Weight Loss Scams

Weight Loss Scam Red Flags and Warning Signs

The FTC has released a report about weight loss scam warning signs every consumer should be aware of. The warning signs aren’t specific to any particular scam but one of these claims is made about almost every one of them. Diet scams take many forms and the wording and specifics of the scams change all the time. Even so, we bet your recognize many, if not all of these dubious product claims.

Learn to read between the lines to see the heart of claim. If people become good at that they are going to be very hard to fool and diet scams could finally begin to disappear. Sadly, that day is still far away. Please share these weight loss scam red flag tips with your friends and spread the word.

A claim is too good to be true if it says the product will…

• Let you lose weight without dieting or exercise.
• Help you lose more than two pounds a week for more than a month without dieting or doing any exercise.
• Allow you to lose a LOT of weight no matter how much you eat.
• Keep the pounds off even after you’ve discontinued use of the product.
• Stop your body from absorbing calories and fat so you can effortlessly lose weight.
• Safely enable consumers to lose more than three pounds per week for more than four weeks
• Help anyone using the product lose a lot of weight.
• Help you lose weight by either wearing
• Help you lose weight by rubbing it on your skin.

Weight Loss Teas Don’t Work

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and you want to try an herbal tea advertised as a way to lose those pounds think again. The primary ingredient in many of these weight loss teas is caffeine.

As you probably already know caffeine is a diuretic which means taking it can lead to water loss. You might weigh a little less after the first day but that’s because you’ve lost water, not fat. In addition to being a diuretic, caffeine can raise the metabolism slightly but not enough to help you lose any weight.

The one positive thing we can say about herbal teas in relation to weight loss is that if you drink them instead if high calorie beverages like soda and beer you could actually lose some weight. Don’t be fooled into thinking it was the tea that did it. What helped was not drinking sugar or carb-laden drinks. There’s nothing wrong with that but plain old water would do the trick as well.

Some of the teas are packaged as part of a program that, if you follow it, may actually aid in weight loss. Some of the advice in these weight loss tea programs is that you drink them after dinner and make sure that you don’t eat anything else until breakfast.

Yeah, I see how following
that rule might help someone lose weight. I also see how drinking a glass of water and not eating anything else until breakfast would have the same effect.

Diet Pill Scams

Diet Pill Scams. You’ll lose money, not weight.

Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight this year? Concern about weight is a dark cloud hovering over many of us as we start the new year. Many people try and fail to lose those extra pounds time and time again. Many become depressed and others desperate for a way to shed weight so that they can look and feel good again. The trouble is, con artists know it and have developed shrewd ways of picking your pocket while you search for something that works. As we begin the new year we are going to talk about some of these diet and weight loss scams in the hope that you save your money and efforts for weight loss methods that really work.

Diet Pills don’t work

First, we are going to look at diet pill scams. These include metabolism-boosting pills based on herbal ingredients and fat-and carb-blocking pills. These scams aren’t old. They were probably on the shelf under a different name 20 or 30 years ago but the message is always the same: Lose 20 pounds in 20 days, Stops fat and calories from being absorbed by your body. These products sound great and what a world it would be if they worked. Sadly, they’re all based on bad science and don’t help you lose weight. You’ll lose money every time you purchase diet pills but your weight won’t budge. We can’t offer you a miracle to weight loss but we can give you some tips to help you identify diet pill scams.

Diet Pill Scam Tips:

• Diet Pills are often unregulated. That’s because many of them contain “herbal” ingredients that the FDA doesn’t regulate as drugs. So any claims made by the diet pill manufacturers are not evaluated for accuracy. The upshot of this is that diet pills can claim to do almost anything and no one can say otherwise. An indication that a diet pill is an herbal product should make you suspicious no intrigued.
• Metabolism-boosting/calorie-burning pills. These are the diet pills that promise to raise your metabolism so that you can just burn, burn, burn away calories or fat. There’s always a new herbal metabolism booster containing herbal ingredients on the shelves. New ones appear and the old ones disappear. Do you know why? Besides the fact that regulation can’t stop it, older herbal diet pills have been tried and eventually everyone knows deep down that they don’t work. So the manufacturer often slaps a new name and label on the old pills and start over again. What’s the diet pill of the week this week?
• Fat-calorie-carb-blocking pills. These pills claim to block your body from absorbing calories, fat and carbohydrates. How bright could taking these diet pills be? You need to absorb some of the nutrients in the food you eat. Blocking your body from absorbing food can lead to all kinds of problems including gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea, bloating, and gas. Could this cure be worse than the disease? Why even risk it since its never been proven fat blocking pills play a part in substantial weight loss.

