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

All of the clues were there. They said you could lose weight without having to change your diet and exercise. Sure, they said that their coffee had been tested in clinical trials, but they were still promising something for nothing. But when you watch the commercial, you can understand how appealing it might have sounded:

In January, the FTC cracked down on the sellers of Slim Coffee and the company agreed to pay $923,910 in fines.

• Sellers of Hoodia Coffee Settle with FTC for Bogus Weight-Loss Claims

Under the proposed settlement, Diet Coffee, Inc. and its principals, David Stocknoff and David Attarian, based in New York City, are prohibited from claiming that any product enables users to lose substantial weight without reducing caloric intake or increasing physical activity. The order also prohibits them from representing that any product or service causes weight loss, causes users to lose any specified amount of weight, reduces or eliminates fat, reduces or curbs appetite, or increases metabolism, or making any other health-related benefit or efficacy representation unless it is true, not misleading, and substantiated by reliable scientific evidence. In addition, the defendants are prohibited from misrepresenting the existence, contents, validity, results, conclusions, or interpretations of any test or study concerning such products.

Next time you see a commercial for a product that promises that they will help you lose weight, remember Slim Coffee and keep your money in your pocket.

Via: Diet Blog: Slim Coffee: Another Weight Loss Scam

Many weight loss facilities don’t allow pregnant women to participate in their programs. I know Weight Watchers will keep your membership active, but won’t allow you to come when you’re pregnant. That seemed a little crazy to me and I wondered why they didn’t just up the points allowance a bit to compensate.

Here’s why:

• Treatment Online: Children of Hungry Mothers More Susceptible to Addiction

In 1944, Germany starved the Netherlands with an embargo. Many starved to death and the women who were pregnant during the embargo were restricted to approximately 1000 calories a day. The children born at that time ended up with a high incidence of addiction.

We still don’t know why, but theories abound:

This heightened risk was most strongly correlated with exposure during the first trimester, when crucial brain development occurs. It is not clear exactly how starvation predisposes the brain toward addiction. One possibility is that decision-making and reward centers of the brain do not grow properly because there is a dearth of chemical resources. Another possibility is that the fetus senses the scarcity of food and comes out prepared to voraciously grab whatever pleasurable things that it can find.

So, if you’re pregnant, you shouldn’t be restricting your calorie intake. Follow the recommendations that your doctor gives you and worry about losing weight AFTER you give birth to a healthy and unscathed child.

When I think of silly diets, the Grapefruit Diet comes to mind. I never went on the grapefruit diet, but I watched my weight obsessed friend try it and the funny little pills that they sold for it so long ago. Brie Cadman has a list of her top ten most ridiculous diets.

• The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets by Brie Cadman : DivineCaroline

The quick version is here:

• Dr. Siegal’s® Cookie Dietâ„¢
• The Subway Diet
• The Cereal Diet
• Cabbage Soup Diet
• Slim Fast
• Blood Type Diet
• Russian Air Force Diet
• The Three-Day Diet/Hot Dog Diet
• The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
• The Writing Diet
• The Atkins Diet

There are remnants of some of these diet fads that remain. For example, the cabbage soup diet lives on at Weight Watchers with their zero point soup that you can eat for zero points. If you are low on points, you can just make up some of their cabbage soup and fill up on that.

I had never heard of the Russian Air Force Diet or the Writing Diet. I love Julia Cameron, but I never heard of her book, The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size. Honestly, I’ve been writing about my emotions every day in my personal journal for years. I truly believe that writing does help me, so this might be a good book for me to try in the future.

For now, I think I’ll try the “Putting Less Food In My Mouth” Diet. It has worked for me for a while.

Via: Digg – The Top Ten Most Ridiculous Diets

Here is a heart breaking story from Bev Sykes.

• Airy Persiflage: I Hate Myself

Bev was happily planning to attend her daughter’s baby shower for a long-awaited grandchild until she saw the fine print:

And there it was.

Rules for “people of size.” It appears that because I am a “person of size” (i.e., fat), I may not be permitted on the plane unless I buy a second seat.

I’m already seeing the number of times I can see our grandchild diminish because of the whole damn 300 mile distance thing and because the airline may feel I’m too damn fat to fit on their plane.

Even if I were to start dieting again now, it would be over a year before I could be considered a regular size person.

I really don’t know what I think about these policies. The airlines are stretched to the breaking point as it is and are barely able to make a profit. Making the seats bigger and able to fit normal people would probably put them out of business. Requiring someone who can’t fit into their tiny seats to pay for two is criminal. Then again, I’ve been on the receiving side of sitting next to someone who should have paid for a second seat.

I might have more sympathy for the airlines if they spent less money on in-seat televisions. I REALLY don’t want an advertisement flashing in my face for three hours. I would gladly sacrifice that stupid TV for two more inches of butt room.

The worst of it all is the title of Bev’s blog entry, “I Hate Myself.” This is an issue of airline economics. How did the airlines make us feel guilty for being unable to fit into their tiny seats?

Her words say it all:

I may have finally done it. I may have eaten myself out of an early relationship with my long-awaited, already much loved grandchild.

The whole thing makes me want to cry…and probably eat, dammit.

According to Size Wise, the measurement of the width of airline seats ranges from 17″ to 21.5″. I just measured the width of my own butt and it’s 18″ wide. Am I a person of size? Do I have to pay for another seat as well? Even the thinnest of people are uncomfortable in airplane seats.

