The hardest part about the fitness industry today is that there are so many get slim quick schemes out there. They apply the same logic and marketing to these get thin fast products as they do to the get rich quick scheme. The simple truth is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I bring this up, honestly, because of a Doctor Who episode that aired here a few weeks ago. The episode involved a company called Adipose Industries. They developed a little blue pill that people who were overweight could take and it would make the fat disappear fast and effectively.
Now, the product was very successful because the science fiction aspect had it converting human fat into these little Adipose creatures. Yeah, very gross (but the little critters were kind of cute, go figure). Anyway, the fat literally walked away, but – yes, you knew there was a but coming – but it also could be ramped up and it consumed bone, muscle and more – literally converting the whole body. Yes, that’s science fiction, but the idea is the same.
The pill was too good to be true. It had horrible side effects and in the long term it did more harm than good. Sound familiar?
Too Good to Be True?
A lot of get fit quick schemes involve promises like:
- You can flatten your belly in five minutes a day.
- One pill at every meal burns fat while you eat.
- Sleep the fat away.
Those are just a few of the loftier promises made by products available on the market now. These are not products that are FDA approved or scientifically supported by verifiable research. These products are typically advertised through an infomercial that has been written and vetted by marketing specialists whose sole job is to sell to you. That’s it. The product doesn’t have to work, it doesn’t have to be effective and it doesn’t have to live up to any of the ideas associated with it – it just has to sell.
Sure we want to believe that a product can do all these things. Who doesn’t? I’d love to be able to pop a pill three times a day and wake up in a week with my svelte teenage frame. But we know intellectually that’s not going to happen, no matter how much we might wish it were otherwise. While I think it’s pretty nasty what these marketers do to get the products sold, that’s not the most insidious part of fraud fitness.
The insidious part comes when someone does drop their money to pick up a product and then that product doesn’t work. The blow to the self-esteem can be pretty powerful, leaving the person a victim of wishful thinking and less likely to pursue their fitness goals and needs than they were before.
Have you ever been a victim of fitness fraud?