Is this "Woo"?

[DeVega]

This is copied from an advert for a Weight Loss PATCH! Seems by just ingesting these (familiar) herbs we can all shed pounds - REALLY QUICKLY! (As in 15lbs in a week! - That is way too fast to be healthy.)

Can't pretend I'm not tempted cos I put on half a stone over December!!! But my SS head (Sensible Skeptic) is telling me that this just isn't right... I think taking plenty of excercise with me doggies and cutting my carbs (not full Atikins) will give me just as good a result. ..

*********
CRAVINGS PATCH...


How Does It Work?

The topical patch releases the ingredients at a steady, safe and regulated rate 24 hours a day. This eliminates any concern about taking too much or too little. The topical patch does it all.

Curb Your Cravings Plus has been clinically formulated with these unique powerful ingredients!

Curb Your Cravings Plus is made with the most concentrated and purest forms of these active ingredients which greatly increases the performance of the topical patch.
Fucus Vesiculosus – helps to increase the body’s metabolism, burn more calories and enhances digestion.
Guarana - A stimulant which also helps to increase to the metabolism while keeping energy levels high
5-HTP - Helps to control sweet and carbohydrate cravings by controlling serotonin levels in the brain.
Zinc Pyruvate – assists in the breakdown of fat cells while helping to build lean muscle mass.
DHEA – helps the body to manage the intake of calories more efficiently.
Yerba Mate – A powerful appetite suppressant from South America.
Lecithin – Helps to breakdown fats and cholesterol and balance body weight
Flaxseed Oil – Keeps a balance of essential fatty acids for healthier dieting
L-Carnitine – Increases the bodies fat burning capabilities
Zinc Citrate – An essential mineral often lost when losing weight.

Curb Your Cravings Plus is the ONLY topical weight loss patch to combine these unique ingredients into one powerful, easy to use topical patch helping your body become a fat burning machine.

Put On The Patch & Take Off The Pounds! It’s that Easy!
****

Gawd, people will do anything to avoid actually getting of the couch!
:eek:

DeVega

[El Greco]

Simply put, BS.


Guarana contains a type of caffeine which in high doses (and preferably combined with ephedrine) would somewhat blunt appetite but only because it makes you jerky. I seriously doubt that you could get the appropriate dosage with a patch.

Lecithin is completely useless as far as fat burning goes.

Carnitine MAY be helpful IF your bodyfat is 10% and you want to go to 5% and you do a lot of cardio and you get about 10gr of it everyday, which is absolutely impossible to get through a patch.

Flaxseed oil, you have to take tons of it to get the suggested amounts of EPA and DHA, it is impossible even with pure flaxseed oil, much more with a patch.

Zinc might be useful during a diet (for general health, not for weight loss) if you take about 50mg per day which I doubt that this patch will be releasing.

And so on...

Cravings and hunger are very complex processes that depend on a lot of different hormones like leptin, ghrelin, peptide YYY, POMC, and a bunch of others that we don't even know how exactly they work. Regulating them is still far from our reach. Leptin injections for example cost about $1000 per day if you want to get an effective dose and yet leptin is only one piece of the puzzle. There have been some more "serious" products (from Avant Labs) that are supposed to control hunger signals, but IMO these too are a complete waste of money.

[MRC_Hans]

No, it is not woo. It is simple and honest swindle. Those people don't even for a second believe that their stuff works, they just want to part a few fools of their money.

Hans

[supercorgi]

Pure woo! Almost all over-the-counter weight loss products are. Believe me, if there was such a simple mix of ingredients as all these magic pills (and patches, oinments, liquids, etc) claimed, the big drug companies wouldn't be spending billions trying to find real drugs that encourage weight loss. If anyone ever finds a safe and effective pill for weight-loss/weight-maintenance, they will be billionaires and everyone will be thin.

As far as real weight loss is concerned it all breaks down to the very simple formula: Calories in must exceed calories burned.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by supercorgi
Pure woo! Almost all over-the-counter weight loss products are. Believe me, if there was such a simple mix of ingredients as all these magic pills (and patches, oinments, liquids, etc) claimed, the big drug companies wouldn't be spending billions trying to find real drugs that encourage weight loss. If anyone ever finds a safe and effective pill for weight-loss/weight-maintenance, they will be billionaires and everyone will be thin.

Indeed. Fortunately, there are no magic pills and weight loss is still very difficult for the vast majority of people :D

[DeVega]

love your name! I am just back from a trot along the beach (v. bracing) with my two own super Corgis!

