As I've recently increased my formal exercise time (to approx 5 hrs a week for the past 5 wks, which was up from 2 hrs a week for the 5 months before that, which was up from nothing besides casual running about), I've become more and more aware of all the commercials on TV and articles in magazines promising perfect abs and a beautiful body and tons of weight loss in like 4-6 wks. I'm also becoming more and more frustrated watching them. There is NO WAY that 50 y/o woman lost 17 lbs in 5 wks using a bowflex 20 minutes 3 times a week (unless perhaps she also stopped eating). And I really don't believe if you do the pilates ab exercises featured in prevention magazine you'll have a beautiful midsection in 4 wks. Yet these advertisements just anger me, like other people are getting away with something easy and getting rewarded and I'm working really hard and not getting anything. Am I the only one who gets irritated by these things? I think there needs to be way more truth in advertising.

I copmletely agree! Especially when they have, like, "Tammy" or something, who lost 50 lbs. in 2 months, and then right below the picture they say, "Tammy's results not typical." C'mon now, people, whatever happened to honesty and reasonability? There are so many people who fall into those traps, too :no:

Ugh. I've lost count of the Xenadrine ads I've seen in magazines. And I still can get sucked in to the exercise machine infomercials. The last one was the Ab Swing, until I heard how flimsy it is. For $89.99, it had better not be.

All those adds make me cringe. I swear the government has a file on me from all the letters I've written to senators and congressmen begging them to change legislation. These advertisers are cold, miserable people that are no different than criminals who come into your house and steal money. Plus, they're actually (in a lot of cases) making people sick because there's nothing worse than yo-yo dieting and putting things into your body that it doesn't need.

Anyone want a book that really works? I know this works because my husband and I did it and lost weight and shaped up. (big time) It's Body for Life by Bill Phillips. It isn't a miracle drug or anything like that...it teaches you to eat "clean" and how to do strength training. 3 days of weights and 3 days of cardio...one day of the week to eat whatever you want....it's smart, sensible, and works like no other.

Oh, I was almost sucked in by TrimSPA. Anyone know the ingredients? I'll go look it up.

ETA: Hmmm. The fat blocker (http://www.trimspa.com/main/fb_ingredients.shtml) is mainly vitamin c and chitosan. Not sure what to think of the X32 (http://www.trimspa.com/main/cef.shtml) stuff.

~chants to self: don't get sucked in~

Trimspa is just some hoodia and a bunch of caffeine. Stay away! (unless you just love to be jittery and want to waste 39.95)

I promise you, there is no instant cure, I don't care how much they're charging. If there was an expensive cure to weight gain, there would be a lot of really buff rich people walking around. Frankly, I haven't seen very many. :cool:

Don't take diet pills. I used to take a bottle a day, and they can make you so sick...

And those before and after pics, give me a freakin' break. :evil:

Sorry, I have a weakness for them. I once took a Metabolife knockoff (about 3 years ago), CLA, and now Naturalean (7-keto DHEA) and green and white tea extract (I read somewhere that it helps). I get a little carried away.

ETA: But I am working out 4-5 days a week, and (mostly) watching what I eat.

Sorry, I have a weakness for them. I once took a Metabolife knockoff (about 3 years ago), CLA, and now Naturalean (7-keto DHEA) and green and white tea extract (I read somewhere that it helps). I get a little carried away.

ETA: But I am working out 4-5 days a week, and (mostly) watching what I eat.


Be careful. Everytime you turn around, some other "safe" drug ends up being dangerous. :sick:

They're what made me really sick.

I used to use hydroxycut. Mostly for energy, but it was helping me drop weight at a reasonable pace. Once they took out the ephedra, it didn't work for me. I had to start drinking more caffeine for the energy. :-/

You know, I hardly watch tv anymore and I don't read a lot of glossy magazine where I'd find that sort of information and that is why. We are a public that LOVES being lied to because we want to believe there really is an easy answer to all our problems. There isn't, there's just the work of becoming our best self. Doesn't mean I'm going to have six pack abs, just means I'm going to be healthy.

i do question why you think you're not getting anything out of the exercise you're doing? For what pupose are you exercising? Is it really just so your outsides will look terrific?

Hon, you're gonna get old and wrinkly someday and you'll probably have stuff hanging in places that it doesn't right now. Try exercising for what it does on the inside...real, long term health benefits, the peace you feel at jogging first thing in the morning when everyone's still asleep except the sun. Let your beauty and definition lie in being a woman of character and in realizing that your true beauty is your mind, heart and spirit.

