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10 Ways To Spot Fad Diets and Fitness Products

by Tony Schober - NASM CPT  ·  9 Comments

One of my biggest pet peeves is the fitness industry’s relentless desire to manipulate their way to profit. Granted, not all fitness companies act this way. However, fad diets and fitness products are everywhere, and even seasoned fitness professionals can be fooled. Here are 10 ways that you can spot fad diets and fitness products.

Outrageous Claims

If it’s too good to be true – it probably is. Get abs in 5 minutes a day. Lose 30 pounds in a month. Eat whatever you want and lose weight. For some reason, as shocking as these claims are, people still fall for them.

Maybe it’s because the outrageous claims are the ones that catch your attention. Or maybe it’s because you just want to believe them. Whatever the reason, use a little common sense – there hasn’t been any scientific breakthrough for weight loss.

Unrealistic Before and After Pictures

Nothing gives credibility to fitness products like a great before and after picture. Unfortunately, these pictures are so manipulated that sometimes the before and after pictures are taken on the same day (see video)! Body transformations take place all the time, but no one went from fat to ripped abs in 6 weeks.

Studies Funded By the Companies Themselves

Sometimes there are claims made by fitness products that are backed up by studies. It might be something like “the average person that used xxxxx lost 10 pounds”.

A closer look at the study will show that the study was funded by the manufacturer of the fitness product. This conflict of interest makes it very easy for results to be skewed in their favor.

Anything That Offers a Guarantee

There are no guarantees when it comes to fitness or weight loss. The products that offer a money-back guarantee usually have a time frame for you to submit your claim.

They also pray on the general laziness of most people, and they know that even if their product doesn’t work, most people won’t make the effort to get their money back.

Anything Claiming Quick or Easy Weight Loss

Who doesn’t want weight loss to be quick and easy? If you hear either of those 2 words (quick, easy) – become a skeptic. As most people know who have successfully lost weight, weight loss is neither fast nor easy.

Until someone invents that miracle pill, only hard work and patience will lead to success. Nothing was fast or easy about these 20 weight loss tips from people who lost over 50 pounds.

Anything Promoting Weight Loss Without Exercise

Can you lose weight without exercise? Of course you can. Should you? I wouldn’t recommend it. I hear these commercials on the radio. They talk about how easy it was to stick to the diet, and they didn’t even have to exercise.

These products are aimed right at the people who don’t want to make much of an effort. You only get out of it what you put into it. If a product claims results without exercise, run the other way. Whether it works or not is a moot point – it’s not a component of a healthy lifestyle.

Late Night Infomercials

I don’t think these will ever go out of style. These commercials air late at night while you’re sitting on the couch eating bad food and feeling sorry for yourself. Bam! The solution to your problems is just a phone call away.

The people on these commercials did not get the bodies they have by using the products they are demonstrating. Their muscles and tight bodies might look great while demonstrating these products, but they certainly didn’t get those physiques by using them.

Celebrity Spokespeople

When a new fitness product doesn’t have any credibility yet, it buys some by hiring a celebrity spokesperson to promote it. Hey, if celebrity xyz says it’s good and will help me get abs, then it must be true.

Celebrity spokespeople make you feel confident about your purchase. It gives you social proof that your decision is a good one. No one likes to be the lone wolf.

Any Kind of Fat Loss Pills

Weight loss supplements are a billion dollar industry and growing. Everyone is looking for weight loss in a bottle. Fat loss pills are still around because they work. What? Yes, they do, to a small degree – but only in conjunction with proper nutrition and exercise.

I don’t promote these pills because they are unnecessary and can cause more harm than good. People use them as a crutch for a bad diet. Stay away from the pills. Focus your time, money, and energy on changing your lifestyle.

Commercials Playing to Your Emotions

The key to successful marketing is eliciting an emotional response to your audience. Fitness marketers do this by playing to your hopes, dreams, and insecurities.

They conjure up images of times when you looked great. “High school skinny” is one I heard the other day. Sold! “Don’t be embarrassed to wear a bikini ever again”. Sold! Any company that chooses to use “negative” means to initiate a sale will never get my money.

It’s important to understand that not every product that falls into these categories is a fad product. More times than not though, if a product has to go to these great lengths to sell itself, you should be looking at it under a magnifying glass before buying it.

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9 Comments

  1. Tony Schober

    Hey Everyone,

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  2. Patty

    June 8, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    I saw a funny video mocking the whole Before and After pictures thing where the guy did an amazing transformation in just 5 hours. He took his “after” picture first and then eat junk, drank pop and other stomach bloating things and then took his “before” picture 5 hours later and had an amazing transformation lol. He makes the point of “don’t believe everything you see”. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M957dACQyfU

    Great points, Tony!

  3. Natalie Silakoff

    June 9, 2012 at 11:33 am

    The keypoint is we (humans) seem to be originally lazy… thus we are ready to believe to celebs in ads, to another nonsense about magic pills or miraculous fitness products that will allow us to do nothing at all and still wake up slimmer and more good-looking day by day :)) Alas, metamorphosis do happen but only through discipline and effort :)) Thank you for a wonderful article with a very informative movie in it))

  4. Amanda

    June 10, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    I definitely agree with the majority of the information in this article! However, I will say that I used/continue to use a popular product that is advertised in infomercials, and the results were life-changing and YES I do have the body I have now thanks to using that product. 🙂 But yeah, when it comes fitness products advertised on TV that’s typically not the norm.

  5. Sue Kauffman

    June 10, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    My favorite commercial I have seen lately is some kind of belt your wear around your middle to “melt away fat”. You can even wear it to work or out to dinner….ok…..The only way you are going to lose weight and keep it off is a change of lifestyle which includes healthy eating and regular workouts. They don’t have to be killer, but you do have to show up and DO them.

  6. Vix

    June 10, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    Hey Coach Calorie another great post!

    Another tip is Fad Superfoods- you know the ones with magical ingredients that burn fat…

    “Superfoods” are just fads and will waste you cash..

    The real super food is clean unprocessed foods.

    Here are some foods to get you started:
    https://coachcalorie.com/foods-to-help-you-lose-weight/

  7. nick adams

    June 13, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    This article is just completely spot on! There is only one way to lose weight and get into shape and it involves discipline, perseverance, and complete dedication. In other words, if you’re out of shape, and you want to get into shape, you need a total lifestyle transformation!

    Great post. I wrote a similar post on my website the other day and i encourage you to visit it. http://www.spartanlifestyle.wordpress.com

  8. Casper19

    May 27, 2013 at 11:08 pm

    I totally agree with this. I follow the theory that the “DIET INDUSTRY” is there for one reason and one reason only, TO MAKE HUGE PROFITS! On the most basic of concepts, if you follow the premise that you need to eat less calories than you expend then you will, over a period of time, lose weight. You must be totally honest with yourself. One of the major ways that the industry diets works, is to record what you eat. So buy a note book, a calorie book and a set of scales and you can do it for yourself.

  9. Edith Smith Griffith

    May 28, 2013 at 4:52 am

    Another great article to keep us on our toes….but I admit I love those infomercials 🙂

  10. ricajane

    July 4, 2013 at 5:38 pm

    Fell for the Sensa commercial, late at night while I was sitting there watching TV. However I did send it back and get my money back. What a bunch of Bull$&@*! probably the only thing Sensa does is draw your attention to what you are eating. I believe it’s mostly silica when is technically sand. yum!