Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

The FDA has released a warning about weight loss pills.

• FDA Warns Consumers About Tainted Weight Loss Pills

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide not to purchase or consume more than 25 different products marketed for weight loss because they contain undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients that may put consumers’ health at risk.

Here is the list of potentially tainted products:

• Venom Hyperdrive 3.0
• Fatloss Slimming
• 2 Day Diet
• 3x Slimming Power
• Japan Lingzhi 24 Hours Diet
• 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming
• 3 Day Diet
• 7 Day Herbal Slim
• 8 Factor Diet
• 7 Diet Day/Night Formula
• 999 Fitness Essence
• Extrim Plus
• GMP
• Imelda Perfect Slim
• Lida DaiDaihua
• Miaozi Slim Capsules
• Perfect Slim
• Perfect Slim 5x
• Phyto Shape
• ProSlim Plus
• Royal Slimming Formula
• Slim 3 in 1
• Slim Express 360
• Slimtech
• Somotrim
• Superslim
• TripleSlim
• Zhen de Shou
• Venom Hyperdrive 3.0

With a list that long, maybe it’s just easier to never buy diet pills.

The Healthy Weight Network has released their Slim Chance Awards for 2008.

• Slim Chance Awards 2008: Fraud and Quackery

For their Worst Product category, they chose Kimkins:

WORST PRODUCT: Kimkins diet. It must have seemed an easy way to get rich quick. Founder Heidi “Kimmer” Diaz set up a website and charged members a fee to access the Kimkins diet, boasting they could lose up to 5 percent of their body weight in 10 days. “Better than gastric bypass,” there was “no faster diet,” and in fact she herself had lost 198 pounds in 11 months. Stunning “after” photos were displayed. In June 2007 Women’s World ran it as a cover story, and that month alone PayPal records show the Kimkins site took in over $1.2 million. Then users began complaining of chest pains, hair loss, heart palpitations, irritability and menstrual irregularities. This was not surprising since Kimkins is essentially a starvation diet, down to 500 calories per day and deficient in many nutrients (appallingly, laxatives are advised to replace missing fiber). In a lawsuit, 11 former members are uncovering a vast record of Diez’s alleged fraud. They found that the stunning “after” photos, including one of Kimmer herself, had been lifted from a Russian mail order bride site. According to a deposition reported by Los Angeles TV station KTLA, Diaz admitted using fake pictures, fake stories and fake IDs, and a judge has allowed the litigants to freeze some of her assets.

It was hard not to notice Kimkins. I did a couple of write ups about it here:

• Starling Fitness » How Did Kimkins Fly Under My Radar?
• Starling Fitness » Kimkins Diet Exposed on Fox

Technically, the whole problem with Kimkins imploded in 2007, but all of the deception really came to light last year. I’m surprised to see that Kimkins took in over $1.2 million, but I’m glad to know that some of that might be recovered for the victims.

The Healthy Weight Network has released their Slim Chance Awards for 2008.

• Slim Chance Awards 2008: Fraud and Quackery

In their Worst Claim category, they awarded AbGONE with the trophy:

WORST CLAIM: AbGONE. Throughout 2008 full page ads assaulted the eye in daily newspapers across the country touting AbGONE as “proven to promote pot belly loss.” Claims are that AbGONE increases “fat metabolism” and calorie burn, promotes appetite suppression and inhibits future abdominal fat deposits. These are drug claims that, if true, would alter the body’s regulation, but unlike drugs, the pills are sold as food supplements not requiring FDA approval. The bold ads feature the obligatory before and after shots of models, cut-away sketches of the abdomen with and without belly fat, and a white-coated researcher with chart purportedly confirming success of 5 times reduction in fat mass, 4 times lower BMI, 4 times greater weight loss than placebo. No added diet and exercise needed – well, except, you may want to heed the fine print disclaimer at the bottom that reminds us “diet and exercise are essential.”

This is yet another product that flew completely under my radar. I know there are advertisements everywhere for pills that are supposed to help me lose weight, but I’ve completely disregarded all of them. I don’t even see them anymore, mostly because I’ve become so numb to the idea that a pill could help me. I probably saw the full page ads promoting this product, but I immediately ignored them. That’s probably a good tactic for all of us.

The Healthy Weight Network has released their Slim Chance Awards for 2008.

• Slim Chance Awards 2008: Fraud and Quackery

This product is one I’ve never heard of: Skineez.