If that's you in the picture, you're perfect just as you are. Without six pack abs or any of the other stuff the magazines think you'll be happier with.

Who are you addressing, bethanie?

the original poster. rabid_child. I think she looks great.

i do question why you think you're not getting anything out of the exercise you're doing? For what pupose are you exercising? Is it really just so your outsides will look terrific?


I know that youth doesn't last forever. I am exercising because I should cause its good for your heart and bones and health and all that, but also because my doctor said I need to lose weight. I'm not seeking perfection, I know it doesn't exist. Apparently, however, I need to lose 10-15 lbs, so I'm trying to do that. I also want to get set into a good routine now so when I'm older its not like this big horrible thing to go exercise that isn't already a part of my life.

Ugh, weightloss drug ads drive me nuts. They're all so bad for you and people spend so much money on them!

What also drive me nuts are ads for exercise devices that will give you six-pack abs or buns of steel. What they don't mention is that you can't "spot reduce." If you have a lot of fat on your tummy and do a bunch of ab exercises, you'll build your ab muscles, which is good, but the fat will still be there unless you lose weight. A lot of people don't understand this and ads that promise six-pack abs from ab exercises alone do nothing to dispel the myth. Does anyone remember those belts they used to advertise on tv that sent electrical pulses to your abs and was somehow supposed to build your muscles without exercise? I think it was taken off the market because it was obvious false advertising.

Moderate exercise and a nutrient-dense moderate diet are what it's all about! (Everyone knows this, but they just don't want to believe that's all there is to it!)

I want to throw a shoe at the TV everytime a commercial like that comes on, r_c. It's so weird, though, however much you hate those commercials you always end up watching them anyways

I've heard some rumors about those hydroxycut ads though, that sometimes they'll actually take skinny people and pay them to gain weight for the before and after pictures. Weird, but something the advertising industry may stoop too.

Moderate exercise and a nutrient-dense moderate diet are what it's all about! (Everyone knows this, but they just don't want to believe that's all there is to it!)

Amen to that Eggplant.

thanks for the clarification rabid_child. You need to loose ten to fifteen pounds because your doctor said so? Ah. Well, it just takes time then.

You know, those adds are out there because there's a huge market for them. It's sad to, every time I take my daughter to the park there are people who are out of shape and obese. It's rampant. And people in general don't want to be large and if they can take a little pill, they will. They keep on buying stuff in hopes that one of the things they buy will be THE THING.

One of the biggest problems I see though is adults DON'T move. They take their kids to the park and their kids play, and the adults just sit there like baked potatoes. And so kids think this is just what big people do.

LOL, my daughter and I have been doing a lot of distance biking together this summer (she's finally and very happily able to manage it) and we get the wierdest looks, like "Where's your car?" And, "Oh, look at that poor mom and her kid who have to use bikes."

I just don't think people 'get it' and I think advertising reflects what a state of denial many of us are living in.

Anyhoo....puting soapbox away.

B

LOL, my daughter and I have been doing a lot of distance biking together this summer (she's finally and very happily able to manage it) and we get the wierdest looks, like "Where's your car?" And, "Oh, look at that poor mom and her kid who have to use bikes."

Ha! Several times while I've been walking back from the grocery store, people have stopped their cars to ask me if I need a ride. Nice of them, but I live one mile from the grocery store. :rolleyes: It's sad to me that most people wouldn't even think of NOT taking their car.

lol quetta, its so sad and so funny at the same time. I just keep getting the feeling this year that as a society we are SOOOO lost and so in denial about what we need to be doing.

I got the same look the other day carrying groceries on my bike towards home. We'd stopped for a few things on the way back from the library. Like you, my grocery store is a mile or less from here.

B

I agree, bethanie, that society seems to be confused about what we need to be doing.

I just received "you're weird" looks from my coworkers when I got back from walking some reports over to our client's office. "You walked?!" Our client's office is - max - three blocks away. Yet, if I had volunteered to drive my (hypothetical) SUV three blocks to drop off a few sheets of paper, I doubt anyone would have thought twice about it.

(Sorry to stay off topic...)

:lol: I get this a lot. When I don't have the car and need to get something, I walk to the store. It's not a big deal but people act like it is. I also get this when I go to church. It's a mile away so I walk. So what? Several of the people there insist that they'll give me a ride. I don't need one (unless the weather is bad). It's only a 15 minute walk.

But oh no! 15 minutes? That's soooo far to walk just to get to church! :rolleyes:

Most of the time I get to places faster on my bike than in the car. It almost seems like too much trouble to get in the car drive somewhere a mile away, only to be in the car a few minutes.