There is the concept of personal responsibility and there is the concept of airline economics. There has to be a happy medium between the two and until we meet it, it’s time to boycott companies that try to pass the blame solely to us.

Yet another gadget in a long line of silly exercise machines, the Hawaii Chair is supposed to work your abs with no effort while you go about your day. Ellen was able to get her hands on a couple of them and tried them out.

Commercials can make anything look good, but when you actually see the products in real life, the veneer is gone and you can see how silly they are.

Next time you’re tempted to buy an exercise gadget that promises you the body you’ve always wanted, remember the difference between the commercial for the Hawaii Chair and the reality of Ellen trying to sit on one. It will save you money, but it will also save you false hope.

Eating wisely and exercising moderately will get you further than any exercise gadget on the planet.

Via: Hilarious Clip: Ellen DeGeneres Tries Hawaii Chair (Video) | TV Crunch

I saw this postcard from PostSecret this week and I didn’t know what to think of it.

He works out and stays fit. That’s a good thing. She’ll leave him if he doesn’t? That’s a bad thing, right? Yeah, but then again, it’s keeping him healthy.

This just doesn’t feel right, even though in the end, he is a healthier person.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

This is a commercial parody. It’s for something called Power Thirst.

The hyperbole is so specific:

Try Power Thirst: energy drinks for people who need gratuitous amounts of energy!

After watching this, suddenly ALL energy commercials seem like they are lying to me.

As far as I can tell, most energy drinks are just sugar and caffeine. They run about 150 calories to a whopping 300 calories. Now, I have had my own problems with caffeine in the past. It doesn’t affect everyone that way, but does ANYONE really need 300 calories of unpleasant-tasting liquid?

If you REALLY need a caffeinated jolt, why not just take a No-Doz pill? It has zero calories and the same boost of caffeine. I suspect that the reason people don’t start every day with a No-Doz pill is because pills have a negative connotation. It’s hard not to notice that caffeine is a drug when you take it in pill form. When you drink two cups of coffee or chug a Rock Star, Red Bull or Amp, it just feels like a morning drink.

Be honest with yourself. Caffeine is a drug. It can be a useful drug. It is a legal drug, but it’s IS a drug. You’re not drinking “energy,” you’re drinking caffeine and sugar. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you consciously know that you’re turning to caffeine every day.

Be honest with your caffeine intake, otherwise you’re lying to yourself just as much as the Power Thirst people are.

I am continually surprised at the type of advertising that gets past the board room and to the filming stage. I never saw this commercial “in the wild,” but I can’t believe they actually FILMED it.

Why? Why? Why? I don’t understand the Burger King Triple Whopper, but I REALLY don’t understand advertising it with a creepy snake-like man who can swallow it in one unhinged-jaw dropping bite. That did NOT make me want to eat a hamburger. It made me want to get as far away from Burger King as I could.

The Bowflex is an exercise machine that uses flexible rods for resistance. It’s a small machine that folds up nicely and is relatively light weight when compared to weight machines that use weights for resistance. When I was looking for a weight training solution, I looked at Bowflex machines in the sporting goods stores. I decided against them because they were too tall for my basement and because it looked like a royal pain in the butt to switch between exercises.

Plus, it was EXPENSIVE. The cheapest Bowflex machine I could find was almost $600. I just wasn’t willing to spend that kind of money on flexible plastic rods. It looks like that initial price tag wasn’t the only thing to worry about with Bowflex. According to some of the people who have bought them, there’s a lot more to worry about. That financing offered by Bowflex is a little more complicated than it appears:

2/16/2007 – Silena writes:

I am a physically handicapped woman confined to a wheelchair. I was encouraged by my physical therapist to consider purchasing a bowflex after being told that my insurance could no longer pay for my therapy and the small monthly payments of $28.00 a mo. would make it affordable to maintain my physical strength. My problems began when they started doubling my pmts. without telling me. By the time my pmts. exceeded $120.00 a mo. I was left with no choice but to stop making pmts. What really upsets me is the fact they knew what my income was when I ordered this item. They knew I could not pay more per month and they still approved me knowing they were going to raise the pmts. My account was turned over to collection and my credit is ruined, and I will never be able to pay it off because it is still collecting interest.

You can read all the complaints here:

• INFOMERCIAL SCAMS.COM – BOWFLEX COMPLAINTS

In the end, I bought an Apex weight bench, but it’s no longer available. Apex does make this Deluxe Standard Bench that is very similar, but it’s about $50 more than what I paid last year. I’m still using my weight bench off and on and the cost of the bench and the weights was less than half of what I would have paid for a Bowflex and even takes up less space.

Should you buy a Bowflex? When there are so many other options out there that are just as effective and less expensive, I think it’s best to steer clear of them.

I got a kick out of this commercial for Ike Berger’s Power Shaper.

My parents had an exercise device like this when I was a child. It wasn’t stretchy like this one. It connected to a door knob and used tension from the feet to workout the arms and vice versa. It didn’t work for either of them.

Working out with resistance bands can be helpful. They are inexpensive and very portable if you are traveling. Here is an article that shows you some workout routines for resistance bands:

• Starling Fitness » Exercising with Bands

• Starling Fitness » Work Out with Exercise Bands

I doubt Ike Berger’s Power Shaper could keep you fit, even with regular workouts, but adding a little activity into your life is helpful. Find some way to make your day more active today and keep the twenty bucks for yourself.

Via: AdFreak: Cracked’s 10 most laughably misleading ads