WORST GIMMICK: Skineez jeans ($139). A new item in the fight against cellulite, Skineez jeans are impregnated with a so-called “medication” of retinol and chitosan, a shellfish product once claimed to cut fat absorption in the stomach (see 1999 Slim Chance Awards). Friction between the jeans and skin supposedly triggers release of the substance, which goes to work on fat when absorbed through the skin. Reportedly a big hit in Europe, the “smart fabric” is also used in lingerie. Ironically, the creators of Skineez, Clothes for a Cause, profess to raise funds for breast cancer and “a wide range of other socially conscious charities.” So while the company hoodwinks women into buying an expensive pair of jeans, it promises they can “do good with every purchase … As our sales grow, so will our ability to help others.” FTC, however, is clear about such gimmicks, emphasizing that products worn or rubbed on the skin do not cause weight loss or fat loss.

As unpleasant as wearing a girdle is, I find it even MORE unappealing to think that the girdle might be oozing some “medication” on me while I wear it.

The Healthy Weight Network has released their Slim Chance Awards for 2008.

• Slim Chance Awards 2008: Fraud and Quackery

The first on the list is Kevin Trudeau. Here is their evaluation:

MOST OUTRAGEOUS CLAIM: Kevin Trudeau infomercials. It’s rare that regulatory agencies look at books, given our free speech laws, but the infomercials for Kevin Trudeau’s weight loss book and his repeated violations were just too much for the Federal Trade Commission, and this past August he was fined over $5 million and banned from infomercials for three years. In “willful efforts” to deceive, Trudeau told listeners they could easily follow the diet protocol at home, even though his book calls for human growth hormone injections and colonics that must be done by a licensed practitioner. The tortured case began in 1998 when FTC charged Trudeau with false and misleading diet infomercials. In 2003 he was charged with false claims; in 2004 he was fined $2 million and banned from infomercials. Again in 2007 a contempt action said he misled thousands with false claims for his weight loss book “in flagrant violation” of court orders.

Kevin Trudeau has been promoting this book for a long time, but I’m glad that the FTC finally caught up with him. I did I review of the book here:

• Starling Fitness » The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About

Back then, I said:

Don’t let your paranoia get the best of you. The reason why everyone in Hollywood is thin is because they kick out the fat ones. They don’t have a secret cure to obesity, they just don’t put fat people on the screen. Injecting the urine of pregnant women into your body is not the answer.

I’m glad the FTC was finally able to take him out.

Plaid Stallions has an excellent collection of exercise equipment from the past gleaned from old catalogs. The only one that even has a chance of helping you lose weight is this very excellent exercise bike from Vitamaster.

• Get Fit With Brick Mantooth 1 70s excersize equipment I Plaidstallions.com

Before you laugh at the silly gadgets of yesteryear, remember that we are still being inundated with fitness gadgets to this day. In fact, many of them bear a striking resemblance to the past.

• Starling Fitness » Power Plate Diaries

The important thing to remember is that you can lose weight and exercise without any equipment at all. Take a walk or run around the block. Do some squats and push ups in your home and you don’t need to pay any money for it. The key to it is spending the TIME on your fitness, not your money.

Long ago, I suggested that you didn’t need a Gastric Bypass surgery. All you needed to do is follow the diet that they prescribe to gastric bypass patients:

• Starling Fitness » The Gastric Bypass Diet

I was being SARCASTIC, but it looks like Dr. Alwin C. Lewis took me a little too seriously. With his book, Why Weight Around? Changing The Weight Loss Strategy, he suggests that you eat five bites of food at lunch, another five bites of food at dinner. He suggests that one of those ten bites should be “high quality protein.” You are allowed to drink any liquid as long as it’s calorie-free.

He suggests that his Five Bite Diet will reset your body and you’ll be able to survive on a smaller volume of food. He talks about it here:

He suggests using this diet for everything from obesity, to bulimia and even ANOREXIA. He actually said:

This diet gives you absolute CONTROL like you’ve never had before.

It’s almost like he is purposely appealing to the eating disordered among us. Unfortunately, it’s that kind of control that this diet would spawn a binge for months in me. I was joking when I suggested that the Gastric Bypass Diet might be a weight loss option, in order to show you that the surgery is a BAD idea. This Five Bite Diet, however, is taking itself seriously.

Via: Diet Blog: The 5 Bite Diet

Over the many years, the idea of weight loss has fascinated writers. If you have ever wanted to lose weight quickly, all you need to do is look to fiction for fantastical stories about easy weight loss. The problem is, each of these stories is a morality play, warning you against quick fixes.

• The Truth About Pyecraft by HG Wells: Mr. Pyecraft is named the fattest clubman in London. When Mr. Formalyn comes back from India, he offers him a special dish from that exotic land that is supposed to help you lose weight. Mr. Pyecraft DOES lose weight, but not mass. He finds his baloonish body floating to the ceiling and ends up wearing lead underwear to prevent himself from flying off into the sky.

