Weight loss scams and how to spot them

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Replies

  • KatherineChiu
    KatherineChiu Posts: 5 Member
    MamaBirdBoss wrote: »
    Herbalife. :) Also, almost all the fad diets.

    Herbalife if used properly with wholefoods and exercise is not bad. But Herbalife on its own is bad.
  • KatherineChiu
    KatherineChiu Posts: 5 Member
    And its featured on myfitnesspal. A detox diet works for me just fine so long as I have wholefoods
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    KatherineChiu wrote: »
    MamaBirdBoss wrote: »
    Herbalife. :) Also, almost all the fad diets.

    Herbalife if used properly with wholefoods and exercise is not bad. But Herbalife on its own is bad.

    Then it's the food and exercise that helps you, not the herbalife.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    KatherineChiu wrote: »
    And its featured on myfitnesspal. A detox diet works for me just fine so long as I have wholefoods

    Where is Herbalife featured on MFP?

  • RogerShehata
    RogerShehata Posts: 3 Member
    edited July 2016
    Herbalife is food in another form, unfortunately these days you can't eat healthy even if you tried as even organic produce is in question for the quality of soil its planted in, the amount of water plant gets etc.... Herbalife has a seed to feed concept which means when the seed is planted till the time it is picked, then produced into herbalife products, till the time it is shipped to a destination and ingested by the human body it is tested all the way. Herbalife has invested over US$150million dollars in research and development to make sure that the products are state of the art.

    [Edited by MFP Mods]
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    edited July 2016
    I dislike the advertising lies and hype produced to make a quick sale on television (with the little ticking timer) and urgent threats that "this deal will end soon, CALL NOW!"
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    edited July 2016
    Azexas wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    Troutsy wrote: »
    - Your friends are selling it via facebook

    And YOU can sell it too. :smile:

    With a small investment you too can harass your friends via social media :D

    ...:dizzy: and harass family/friends at social gatherings while touting benefits of product in a carefully cloaked manner.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Just giving posts much needed bumps.
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
    We can make this a very short list.

    If it has the words "diet" or "weight loss" in it, it's a scam.

    If you get to and maintain a good fitness level, and eat a healthy well rounded diet, you should have no trouble maintaining a healthy body weight.

    It wont cost you a lot, and people would not be making billions of dollars a year off it.

    JMHO.
  • elka67
    elka67 Posts: 268 Member
    Anything that involves a magic machine/device that's advertised as working every single muscle in the body and has manic looking shredded models using them. There's no way they got their physiques using that dumb *kitten*.

    eg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA45cq0i2AA
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
    When this "miracle"- whatever it is this week- has taken over the life of someone you used to know like some kind of invasion of the body snatchers.....run!

    Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?

    So and so lost 20lbs in 5 months!
    Yea thats 1lb a week. -500/day. I dont think it was your pink drink or the $50 probiotic or the $120 protein shake.


  • Jayce802
    Jayce802 Posts: 1 Member
    In simple terms, unless they tell you is going to be a long, difficult journey, eating right and excising, its probably fake. Your next best easy/even more difficult option is fasting. It works, but at the end, it becomes extremely difficult for some people to maintain. Either way, it takes a lot of work and dedication.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Tis the season.

    tumblr_mrieflU7jN1s5p6ufo1_500.gif
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Anything that wants $$ while promising unbelievable weight loss or fitness results.
  • DrGWChamberlane
    DrGWChamberlane Posts: 7 Member
    ariamythe wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    ariamythe wrote: »
    Except that MFP isn't a marketed weight loss product.

    "Free online calorie counter and diet plan. Lose weight by tracking your caloric intake quickly and easily." from web site. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/welcome/learn_more etc.

    Again: it's a tool used for tracking calories, offered for free. From your cited study:

    "Compared with patients in the control group, those in the intervention group increased use of a personal calorie goal (mean between-group difference, 2.0 d/wk [CI, 1.1 to 2.9 d/wk]; P < 0.001), although other self-reported behaviors did not differ between groups. Most users reported high satisfaction with MyFitnessPal, but logins decreased sharply after the first month."

    Other behaviors did not change; use declined sharply after the first month; nothing was apparently monitored but self-reported "use of a personal calorie goal". That's not a very impressive study. I definitely agree with its conclusions: if you hand a random person an app and then just let them use it or not as they see fit, you're not likely to get a high success rate. But how is that in any way helpful data?

    Give me a study that considers what the people are actually eating with a diet plan, with a group using MFP regularly to log calories and a control who does not track (or tracks with a traditinal paper method), and I will give the study due consideration. But a study that simply says, "Give 'em an app and they don't do much with it" doesn't impress.

    Ariamythe,

    Good job! Science will always trump marketing hype. Peer-reviewed, published placebo controlled clinical trials are the standard. Bravo!!

    Dr. Chamberlane

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