Diet Patches and Weight Loss Jewelry

Are diet patches and weight loss jewelry the miracle you’ve been looking for? They claim that using them makes weight loss a breeze. Should you believe their claims? We don’t think so.

Read on to find out why!

Diet Patches

The year is young and dreams of weight loss and keeping that New Year’s resolution have you exploring alternative weight loss methods. Some of these include diet patches, which help smokers quit so successfully, and jewelry.

None of the diet patches have been proven to aid weight loss in any way. These patches contain nothing but the same useless herbal ingredients found in diet pills, supplements and weight loss teas.

The bottom line is that people selling herbal methods of weight loss can promise you anything they want to because of the lack of regulation and yet have a product that does nothing.

Weight Loss Jewelry

If diet patches don’t work would you believe that wearing a piece of jewelry might help you lose weight? Many people seem to think so and have purchased products promising to do just that. Diet patches are a big enough stretch but jewelry is supposed to help me lose weight based on someone’s say so?

Save yourself some money and let the opportunity to purchase this weight loss miracle slip through your fingers. You’ll be glad you did.

Body wraps and slim suits

Body wraps and slim suits – You won’t burn fat away, but you will burn a hole in your wallet!

Slim suits and body wraps have been around since your grandmother was a little girl but they didn’t help her lose weight any more than they will help you.

Body wraps or slim suits as they are sometimes called have been around for a long, long time. Your grandmother may have one of these beauties in her attic gather dust. Leave it there. It didn’t work for her and it’s not going to work for you.

Body wraps claim to work by locking in your body’s natural heat so that the pounds just melt away. Some claim to shrink fat cells whatever that means. Some weight loss wraps claim to have the additional benefit of having been soaked in herbs.

If locking in heat is good, soaked in herbs must be even better right? The jokers selling this garbage are counting on someone believing them. Believe they must when you consider how long these things have been around.

Slim suits and body wraps do not address the reasons we gain weight. We tend to gain weight when we eat too much or exercise too little. Wearing a slim suit or body wrap does nothing to address that fact.

Anyone claiming that wearing their product will help you burn away fat should be called a liar, a scam artist or worse. If you don’t believe us, ask your grandmother.

Are gym initiation fees a scam?

If you’re asked to pay an initiation when joining a gym, you may be asking yourself whether this is really necessary or a scam.

If you intend to join a local gym this January, you’re not alone. January is when gyms see their largest increase in membership. That’s not surprising since getting back in shape is such a popular New Year’s resolution.

For some, joining a local gym is a first-time experience; others are renewing their commitment to exercise. Either way, you will find yourself signing on the dotted line at some point and making out a check for gym membership. There’s nothing wrong with that since many of these gyms are for-profit endeavers.

However, there’s one fee that’s not quite as set in stone as the gym’s salespeople would lead you to believe. I’m talking about the gym’s one-time initiation fee.

Gym initiation fees are basically no more than commisions for sales staff. The higher the initiation fee, the higher the paychecks for the sales staff. Knowledge of this will give you a distinct advantage when you’re negotiating your membership. If you play your cards right, you won’t have to pay this fee at all.

How to avoid paying initiation fees

In some cases you can negotiate a smaller initiation fee than you’re first quoted. When you first hear the words “initiation fee” get up and start walking to towards the door. They need you more than you need them. Every city has countless gyms to choose from and sales staff know this more than anyone. If you make a stink about it you can probably get the salesperson to magically waive the entire fee. At the very least you should get a counteroffer far below the original quote. If they don’t budge, shop around. Whatever you do, don’t pay a high initiation fee. Trust us, a move towards the door should lower the fee if not eliminate it.

Just remember this should you be planning on joing a gym: when it comes to gym memberships, all fees are negotiable.