• The Iron Chancellor by Robert Silverberg: In Robert Silverberg’s classic 1958 story, the family’s robot, the roboservitor, prepares your diet and prevents you from cheating. Unfortunately, the robot keeps you on this limited diet, even if you’re starving to death. It is a typical “robots are bad” story that filled science fiction in the fifties, but it also is a morality play to those who are willing to relinquish control over to others when they can’t control themselves.

• Doctor Who “Partners in Crime” 2008: The new miracle diet pill, Adipose, promises to cause weight loss without exercise or change in diet. Very much like Alli, there is a frightening side effect. Instead of intense gastrointestinal distress, the fat literally pops off your body, creating little sentient fat creatures. Unfortunately, your entire body can be reduced, leaving nothing but your clothes.

• Thinner by Stephen King: Billy is a high powered lawyer who accidentally caused the death of an old gypsy woman. Instead of serving his time for vehicular manslaughter, his skills in the court room got him off with not even a slap on the wrist. The old gypsy man touches him and utters the word, “Thinner.” From that moment onward, Billy drops weight. He eventually becomes a skeleton of a man, eating as much as he can to just stay alive while he searches for the gypsy to reverse the curse, losing everything he loves in the process.

• Tales from the Darkside “Love Hungry”: In a twist of irony, Betsy, a telemarketer, becomes a marketing victim by “Your Weight Is Over” for weight loss, they send her a special ear plug and glasses. When she wears them, all her food looks as if it’s alive and sentient. Every bite becomes murder and eating is a lesson in sadism. Just watching the Mexican Restaurant scene was enough to put me off enchiladas for a long time.

• Star Trek’s Food Replicators: They were created to provide the perfect nutrition for those traveling on Federation starships. No matter how unhealthy the food that you request, the replicator will make it out of healthy nutrients. Of course, there is some disagreement about whether the taste is the same as “real” food. Considering how fulfilling fake food is right now, the Federation has a lot of inventing to do to create replicated food that is healthy AND tastes good. Oh, and the food is created using the waste products from the ship and energy.

In the end, all of these fictional weight loss options are just warnings in disguise. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you lose weight without diet and exercise, then you have to pay the price. The price may be your life, your sanity or merely your enjoyment of food. There is only one true way to get fit and healthy and that’s to eat less and move more. In the future, they may invent an easier way, but I don’t want to be first in line to try it, do you?

Via: io9 Triviagasm: Fantastical Ways to Lose Weight in the New Year

The Vasa Trainers range in price from $900 to nearly $2000. That was the first strike against them. They look like a glorified Total Gym, but cost over three times as much.

The Vasa Trainer is supposed to be an exercise machine that can give you the same workout as swimming, but if you notice, you only exercise your arms or legs, you can’t do them both, so a workout with the Vasa machine would take twice the time that laps in a pool could do for you. If you have a coach checking your technique, then YES, maybe the Vasa is helpful, but if you want to get your workout done, you’re better to just go to the community pool during lap hours to get your workout done.

• Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench, Canoe and Kayak paddling machine, Vasa Trainer total gym

The more I watched this video, the more their trainers felt like a big waste of money.

If you want the workout of swimming, GO SWIMMING! Community pools and gyms have inexpensive options for keeping you fit. If you want weight training, buy a weight training bench. For about $170, you can get this Apex Weight Bench. Add a few weights and you have a BETTER home gym for less than $300.

Don’t let fancy gadgets fool you into thinking that you are getting a better workout than good old fashioned swimming.

Via: Healthacker.com » Blog Archive » Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench: Rowing Machine for Swimmers

Something has gone terribly wrong at JCPenney. They have started a new clothing line called A.N.A.

• JCPenney : Womens Clothing : A.N.A

Their signage says that A.N.A means, “A New Approach,” but either they are consciously trying to get the pro-ana girls to buy their clothing or they are COMPLETELY out of touch with teens.

The pro-ana movement is a group who believe that women with anorexic bodies are beautiful. They don’t believe anorexia is a disorder. They aren’t necessarily an organized group, but there are MANY pro-ana sites on the Internet that glamorize the anorexic form. Wikipedia has a good article about it:

• Pro-ana – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In fact, JCPenney’s advertisements could be used on a pro-ana site for “thinspiration.”

I don’t believe that JCPenney could be evil, so I have to deduce that they are just clueless about the pro-ana movement. They need to think of a new approach in naming their clothing lines from now on.