5 Reasons Why Weight Loss Products Keep You FAT

Marc and Angel

5 Reasons Why Weight Loss Products Keep You Fat

Posted: 05 Mar 2008 09:07 PM CST

Weight loss companies are incessantly building wealth and dieters are only getting skinny in their wallets. Americans alone waste over $35,000,000,000 a year on weight loss solutions. Before you cough up your hard earned cash for the most recent weight loss miracle medication consider the general population’s success rate. Only about 5% of the 50,000,000 Americans who dieted last year managed to lose weight and successfully keep it off.

From magical calorie burning pills to fat melting vaccinations, dieters are loosing everything but the fat. So the next time you’re tempted by the latest and greatest weight loss craze, ponder these 5 reasons why it’s almost certainly far from great.

1. Scientifically Proven Does Not Mean Practically Applied – Just because some doctor endorsed a weight loss product does not mean it works. Who is this doctor anyway? Is he a PhD of medicine or a PhD in marketing? Is he actually a real doctor or does he just play a doctor on television? How was the product proven and what scientific standards were used in the testing baseline? Don’t believe the photos either. Have you ever wondered if the “Before” and “After” photos were taken in the opposite order?
2. Most Promotional Weight Loss Ads are Complete BS – A few years ago the Federal Trade Commission released data on an analysis they performed involving 300 weight loss related advertisements. “The analysis showed that nearly 40% of the advertisements collected contained at least one representation that was almost certainly false” and another 15% that was likely to be false or imprecise.
3. FDA Approved Does Not Mean Safe or Effective - Do you really think the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sufficient resources to accurately evaluate every dietary product proposed to hit the market? They don’t, and there is no feasible way they ever will. A considerable percentage of the weight loss products on the market are classified as dietary supplements. Under the active Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994 producers of dietary supplements do not have to verify that their product is effective, safe or at all healthy prior to placing it on store shelves. Sometimes somebody has to become very ill from a dietary supplement before it even becomes a “blip” on the FDA’s radar.
4. “Too Good to Be True” Means “Stay Fat and Become Broke” – The old rule “if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true” is 100% applicable to all weight loss products and dietary supplements. Remember, your body is an organic machine that operates by an intrinsic set of laws. There is no possible way to alter these laws without experiencing extremely unmistakable and counterproductive side effects. Most quick fix weight loss products do nothing more than soak up your cash and leave you stranded with more health problems than when you started taking them.
5. You Don’t Need a Product, You Need a Lifestyle Change – Even when a truly safe weight loss product is invented it only provides a temporary fix to an enduring lifestyle dilemma. Over the last two decades thousands of new, trendy weight loss and dieting products have cycled in and out at your local health food store. If any of them really worked as promised, the cycle would have ended years ago and the health food stores would be a lot smaller. The truth is none of these products will ever work as promised because, with or without a product, a healthy lifestyle change is required to create and maintain a healthy, lean body. If you do not eat nutritious food in moderation, exercise regularly and get enough sleep you will never lose weight and your body will never be healthy.

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Well, there you go. These folks just wrote the entire synopsis of my blog right here. Ta da!
I'm a subscriber to their blog and it's one of THE most informative blogs I read.

The very last sentence of their article is the entire POINT. That's it pure and simple.

I purchased a workout DVD today instead of makeup at Ulta today. Go figure! But I have enough makeup and that's not going to help me be fit. Mentally fit because I feel confident looking my best. But the DVD is from the Firm exercise DVD's and I am an avid collector. Oh, and yes, I do the workouts. :D And I know that just by buying it and just by owning doesn't mean that I'm healthy. I have to use the damn thing!!!!
That's what it takes for me. What does it take for you?

Take care,
Kimberly

As an avid 'net surfer I find the coolest stuff. Well, that's what the Internet is all about, right? :)

I found this article about achievement and having patience to get there. That's what it takes to become healthy and fit. Almost all weight loss clients, pills, exercising systems, etc. what you to believe that they can deliver PDQ, banking (literally) on desperation.

Allow this poignant article to set you straight.

Rome Wasn't Built Overnight

by Liane Schmidt, Aug 8, 2007

Perseverance and commitment will make all your dreams come true.