One of my dogs is a Pets As Therapy visitor & we all call him SuperCorgi when he's wearing his special visiting coat...

I would post a pic but I haven't figured out how yet :(

DeVega

[LostAngeles]

Originally posted by El Greco
Indeed. Fortunately, there are no magic pills and weight loss is still very difficult for the vast majority of people :D

Yeah, I kept meaning to ask about the "$100 a bottle" pills that supposedly suppress "a nasty little stress hormone" called Cortisol(sp?). Supposedly, it "traps fat around the hip and belly area" as you get older.

OK, that makes sense. Stress causing a person to bulk up, I can buy.

What I can't buy into is that this isn't a doctor monitored thing. If it's suppressing a hormone, then you should be under a physician's care. Of course, the ads contain the small disclaimer about "these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA." Hell, the radio ads even talk about an unnamed "skeptical reporter" who tried it out herself and wow! It worked!

Granted, they tell you to eat right and exercise, but nevertheless, how are people (Phil Hendrie, I'm looking at you, you whore) buying this crap?

[Terry]

Originally posted by supercorgi
As far as real weight loss is concerned it all breaks down to the very simple formula: Calories in must exceed calories burned.

Shurely shome mishtake?

--Terry.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by LostAngeles
What I can't buy into is that this isn't a doctor monitored thing. If it's suppressing a hormone, then you should be under a physician's care. Of course, the ads contain the small disclaimer about "these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA." Hell, the radio ads even talk about an unnamed "skeptical reporter" who tried it out herself and wow! It worked!

Well, suppressing a hormone isn't that difficult nor it always requires medical attention. Simple eating regulates a lot of hormones. A humble banana would suppress cortisol :D And there are (were) supplements that work as advertised (or close, anyway), like some prohormones or ephedrine. The thing is that there is an overabundance of information around and laypeople can't even tell who they should trust and whose advise should they follow. Even physicians often give extremely bad advise when it comes to people who exercise and diet. Not to mention the advice people receive from trainers, athletes, parents, friends or pizza boys. And then there's the Internet....

Unfortunately there's no easy way out of all this for someone who wants to know something more than "eat less to lose weight": You have to study for yourself. A lot.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by LostAngeles
OK, that makes sense. Stress causing a person to bulk up, I can buy.

Don't buy. It's usually the other way round. Yes, stress increases cortisol but also increases some fat-mobilizing hormones (like catecholamines) and since stressful situations actually increase (slightly) metabolism, the net result is (slight) fat loss assuming you eat the same. The problem is that stress makes many people overeat, so....

[LostAngeles]

Originally posted by El Greco
Don't buy. It's usually the other way round. Yes, stress increases cortisol but also increases some fat-mobilizing hormones (like catecholamines) and since stressful situations actually increase (slightly) metabolism, the net result is (slight) fat loss assuming you eat the same. The problem is that stress makes many people overeat, so....

Ah ha! I thought it was a plausible claim. Beacause I meant, um, the overeating. Yes, yes I did.

No seriously, I figured that it was plausible that stress can increase weight, either by hormone or hormone plus overeating. But there you go.

Interesting on both posts there. So. Eating a banana or spending $100 on pills.

Good thing I'm trying to gain weight.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by LostAngeles
So. Eating a banana or spending $100 on pills.

Well... almost... the problem is that the banana, while probably much more effective than those pills, has CALORIES :D

The truth is we can't fool the human body so easily... when we diet cortisol will go up, one way or the other... we can just try to make it not increase too much by using some mild metabolic tricks or some potent drugs.

[c4ts]

Lecithin – Helps to breakdown fats and cholesterol and balance body weight

And cure lower back pain, according to Sylvia Browne.

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by DeVega
...Yerba Mate – A powerful appetite suppressant from South America...

Caffeine has long been used as an appetite suppressant, ("Dexatrim" is mostly caffeine).

Now this doesn't sound as exciting as "Yerba Mate" (pronounced "ma-TAY"), from the jungles of South America, where ancient cultures have known for centuries that science can't explain the miraculous effects of the natural herbal yada yada yada.

What we're talking about is good ol' caffeine.

[supercorgi]

Originally posted by Terry
Shurely shome mishtake?

--Terry.

Oops yeah. That should read: calories burned must exceed calories consumed. I must have been thinking of what I usually do -- eat too much and then sit on my butt. :rolleyes:

[Eos of the Eons]

http://wemarket4u.net/fatfoe/

Here, informational and factual :D

And throw in some Quackwatch/Consumer Health watch:

http://www.ncahf.org/digest04/04-45.html

You can see why these people on the site are "Defendants"