Thursday, August 12, 2010

Gimmicks

Last night I went to a multi-level marketing pitch.  In Utah, these are very common events.  Our great state thrives on these "Get Rich Quick" schemes.  To be honest, they drive me absolutely crazy!  Anyway, this particular event was focused on healthy dark chocolate.  Admittedly, I am not a fan of dark chocolate.  If I'm going to eat chocolate, it needs to be the creamy milk chocolate, preferably from Europe!  Dark is just not my thing.

Anyway, they were positioning this healthy chocolate as a weight loss product and had someone who was involved in the case study give her testimony to its benefits.  Here's the premise of the product:
  • Replace two meals per day with dark chocolate protein shake
  • Calories for women should be 1200/day
  • Person should walk 20,000 steps per day
  • Shake meals should be supplemented with bright colored vegetables
They say that if you follow these things, you will see the benefits of this magical protein shake and watch the pounds fall off!

Admittedly, I am a skeptic when it comes to these things.  I'm especially sensitive to weight loss gimmicks because there are SO many out in the world that are promising quick results with little effort.  This one rubbed me the wrong way because of COURSE you are going to see dramatic results if you suddenly get off the couch and make an effort at working out, in addition to drastically slashing your daily intake of food.  That is simple math.  The case study for this product didn't have a placebo group, but I would imagine that the weight loss from the placebo group would've been very similar to the protein shake group.  It's a winning formula!  If your eat less and workout more, you WILL lose weight.  
Anyway, this has been kind of a soap box post but I have been frustrated with all the marketing and blatant lies that are coming out from weight loss companies across the globe.  Losing weight isn't easy.  It's hard work and takes a LOT of effort.  I think our obesity epidemic wouldn't be as bad if they would just tell it to us like it is.  No more sugar coating!

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