Let’s talk about weight-loss gimmicks. This is one of those topics that really gets me fired up and all sassy!! Before I dive in, I’d just like to make the disclaimer, this is just my opinion that comes from my experiences. I am in no way trying to insult anyone or make anyone feel bad for using weight loss supplements. Since I was an overweight kid, and a girl at that, I definitely felt the body image pressure and have probably used every “fat loss” trick out there. I used and abused fat loss pills, fat loss drinks, crash diets, body cleansers, metabolism boosters, fat burners, phentermine, fat loss shakes, etc, you name it, I took it. Here is my thing 1. Sellers make these “fat loss” supplements sound so realistic and too good to be true. 2. Most of these products will help you lose weight, but they are NOT sustainable. 3. The sellers of these products are smart and know exactly who to market to, which in my opinion, is breaking all kinds of moral codes
Too Good to be True: If anyone has ever used a fat loss supplement or tried a fat loss diet, have you ever actually looked at what was in it or how it actually works? For example, a big one always on the market, fat burners. Now, of course with advertisement, they make it seem like you can take a few fat burners a day and magically all of your fat will just melt away with a bit of exercise. Now, don’t you think if it worked like that the U.S wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic on their hands? Exactly, the way a fat burner works is usually with an ingredient like caffiene, which helps give a little extra dose of energy to your body which then can slightly raise your heart rate and body heat production which assists fat loss. When I said slightly, I literally mean like one degree. Now if you pair this fat burner with a proper diet and daily exercise, then yeah, you will lose the weight, but all the credit should go to your hard work, not the pill. Here is my other problem with these fat loss things; it makes it seem like you can continue your regular daily lives and this “magic pill” will take care of everything for you. So, people continue their daily rituals of eating, hardly moving, and just keep popping these supplements. I know, because I was one of them! Without proper education and the feeling of hopelessness with your weightloss goals, it is easy to get wrapped up in a sales pitch and spend hundreds of dollars on these supplements. A lot of the “weightloss diet foods” we see being sold will help you lose weight, because they do put you in a caloric deficit, however a very unhealthy one, which leads me to my next point.
Sustainability: Most people are aware that if you are in a caloric deficit, meaning you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Some of the products or crash diets I have tried as a teenager did help me lose weight, but I was basically starving myself. There was this one thing I tried once, and it was basically these yummy meal replacement bars. I got to eat one for breakfast, dinner, and one snack. For lunch I was able to eat real food, but it had to be mostly vegetables and some kind of lean meat. As a teenager I was in heaven; I pretty much got to eat a candy bar for most of my meals AND it helped me lose weight?? SCORE! Well, it turns out it was not really what I was hoping for. I felt like crap all of the time, I was sore, tired, weak, and eventually it led me back to binge eating. Now that I am older I realized I was only eating about 900-1100 calories/day. That is most definitely not enough food to eat, especially as a growing teenager; I was starving. A lot of the new shake systems or crash diets nowadays do the same thing. They will get you results, because you stay in a deficit, but it is not healthy and in no way sustainable. As someone who has struggled with weight loss I can tell you mindset plays a huge role with your obesity and your relationship with food. These diets will not fix that relationship, they will cover it up. So guess what happens when someone who loses 50lbs from this “great” system switches back over to real life? If you guessed that they usually gain their weight back, you guessed right.
Marketing: THIS GUTS ME. As a teenager and even young adult trying to figure out how to gain my life back and lose weight, I felt hopeless and drained. Nothing I did would stick, the weight always came back plus some, and I still had an unhealthy relationship with food. I was always desperate to try something new. Now, a lot of you reading this, who may not have been in this stuation before may think that us overweight people are looking for an easy way out, or that we aren’t truly trying, or maybe even that we want to be fat. These are all things I have had said to me personally. In reality, I hated being fat, but I wasn’t educated properly. I mean sure I knew HOW to eat healthy, but I didn’t know HOW to change my unhealthy habits permanently. These people, the desparate, hopeless ones, these are the people that marketers go after. The young teenagers who hate themselves because they are bullied for their weight, the super tired moms who give everything to everyone around them but neglect self care and have no time to help themselves, and even the morbidly obese people who really want to change but have no support system and don’t believe in themselves enough to make the leap. The marketers make sure to hit everyone of these people by making it seem effortless and easy to “fit” into their day. Just take this pill twice a day and look like Sheila who just lost 65lbs. You can look like 50year old Bob who has been drinking these shakes for two months and now has a six pack. These people beliveve that this product could be their chance to change and lose weight, look better, feel stronger. They have exhausted so many other options and they hear these wonderful stories that they only dream about in their heads happening to them. Now, again, I am not here to bash on anyone, but remembering my experiences when I opened a new box to my new product that was going to make me skinny, then weeks later hating myself because it didn’t work and I was still fat. Man, that stings. I have been there, done it, and never wish that gutted feeling on anyone. These are people’s lives that these sellers are going after, and I don’t know how someone can do that to someone without feeling bad about it.
I just wish that these supplement companies would be more honest about what their selling and how they actually work. I am sure that some of these products really could help aid people in losing weight, but they aren’t magic like they portray. You still have to fix your mindset about food, work hard with eating properly, and bust your butt in the gym to get real results. I hope that people who read this will think about those weightloss influencers on instagram and Facebook that promote these supplements and magic pills, because I guarantee that is not the only thing they did to lose those 50lbs. I hope anyone who reads this and sells these products really thinks about HOW they are choosing to portray these products and WHO they are trying to convince to take them. If not any of those things, then I atleast hope you do some research and find out exactly what is in the supplements you want to take and how it is really going to affect your body. After all, we only get one, we need to take care of it well. I hope everyone has a great rest of their week, and always remember, stay strong, stay motivated, keep your head up, you can and will do whatever you set your mind to.
JBird's Word: A Journey to Fitness 