Featured Fitness Professional

"The Body You Want In Less Than 5 Minutes: False Advertising In the Weight Loss Industry"

By Jason Morgan

As a fitness professional, I am concerned about the epidemic of obesity: the relationships between excess body weight and such medical conditions as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and certain cancers (such as breast, ovarian, prostate and colon) are well established. I am equally concerned about false and misleading claims in the advertising of weight loss products and services.

Many promise immediate success without the need to change nutritional habits or increase physical activity. The use of deceptive, false, or misleading claims in weight loss advertising is rampant and potentially dangerous. Many supplements, in particular, are of unproven value or have been linked to serious health risks.

A majority of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. All told, they invest over $40 billion a year in weight loss products and services. These consumers are entitled to accurate, reliable, and clearly-stated information on methods for weight management. They have a right to know if the weight loss products they're buying are helpful, useless, or possibly even dangerous.

Evidence-based guidelines issued by the National Institutes of Health call for weight loss by simultaneously restricting caloric intake and increasing physical activity. Many studies demonstrate that obese adults can lose about 1 lb. per week and achieve a 5% to 15% weight loss by consuming 500 to 1,000 calories a day less than the caloric intake required for the maintenance of their current weight. Very low calorie diets result in faster weight loss, but lower rates of long-term success.

While exercise added to caloric restriction can help overweight and obese people achieve minimally faster weight loss early on, physical activity appears to be a very important treatment component for long-term maintenance of a reduced body weight. To lose weight and not regain it, ongoing changes in thinking, eating, and exercise are essential. Behavioral treatments that motivate lifestyle changes can promote long-term success by helping obese individuals make necessary mental and daily lifestyle changes.

The public often perceives weight losses of 5% to 15% as small and insufficient even though they suffice to prevent and improve many of the medical problems associated with weight gain, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle. Many in the weight loss industry promise effortless, fast weight loss then support this misperception by bombarding Americans with spurious advertising messages touting physiologically impossible weight loss outcomes from the use of unproven products and services.

Research indicates that at any given time, almost 70 million Americans are trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain. In 2005 they spent approximately $45 billion on products they were told would help them achieve those objectives-- videos, tapes, books, medications, foods for special dietary purpose, dietary supplements, medical treatments, and other related goods and services. Most of which were complete fads or frauds.

All advertisers, whatever their choice of media--cable television, infomercials, radio, magazines, newspapers, supermarket tabloids, direct mail, or commercial e-mail and Internet websites--know that only those products and services that help people adopt lifestyles that balance nutritional habits will prevent and treat the disease of obesity.

For certain businesses (health clubs, personal trainers, makers of exercise equipment, suppliers of valid dietary supplements) to name a few, these deceptive and misleading advertisements prevent the public from hearing their messages, words that promote lifestyle changes as advocated by professional societies and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As with cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse, false or deceptive advertising of weight loss products and services puts people at risk. Many of the products and programs most heavily advertised are at best unproven and at worst unsafe. By promoting unrealistic expectations and false hopes, they doom current weight loss efforts to failure, and make future attempts less likely to succeed.

In the absence of laws and regulations to protect the public against dangerous or misleading products, a priority exists for the media to willingly ascribe to the highest advertising standards, i.e., those that reject the creation and acceptance of advertisements that contain false or misleading weight loss claims.

You, as a consumer, would be well served by becoming more knowledgeable about the evidence based guidelines, the scientifically-proven and medically-safe standards that underlie national public health policy. When more people know what's important and realistic in achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight, fewer will be inclined to waste their money, time, and effort on dangerous fads or miracle cures.

I have provided you with the basic ?buyer beware? warning. The staff of the FTC?s Bureau of Consumer Protection has provided an analysis of current trends in weight loss advertising and how you can recognize these false claims. It is now up to you the consumer, and media to act in the best interest of the public health.

Just a little end note however? Don?t expect the major ?fitness media? outlets to do anything to help clean this mess up. All the major health, fitness, and exercise magazines are owned by these companies that produce the products in question. Oh what a tangled web we weave?

About the Author:

Jason Morgan is an ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer and owner of Muscleworx Personal Fitness Systems located in Carolina Beach, NC. He is a featured writer for Snows Cut Monthly and various fitness publications and web sites. His website is http://www.muscleworx.com