Success comes about from doing and persevering. While others may let their dreams fall away, if you hold true to your dreams and commit to the work it takes to obtain your dreams you cannot fail. You will reach all your dreams. As they say “Rome was not built over night”. Anything worth anything takes time to build, to grow and to become something really great. If you have a best friend, that friendship took time to bloom. It took many different moments spent together. It took being there for the other person through the good and bad times. This can metaphorically be compared to the path you must take when you are working toward the career of your dreams. There will be moments when it will be difficult. But if you love your dream enough, you will stay true to it no matter what trials come along. It is my sincere belief that the only way you can stay true to a dream is to love it with your entire heart. So search for inspiration on your path toward making your dreams a reality. There will be tough times and you will need all the positive energy you can find around you to keep you on your path. You deserve to have all your dreams come true and, thus, you deserve to have people and events in your life that will help you reach them. Do not sell yourself short. Do not settle for anything less than the complete beauty found in your dreams. You must also keep yourself open to the beauty that other people can offer you. You must not let some people's negative energy keep you from the positive energy that can also be found. While there will always be people who might not be able to lift your spirits, there are plenty of people in the world who can and are eager to give love and kindness to all those who cross their path. You can find them. They are the true angels that will always fill your life. Believe, believe, believe.

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What's It Going To Take?
Axil Rose told me 'Patience.'

Take Care,
Kimberly

Get With Your Program

Here's the kind of blog posts I like--lists! Follow this list and you'll have WHAT IT TAKES!

http://aiminghigher.blogspot.com/2008/01/you-not-on-diet.html

And there's plenty of other good reads here too.

Take care,
Kimberly

Want To Cut Out the Middle Man?

Sometimes I get lured into purchasing fitness or nutrition ebooks by all the 'free' stuff they offer. Some of it can be better than the rehash ebook. Then I found this toolbar that helps me find pdf files. It google-like searches for the title I take from their 'freebie'. Sneaky...yes! But it's free to begin with. :/

So, here's a free ebook and you don't even have to purchase the regurgitated nutritional/diet. :)

www.ultimatefatburner.com/downloads/7FatSecrets.pdf

And let me tell you this, because this is exactly what my blog is about; these are NOT secrets. Like 'eat breakfast' is not a damn secret!! Sheesh. Thank goodness it's free. Maybe someone out there has been asleep at the wheel and will actually be enlightened by these 'secrets.' And if so, shame on you!!!

My next entry is going to go over somebody's ebook pointers. You know, the bulletpoints that they tell you that they are going to cover in their book. I don't even have to purchase the book (and I haven't or will I) to tell you, for FREE what the points are. Don't spend your money on lame ebooks.

If you want to get something that has something to teach you, get my bud, Scott Toursignant's ebook. Not a rehash, not old-school crap, and nothing lame about what this man's a-preachin' and a-teachin'. He's the real deal. And get over to his blog too. I love it over there!

http://2purcells.goose123.hop.clickbank.net/

What's It Going To Take?

Take care,
Kimberly

Do You Drink Your Greens?

The purpose of my blog is to share with those interested in fitness, losing weight and health. And because there is so much BS out there I want to rat those rats out.

This product isn't necessarily bad. It just tastes bad! However, the bottle said 'Great Taste.' Compared to what? Sewer water with scum in it? Blech!!!

I purchased Renew! Liquid Greens. The Perfect Cleansing Companion. From RenewLife.

It was green all right but the taste was so hard to get past I dreaded taking my shot of it every morning. I'm too frugal to waste it because I do believe that the product is good for me. But it's not making it onto my 'let's do again' list.

Thirty servings. I did this for a month. Well, I could be cheating because 1) I used a Tequila shot glass each morning and that tends to be a tad bigger than a true ounce. And 2) now that I have the bottle up here with me in my office, there might be one semi-serving left. Left being the operable word. Uhhhmmm.....

Great ingredients: spirulina, wheat grass, barley grass, chorella, kelp, spinach, green tea extract, alfalfa, aloe leaf, olive leaf, broccoli, tomato, carrot, brussel sprouts and onion. You'd think it was a liquid salad. But it also had some orange and passion extract too. Too bad it didn't help with the taste.

It was worth a shot (30 of them to be exact) and I am sure my body got lots of good out of it. Just not worth punishing my tongue in the process. I have had much better greens than this. And I plan to go back to them.

Other renewlife.com products have been wonderful and I wholeheartedly endorse them. Just not this one. You can order their products from their website or from the Vitamin Shoppe, where I picked this one up.

Rating: it had all the right stuff and all the good things for my body but too much of a dread factor to keep with it.

I'm cheerfully looking forward to the next try.

Take care,
Kimberly

What Are You Going To Wear in The Meantime?

We know damn well that the road to fitness (aka looking hot) is long. And that's part of what my blog is about; we are not idiots that believe we can go to bed overweight and wake up to wear a bikini....in a size 6.

