Weight Loss Product Warnings — How to Spot Bad Pills
There are numerous ways to make a bad weight loss product look good. How to Spot Bad Pills is the first article in a series on evaluating weight loss products. My hope is to provide you with reliable, easy to understand, and useful tips for spotting bad weight loss products.
For the purpose of this article, the phrase, weight loss pill, refers to over-the-counter, non-prescription weight loss supplements. The following six tips will help you identify weight loss pills that don’t back up claims with evidence, cite poorly designed research studies, don’t work, and possibly cause serious harm.
The tips, arranged in no particular order, are effective in spotting glaring omissions of evidence, misrepresentations, and outright lies. However, many marketers have become quite skilled in the art of statistical illusion, fooling even those of us with extensive experience in statistical analysis.
What does this mean for you? Use the six tips from How to Spot a Bad Pill as part of your own overall assessment and not as a definitive evaluation. A “good” weight loss pill based upon my six tips, does not necessarily translate to a well studied, safe, and effective product. However, a bad pill here is a bad pill everywhere.
With that quick disclaimer, let’s get started…
Bad Pill Tip #1 — References
Match each claim cited with a reference. The reference should be clear and include the author’s name, the location of the study, primary sponsor, title of study, publication source, year, volume, and pages.
A solid claim made for a weight loss pill should not be sales oriented. I fully understand that there is a time to sell. However, I am assuming you are beyond that, and need real information about this weight loss product in question. As you investigate the pill, and the sales copy never seems to go way, that’s a red flag.
Lets look at two different claims. The first one is NOT a solid science claim…”Amazing New Weight Loss Pill Maximizes Weight Loss…”. This belongs back in the sales copy.
Instead, here is a claim well grounded in science…
“The percentage of weight loss was significantly higher in the test group at the end of the 5 week study…(6)”
Notice the reference is clearly cited and displayed by the number 6. This is identifying the 6th listing on the reference page as the source. This brings up a related topic about the reference page. All ads and websites should have a reference page.
As a matter of fact, the reference page is more valuable than the testimonials. It is a list of the actual studies used to make a case in favor of a weight loss product.
To see an example of a reference page, use this link, Weight Loss Pill Reference Page.
Bad Pill Tip #2 — Mechanism of Action
Verify how the weight loss pill works, also called the mechanism of action. Every pill, prescription drugs included, should have the mechanism of action clearly stated with references. Do not label a weight loss pill as “good” without a description on how it works.
Bad Pill Tip #3 — Author
Verify the primary author referenced to make the best claim or the author referenced for making most of the claims. Verify, in this case, means to check the reference as “real” and also test the “marketer” for how accessible the information is to get and review.
Bad Pill Tip #4 — Subjects
Investigate the number of subjects that have been tested using the weight loss pill in question. This is difficult to judge, but understand that the smaller the study, the less reliable the results. One study with 10 subjects is not enough to make any significant claims.
When isolating one study, the number of subjects needed to produce reliable results depends on several factors. I suggest looking through the information provided to you for references to choosing the right number of subjects. If they take the time to write about it in their official study report, then, most likely, they had the best possible number of subjects.
In general, if you’re reviewing one study measuring one variable, you would like to see at least 50 subjects (n=50). However, we often lower this standard given the difficulty in recruiting for studies.
Bad Pill Tip #5 — Side Effects
A well designed, unbiased study does not hide reported side effects (also called adverse events). This should be as easy to find as the headline of the sale copy or the order form. If it’s hidden, stay away from that weight loss pill.
Bad Pill Tip #6 — Help
If all else fails and you just can’t call it a good or bad pill, call your health care provider. Let the person answering the phone know exactly what it is you need. Say something like, “I need feedback on a new weight loss pill, called Pill ABC. Is this a bad pill for me to take or is it a good one?”
Personalize the reason for needing the information and the response time will triple. Since you made it clear you’re considering taking the pill, they will get back to you fast to avoid any adverse event. If they don’t, consider finding a new health care provider.
Obviously, there are several other areas to critique a weight loss pill. But these are 6 excellent tips that will help you decide if the pill is good or bad. It simply comes down to checking for very basic information that any credible scientist or physician would display or provide immediately.
Not passing just one of the tips is enough to label it as a bad weight loss pill.
To Healthy Living!
Michael A. Smith, MD
Diet Basics Website and Resource
Dr. Smith is the primary physician and consultant for the Diet Basics Website of the Weight Loss Professional. Stay tuned for the second article of the series called Weight Loss Product Warning.
Please visit the Diet Basics website and take advantage of all the free offers…original e-books and articles, a top rated newsletter, and much more.
You can visit the site at, weight-loss-professional.com
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The Truth About Counting Calories And Weight Loss
Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count "portions?" Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body?
You’re about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about your food.
In many popular diet books, "Calories don’t count" is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip’s “Body For Life,” allude to the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count "portions" rather than calories?
Phillips wrote,
“There aren’t many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting ‘portions.’ A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate.”
Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie – in the literal sense – can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term. It’s one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion control. However, it’s another altogether to deny that calories matter.
Yes, calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, “calories don’t count” or you can “eat all you want and still lose weight” is a diet you should avoid. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet sound easier to follow. Anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories, eating less or exercising, tends to scare away potential customers! But the law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain your weight. Period.
I believe that it’s very important to develop an understanding of and a respect for portion control and the law of calorie balance I also believe it’s an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are in the foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the foods you eat when you dine at restaurants.
The law of calorie balance says:
To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you only count portions or if you haven’t the slightest clue how many calories you’re eating, it’s a lot more likely that you’ll eat more than you realize. (Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s “starvation mode” and causes your metabolism to shut down).
So how do you balance practicality and realistic expectations with a nutrition program that gets results? Here’s a solution that’s a happy medium between strict calorie counting and just guessing:
Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in your daily planner) and you now have an eating “goal” for the day, including a caloric target.
That is my definition of “counting calories” — creating a menu plan you can use as a daily guide, not necessarily writing down every morsel of food you eat for the rest of your life. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a nutrition journal for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an incredible learning experience, but all you really need to get started on the road to a better body is one good menu on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day, you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using your one menu as a template.
Using this method, you really only need to count calories once when you create your menus. After you’ve got a knack for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning, then you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.
So what’s the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.
Copyright 2005 Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is a certified personal trainer, natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. You can get info on Tom’s e-book at: burnthefat.com. To get Tom’s free monthly e-zine, visit fitren.com
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