize a fad diet you have the ability to place great hope in a system with large claims. In the beginning you see a great deal of weight loss and assume that you are losing fat (in reality it’s water and muscle). This is enough motivation to convince anyone they are on the right track. These diets tend to be highly motivating, but just as deceptive.
* There is not much time involved for quick fixes like fad dieting. You are led to believe that you simply restrict the foods you eat as the diet calls for and you will get the results they promise.
* You do not have to go to the gym and work out with most fad diets, or at least they claim this to be true. The claims they make are enormous and unsupported in many ways, and this is the snare that gets most people. Everyone is willing to take a chance that involves no tedious work.
* Instant results! Most fad diet claim to lose double digit poundages in less than a week. This claim may be possible on a comprehensive weight loss system, but there are few systems out there that can honestly claim this. The fad diets don’t even come close on this claim, yet you will never see them stop making it.
Cons Of Most Fad Diets
* When you use a fad diet or choose to lose weight any other way than with a healthy diet and exercise you are losing the wrong type of weight; water and muscle mass. This means that you are not losing fat at all and the potential to gain all this weight back is more than likely due to overall decreased metabolic effects.
* You are slowing down your metabolism by eating less and neglecting your body of calories, carbohydrates and fat because your body needs the correct types of these nutrients to function properly. When your metabolism slows down you are not only going to discover a lull in the amount of weight you lose, but the capacity to gain it all back and then some is also increased.
* You find yourself in what is known as a yo-yo diet system where you are constantly losing weight quickly and gaining it all back. This can be dangerous for your health as well as your psychological emotions as well. It can be discouraging to find yourself in this cycle and even prevent you from trying to lose weight again.
* These types of quick weight loss programs are not for the long term. They utilize variations in starvation techniques that can only sabotage your weight loss goals in the future. The only way to really lose weight and keep it off is by changing your lifestyle. Begin eating healthier and exercising regularly so it is part of your life, not a short term diet plan.
Although in the beginning of the process, quick weight loss plans can seem incredibly effective, they do not last unfortunately, and they can severely damage your metabolism as well as your overall health depending on which program you follow.
Although you are trying to lose fat and calories, your body still needs a certain amount to function properly and the more you deprive your body of these nutrients and minerals, the more harm you are doing than good. Take the time to re-adjust your lifestyle and start making time for healthy meals, snacks and exercise to lose weight at a more gradual basis.
You will find that the weight loss you lose from healthy weight loss techniques is actually fat loss and your physique will transform into the body you used to envy! So what are you waiting for? Start adopting a healthy weight loss program now and turn your body into a fat burning machine!

Do methods weight loss salons use work? How about the weight loss pills that ‘burn up to 2000 kilocalories per day’? Well, in most cases, people don’t even eat up to 2000 kilocalories when they’re trying to lose weight.

Quote from Singapore Health Promotion Board’s Nutrition FAQ:

The use of weight loss products may lead to relatively fast weight loss initially. Many weight loss products contain bioactive substances that suppress appetite, stimulate metabolism or induce water loss from the body. It is not safe to use these products without medical supervision. Moreover, weight loss products are usually expensive and do not help change the overweight individual’s eating and exercise behaviors that are the root causes of weight gain. This makes maintenance of weight loss difficult.  Enough said.

With regards to numerous weight loss salons using body wraps, infrared or electro stimulation devices etc – must you really be educated to realise that all these don’t work? Please don’t fall victim to their intensive marketing tactics. If they really work, why do they spend so much money on advertisements mostly showing astonishing ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures and slim figures of celebrities but little or no scientific information about their weight loss devices?

Wait. Didn’t recent TV programs show normal Singaporeans losing weight after visiting beauty salons? How do you explain that? Well, these weight loss salons know their stuffs don’t work, so now they’re getting smart enough to recruit some personal trainers and nutritionists to ‘preach’ healthy living. So on top of their dubious weight loss gimmicks (where the real bucks are rolling in), they have their clients exercise and diet. Without a doubt, exercise and diet worked, and weight loss resulted. At www.PT.com.sg we offer the same services (without the body wrap nonsense of course!) at a fraction of the cost.  

Seriously, only lazy people wanting a quick fix would visit these weight loss salons. But the thing is that they don’t even provide a quick fix! You’ll only get ripped of.

Here’s an excerpt from a very informative report compiled by the Federal Trade Commission of the United States Of America – Deception In Weight Loss Advertising Workshop:

Seizing Opportunities and Building Partnerships to Stop Weight Loss Fraud. A panel of experts discusses and analyses claims made by manufacturers, citing scientific references to show how these claims are false and misleading the public. The claims include:

1. Consumers who use the advertised product can lose substantial weight without reducing caloric intake and/or increasing their physical activity.

2. Consumers who use the advertised product can lose substantial weight while still enjoying unlimited amounts of high calorie foods.

3. The advertised product will cause permanent weight loss.

4. The advertised product will cause substantial weight loss through the blockage of absorption of fat or calories.

5. Consumers who use the advertised product can safely lose more than three pounds per week for a period of more than four weeks.

6. Users can lose substantial weight though the use of the advertised product that is worn on the body or rubbed into the skin.

7. The advertised product will cause substantial weight loss for all users

8. Consumers who use the advertised product can lose weight only from those parts of the body where they wish to lose weight  Find them familiar? Read them in ads on the papers or on television lately? Please do take time to read the full report: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031209weightlossrpt.pdf

Losing weight ain’t easy. Nobody said it is. Only hard work and smart dieting will help you achieve your goals. Another important key is to change your eating behaviors and adapt to healthy eating so that the weight will be put off for good. Please do show your friends and family the reports and help to prevent any more fellow Singaporeans from falling into the traps of these useless companies!

 References

Muris, T. J., Thompson, M. W., Swindle, O, Leary, T. B., and Harbour, P. J. (2003). DECEPTIONIN WEIGHT LOSS ADVERTISING WORKSHOP: Seizing Opportunities and Building Partnerships to Stop Weight-Loss Fraud. Rockville MD: Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission..Available from World Wide Web:http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031209weightlossrpt.pdf – Page 59-73

Health Promotion Board. (n.d). Nutrition FAQ. Singapore: HPB Online. Available from World Wide Web:Singapore Health Promotion Board’s Nutrition FAQ – Q.12

*The statements in the above article are mere opinions of its author and are by no means directed to any beauty salons, weight loss salons or whatsoever, in Singapore.

Why Waste Money On Scientifically Unsound Slimming Programmes?Use Our Proven Methods to Lose Weight Today.