However, we certainly can dress for the trip. Check out these simple strategies for looking thin. Yes, I've heard of them before but if you are serious and want to do what it takes you have to have some redundancy. Heed the tips and appear hotter....

http://www.ehow.com/how_2034292_dress-look-skinnier.html?utm_source=eHOD&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2034292&utm_campaign=03_02_2008

I get a 'how to' article every day on my Google landing page. It's fun to learn some new things and some I just press PASS! Like how to wash golf balls.

Take care,
Kimberly

How Food Labels Try To Trick You

This lesson was one of my favorite nutrition classes to teach. All of my clients were trying to lose weight so it was a re-education for them. It was eye-opening for me and for them too. I hope it gives you new eyes on reading labels and what they really mean.
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You May Be Eating More Than You Think

This article was emailed to me from Lou Siri, lou@positivefitness.net

Do you really know how much you're eating? When you check out the food label on your breakfast cereal or microwaveable dinner, you had better read carefully, or you could wind up consuming more calories and fat than you think.

The biggest mistake people make is not looking at the serving size. You might say, "oh wow, this only has 100 calories!" and eat the whole thing. But be careful, the package may serve four, which means you'd be eating 400 calories, not 100.

You can find the serving size listed directly under the Nutrition Facts on the food label. When reading your food labels, this is the first place to look because it influences all the nutrient amounts listed below it. The serving size is supposed to be based on the amount of food people typically eat, but this is not always the case. Breakfast cereals are a great example. A serving size is typically listed as one half cup or three-quarters cup, but most cereal bowls hold two cups.
Another place consumers get confused is the fat content. Less than 30 percent of your total calories should come from fat.

Unfortunately, we can't always rely on the advertised percentages to paint a true picture. Labels that boast "98% fat free" or "50 percent less fat" are misleading. The fat percentages on these labels are based on volume only. For example, if you were to take a bottle of water and put one drop of oil in it, you could say that by volume, that water is 99 percent fat free. Yet 100% of the calories come from fat.

The next time you're at the store look at the milk labels. One serving of 1% milk typically contains 100 calories and 25 of those calories are from fat. That's 25% fat, not 1%. To determine whether the food you buy is less than 30% fat, follow this simple procedure. Look at the label on a particular food. It will show the number of calories per serving and the number of calories from fat. Next, divide the calories from fat by the total calories to see if it is less than 30%.

Even if you find a food that has less than 30% of calories from fat or one that has no fat, be careful not to fall into the fat-free trap. It's a proven fact that people eat more than they should if it's labeled fat-free. Just because it's fat free, doesn't mean it's calorie free. Another potential problem with fat-free foods is the sugar content. A lot of fat-free foods have a lot of added sugar. Read the ingredient list. If sugar is one of the first things on the list, then that is what was used to replace fat. If you're concerned about your health you don't want added sugar in your diet either.

So what do the label claims mean? Below is a list of some of the common claims seen on food packaging and what these claims mean, according to the FDA regulations.

- Fat free = less than 1 gram of fat per serving
- Low fat = 3 grams of fat or less per serving
- Reduced fat = 25% less of the nutrient or calories than the usual product has.
- Light = one third fewer calories or the fat of the usual food.
- Calorie free = fewer than 5 calories per serving.
- Low sodium = less than 140 mg of salt per serving.
- Low calorie less than 40 calories per serving.
- Low cholesterol = less than 20 mg of cholesterol and 2 grams of fat per serving.
- Reduced = 25 percent less of the specified nutrient or calories than the usual product.
- Good source of = provides at least 10% of the daily value of a particular vitamin or nutrient per serving.
- High fiber = 5 or more grams of fiber per serving.
- Lean (meat, poultry, seafood) = 10 grams of fat or less, 4 grams of saturated fat and less than 95 mg of cholesterol per 3 ounce serving.

My favorite is the cooking spray "for fat free living". There are zero grams of fat and only 2 calories per serving (sounds good doesn't it?). Guess what the serving size is? 1/3 of a second! Think about how much you need to coat a small pan...
If you look at the ingredients of that "fat free" cooking spray it has only one - vegetable oil - 100% fat!

Hmmmm.
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When I taught these classes I loved to use props; visuals. I would use this bag of Gummy SweetTart Bugs candy. The bag was always empty. Someone had fallen for its ploy.... :) Really....I dug it out of the trash can. ;) But right on the front of the package was this huge graphic star that said 'FAT FREE!!!!' Well of course.....It was all sugar!!!!

Now, hopefully, you too, will be very suspicious of the packaging. These food manufacturers want to deceive you. Otherwise, if you want to truly be healthy, you won't give them your business.

Take care,
Kimberly