Tag: weight loss advertising

A Medical Weight Loss Plan in America is Just a Fad Diet

I happened to see an ad for Medifast, a medical weight loss plan. The photo in the ad looked like some kind of giant chocolate chip cookie. I checked the Medifast website and it WAS a giant chocolate chip cookie. It was THIS chocolate chip cookie. Large enough that it’s suggested you should eat it with …

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Do You Still Believe in Weight Loss Scams?

Last week here in Chicago, King of the scammers Kevin Trudeau was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in jail. Clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, Trudeau stood before the judge and insisted “If I ever write a book again, if I ever do another infomercial again, I promise no embellishment, no puffery, …

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The Real Way the Media Promotes Fat Shaming (and every other kind of shaming)

Dovima 1950s model

NBC’s Today Show is doing a week-long “Love Your Selfie” with the extremely attractive personalities admitting their self-image insecurities and appearing without makeup. The men look pretty much like themselves and the women just look plain around their eyes. Everyone is still their media-quality good-looking selves. We’ve been treated to the team’s dorkiest teenage photos …

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Being Realistic about Weight Loss Expectations

I saw a meme-style chart for a women’s “3 Month Workout Plan for Six Pack Abs” in my Facebook News Feed. One of my gaming people posted that she was getting started with it. I can’t tell the woman’s age but she’s definitely forties or older. The “plan” calls for 100 Jumping Jacks, 100 Crunches, …

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The Four Things Wrong with Every Weight Loss Diet

Every “breakthrough” diet promises it’s the one that will work! I went on “diets” for decades. They never worked. I lost half my bodyweight and kept it off when I stopped “going on a diet.” It happened when I realized what had always been wrong about EVERY diet I ever tried. Hunger does not matter. …

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Is Ruby Gettinger Pulling a Scam?

Go ahead, call me a cynical bitch. Former reality show “star” Ruby Gettinger’s latest promotional venture has ended with her achieving her announced goal: losing 50lbs by consuming products from multi-level marketing company, Visalus. And yes, I’m skeptical. I’ll save you the signup and give you the link to watch the videos from “Ruby’s Challenge.” …

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500 Calories in 30 Minutes? Forget About It

Everytime I see some “500 calories in 30 minutes” claim it really makes my blood boil. It’s a complete scam. For most people, their bodies are not physiologically capable of burning calories at that rate, no matter how hard they work at it. Normally, I wouldn’t spread this kind of information but I’ll go ahead …

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Filtering Out the Weight Loss Clichés

It’s quite common for people who are flush with the heady excitement of a recent weight loss to want to spread their freshly-sworn religion. They’re barely used to fitting in armed chairs with their legs crossed and they’re ready to start writing books and announcing their life coach services. Through the years I’ve come upon …

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Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight!!

There’s a post title that should grab me some curious readers and for sure will get me found in search engines!  With every blog post I write, I purposefully and carefully choose a title I hope will draw readers. That’s the whole point of the title. If you’re reading, the title’s done its job. But …

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The Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Read About Obesity

If you deal with weight at all, you need to be following the writing of Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, founder of the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa. Click to read his blog, Weighty Matters. Dr. Freedhoff writes quite a bit and I just read an article that appeared in in the Huffington Post. Dr. Freedhoff addresses …

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