Weight Loss Clinic - Rant!

millerll
millerll Posts: 873 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
Science geeks of MFP, I need your help. My company is holding a benefits fair this week, and one of the vendors giving daily sales pitches is Transformations Medical Weight Loss. When I saw them listed on the agenda, red flags immediately went up. I checked out their web site, and sure enough, they're woo peddlers.

They're big proponents of Simeon's hCG protocol, along with appetite suppressants, thermogenics, lipotropics, B12 shots, and overpriced supplements. Of course, they charge exorbitant prices for these services.

I plan on attending today's presentation, and I want to nail these people to the wall. I was able to find a few legit studies debunking hCG, but I need more ammo. If anyone can post links to other studies about the ineffectiveness of the above methods, I'd appreciate it. We all know this stuff doesn't work, but I need something besides a web site to back up my claims. I want to be able to cite scholarly studies and see how they respond.

I'm also going to contact the company reps who organized this event and let them know what snake oil peddlers these folks are, so hopefully they won't be invited back. But I can't let them off the hook this week. From what I hear, people from my company are signing up in droves for consultations, and I'm furious that they'll be taken advantage of.

Thanks for your help!

PS - I can't post to this site from work, but I'll be checking it throughout the day for replies.

Replies

  • red99ryder
    red99ryder Posts: 399 Member
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    As much as I fully agree that what you have listed is all "woo", there really is no point upsetting your employer or making a fool of yourself for the sake of it. Let others waste their money and make no progress whilst you relish the knowledge that CICO works. Just my opinion but I don't forsee it going well for you.

    Agree

    Good luck
  • ew_david
    ew_david Posts: 3,473 Member
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    As much as I fully agree that what you have listed is all "woo", there really is no point upsetting your employer or making a fool of yourself for the sake of it. Let others waste their money and make no progress whilst you relish the knowledge that CICO works. Just my opinion but I don't forsee it going well for you.

    This.

    It's not worth potentially losing your job over.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    Hi, I don't have any links to papers but if you search google use https://scholar.google.co.uk/ instead of just google. Scholar google returns papers and you can see how many citations a paper has which could be an indication of how valid it is.
  • dolliesdaughter
    dolliesdaughter Posts: 544 Member
    It's not worth it to make a big fuss. Your are going to look like a stupid busy body. What is in it for YOU to make a big fuss? Not a darn thing
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited October 2016
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    As much as I fully agree that what you have listed is all "woo", there really is no point upsetting your employer or making a fool of yourself for the sake of it. Let others waste their money and make no progress whilst you relish the knowledge that CICO works. Just my opinion but I don't forsee it going well for you.

    So much this.. the words that came to my mind was not just upsetting employer, but embarrassing employer.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    I would not risk offending my employer over something like this.
  • JessicaMcB
    JessicaMcB Posts: 1,503 Member
    I agree with all the PP about letting sleeping dogs lie. For all you know your employer has this particular vendor coming because they have family associated with the weight loss organization and that is why they are presenting. I honestly would just make suggestions to HR re: organizations you think might be more appropriate for next year or, if this is committee run, get more involved yourself in next years' presentations
  • laraplogman
    laraplogman Posts: 2 Member
    I know the HCG diet gets a bad rap from a lot of people, but I have to take steroids for Crohn's Disease. So my weight shot up. And exercising with Crohn's often leads to embarrassing results. With my doctors' full blessings I have lost 66 pounds on HCG and have about 30 more to lose. And when I say doctors, I mean both my gastroenterologist and my general practitioner, not a doctor at a diet clinic. I hear a lot of people get mad and say HCG doesn't make you lose weight. And it doesn't. Doctors don't claim that it does. It helps control your appetite with a natural hormone rather than some pill with awful side effects or having surgery. The low-calorie diet is what causes the weight loss. I have seen low-calorie diets recommended by keto professionals and even fasting for several days at a time for not only weight loss, but to detoxify the body. I'm sure I'm not changing your mind on the diet, but it's the perfect diet for me and it's working for thousands of people every day, often with the encouragement of their physicians.
  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    laraplogman wrote: »
    I know the HCG diet gets a bad rap from a lot of people, but I have to take steroids for Crohn's Disease. So my weight shot up. And exercising with Crohn's often leads to embarrassing results. With my doctors' full blessings I have lost 66 pounds on HCG and have about 30 more to lose. And when I say doctors, I mean both my gastroenterologist and my general practitioner, not a doctor at a diet clinic. I hear a lot of people get mad and say HCG doesn't make you lose weight. And it doesn't. Doctors don't claim that it does. It helps control your appetite with a natural hormone rather than some pill with awful side effects or having surgery. The low-calorie diet is what causes the weight loss. I have seen low-calorie diets recommended by keto professionals and even fasting for several days at a time for not only weight loss, but to detoxify the body. I'm sure I'm not changing your mind on the diet, but it's the perfect diet for me and it's working for thousands of people every day, often with the encouragement of their physicians.

