You gotta laugh at these weight loss schemes!
With our February winter in full swing, I thought you might enjoy some “health” humor today. I came across an article describing some of the most hilarious weight loss scams from history, and thought you might enjoy a chuckle or two. You might remember some of these weight loss schemes, or at least heard your parents or grandparents talk about them.
Research shows that 95% of New Year’s resolutions are fitness and health related; but after just three months, only 10% of people are still on track to fulfill those goals. If after reading some of these funny weight loss schemes, you feel that you need some help losing weight, please reach out to our office and we can help you meat your health goals using customized meal plans, one-on-one coaching, nutrition education, and more.
Weight loss can be daunting…. Diet and exercise isn’t always as simple as some of us would like. As you can see from some of the crazy things people have tried, I hope you get a laugh from the pictures and promising advertisements shown below.
Weight Loss Cigarettes
Yeah, you read that correctly.
Smoke your way to a slim figure with TRIM Skinnies! The concept was indeed a real weight loss scam in the late 1950’s.
The fringe benefit for the skinny smokers? These babies came filtered! Ooh la la!
Trim’s reducing-aid cigarettes claimed that if you smoked at least 3 of their cigarettes daily, you could lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks without changing your diet, because their “harmless” product would decrease your appetite by drying out your mouth.
The manufacturer even claimed that they were clinically tested and medically approved! Talk about a weighty (no pun intended) sales pitch.
Either way, the FDA stepped in and grabbed 26,710 packs of these to get them off the market in 1958.
Tapeworms
So, maybe you belly laughed a bit at that first one…now for the jaw dropping.
Apparently, in the early 20th century, people fell for an ad that toted the following aids in weight loss via the consumption of jar-packed, sanitized, tapeworms. Sanitized, because duh, who would want to eat an unsanitized tapeworm…eww!
Check out a few lines from the ad!
“Eat! Eat! Eat! & Always Stay Thin!”
“No Diet. No Baths. No Exercise.”
“No Danger: Guaranteed Harmless”
“FAT, the ENEMY that is Shortening Your Life: BANISHED! HOW? With Sanitized Tapeworms, jar-packed.”
“Friends for a fair form.”
“Easy To Swallow!”
Okay, this one turned my stomach. I’m even thinking about skipping lunch.
In case you want to read more in-depth details, you can read more HERE. When they couldn’t sell the live tapeworms, they then began to advertise Lard-B-Gone “with live tapeworm eggs!” where the tapeworms would hatch inside of the body!
Diet Glasses
So, apparently if Superman can have x-ray vision, then those looking to lose weight (in the 1970’s) could don a pair of glasses and drop pounds!
I mean, why should superheroes have all the power, right?
Unfortunately the FDA had to come in and put a halt to the glasses and their weight loss aiding claims.
Vision Dieters claimed the use of “secret European color technology” to curb hunger and cravings.
How so, you ask?
Well, with one blue lens and one brown lens, when you shopped for food you wouldn’t be tempted with brightly colored packaging because the shades would…um…shade the bright colors.
Vibration Machines
From the early 1950’s and even today (seriously, I just saw a similar product being demonstrated in Costco last week!), vibration machines have been promising, with no actual proof of them working, to help people shed unwanted weight.
Hold on, maybe you’re unfamiliar with this term because you’ve heard their otherwise known name: jiggle machines! I think even Jane on the Jetson’s cartoon had a jiggle machine too…. LOL!
Fat Soap
Fatsoff, Fayro, and Folts were all companies that promised fat loss when you washed with their soap product.
Fayro actually claimed their product to be a “secret flesh reducing salve.”
And what did this secret technology do?
Flesh reducing salve or soap “opened your pores to let your blood cells sweat off fat.”
See, simple! Halloween soap…guts your pores, you sweat out blood…oops, I mean fat.
But alas, fat soap proved to be false soap…or, just plain old non blood cell fat-sweating, soap.
Slendaform
I suppose if you’ve just gotten out of the bath, and your fat soap didn’t work, why not try a liquid that you could just rub on your body to get thin?
Slendaform was a 1920’s product that toted such benefits. “Just lay it on, and pat it in, and you can watch yourself grow thin.”
It came with an unconditional guarantee and everything!!
“You can actually feel the fatty parts melting away!”
Now don’t tell me you aren’t tempted! I even searched on Amazon.
Drat, it’s currently unavailable. Oh wait, that’s the hilarious ad print, the liquid was promptly removed from the market when…you guessed it…it didn’t work!
Fat Reducing Gum Drops and Bile Beans
Okay now, this one here, technically, could make someone lose weight. After all, it’s made of sugar and a potent laxative.
A 1920’s ad ran encouraging individuals to consume the “fat-reducing gum drops” and incorporate a vigorous exercise routine.
Go for a run, get the runs…see? Weight loss!!
I mean, they didn’t say it’d be safe weight loss?? Hmmm, or did they?
“A safe reducing agent that gets rid of fat by elimination.” Come all, y’all! They weren’t exactly lying!
A Take-Home Message
So next time you’re looking to drop some extra pounds, skip the skinny cigs, laxative pills, and tapeworms… Ditch the glasses, jiggling, soaps and creams…
There are thousands of weight-loss programs today, and not all of them are safe either!
If you want to lose weight for good, it’s important to have an understanding of the playing field — because there are forces that don’t have your best interest at heart.
Learn how to level the playing field with strategies you can implement today for life-changing results…
Most weight-loss programs use a calories-in, calories-out approach. Short-term successes are painful to sustain.
What’s missing from these programs?
They don’t take into account our humanness.
Most of us don’t want to spend our days counting calories or tracking points. Or feeling guilty because we’re not.
Most of us have failed at moderation as well. Not only is processed food purposely designed to be addictive, but we’re also evolutionarily designed to be finishers. This is due to our feast or famine past, so eating until we’re 150% full is much more aligned with our nature than putting a fork down at 80% full.
No wonder our relationship with food feels complicated… maybe even painful!
Our office can help you gain a better understanding of a healthy life style you and anyone in your family can LIVE with. Please give us a call or ask at the front desk what we can do to help. We can help stop your weight gain cycle and help you regain your personal balance of true health.
THE most important thing in life, is how you feel about YOURSELF!!!!
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