How to Avoid Weight Loss Scams and Lies

The people who have weight loss products to sell have one very important factor going for them: desperate potential buyers. The reason there are so many diet pills and diet teas and other weight loss products on the market is that there is an absolutely massive demand for these items. If you want to avoid weight loss scams, please read on.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. To avoid weight loss scams, always be skeptical. When reading any advertisement for any weight loss product, keep reminding yourself, “This person wants to sell me something. They know all the right buttons to press because they are very good at their jobs. They are deliberately using language designed to appeal to my emotions and my strong desire to lose weight. I need to keep a cool head here and not get sucked in by the hype.” In other words, don’t let these weight loss marketers play on your emotions in order to sell you weight loss products of questionable quality.

2. Remember the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.” The people who market weight loss products use very dramatic "before and after" pictures and language to pitch what they are selling. But ask yourself: “How can I be sure the person in these before and after pictures is even the same person?” Even if it really is the same person in the before and after picture, you have no proof that they achieved those results “in eight weeks” or “in twelve weeks” as the caption underneath the picture may claim. Furthermore, there is no proof that the person achieved these dramatic results using the specific weight loss product being pitched. Maybe the person in the photo just cut back on calories and started exercising more. Take everything these marketers say with an enormous grain of salt.

3. Consider the source if you want to avoid weight loss scams. Who exactly is making this pitch to sell you their weight loss products? Is the company in question one that you know well, or is it some "fly by night" company that you have never even heard of before? If you have never heard of the company, do some extensive research before you purchase any of their weight loss products and be sure to read all the “fine print” in their offers.

Tips & Warnings

• Speaking of research and weight loss scams, you will want to read lots of customer reviews of any weight loss product you are thinking about buying. And make sure that the reviews you read appear on “neutral” websites like Amazon.com, where people will speak freely and honestly about the weight loss products they have tried. Reviews that appear on the weight loss product company’s website are not to be trusted because you cannot be sure of their objectivity.

[jsncooley]

on 4/23/2009 Very good advice, there are a lot of weight-loss scams out there (such ones that promise you to lose A LOT of weight in like 2 weeks) and they are just ridiculous and unhealthy, and as a personal trainer myself this makes me sick. 5* =D