    There is no reason to "detoxify" the body, andnif there was it would be a medical emergency notndone tjeouh diet and a special supplement.
  • Larissa_NY
    Larissa_NY Posts: 495 Member
    Please only do this if you are sick to death of your job and want to go out with a bang. I don't care if they're selling miraculous cancer-curing tap water; you will embarrass yourself, embarrass your employer, piss off a vendor that your employer invited to the health fair, cause problems for your supervisor, and potentially put your job in jeopardy, and for what? Because you can't allow your co-workers to make their own decisions like functioning adults do? Because you've appointed yourself the snake oil police?

    Seriously. Let it go. The satisfaction of being The Person Who Knows Weight Loss Best and saving your co-workers from themselves is going to be cold comfort when you're sitting across the table from your boss and HR.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    laraplogman wrote: »
    I know the HCG diet gets a bad rap from a lot of people, but I have to take steroids for Crohn's Disease. So my weight shot up. And exercising with Crohn's often leads to embarrassing results. With my doctors' full blessings I have lost 66 pounds on HCG and have about 30 more to lose. And when I say doctors, I mean both my gastroenterologist and my general practitioner, not a doctor at a diet clinic. I hear a lot of people get mad and say HCG doesn't make you lose weight. And it doesn't. Doctors don't claim that it does. It helps control your appetite with a natural hormone rather than some pill with awful side effects or having surgery. The low-calorie diet is what causes the weight loss. I have seen low-calorie diets recommended by keto professionals and even fasting for several days at a time for not only weight loss, but to detoxify the body. I'm sure I'm not changing your mind on the diet, but it's the perfect diet for me and it's working for thousands of people every day, often with the encouragement of their physicians.

    do you know what HCG is? or where it comes from? and a lot of those HCG things are synthetic not natural unless you know where they get the hormone from. also how does it suppress appetite?
    It does have side effects such as fatigue, irritability, restlessness, depression, fluid buildup (edema), and swelling of the breasts in boys and men (gynecomastia).

    Another serious concern is the risk of blood clots forming and blocking blood vessels (thromboembolism). eating so little on a diet like that can cause gallstones,irregular heartbeat and so on. people who do keto dont normally eat low calorie diets they eat LOW carb.Its been proven that its not safe so why doctors are prescribing it? I dont know but they need sued for malpractice or their licenses revoked.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    If you can lose your job over calling out a "woo peddler" then it isn't a job worth having in the first place. I doubt your company know much about the vendor. That being said, it is unlikely you will get far calling out the salesmen who are pushing it. They are trained to keep pushing the product even when confronted. Most aren't knowledgeable enough about the product to know whether what you tell them is correct.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,319 Member
    The correct advice is probably to do nothing or at most send an email to HR if your work position is such that you feel comfortable doing so (CFO vs mail room clerk)

    https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/MedicationHealthFraud/ucm281834.htm
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