Sunday, March 9, 2008

How To Avoid The Super Supplements Syndrome

How To Avoid The Super Supplements Syndrome
If you were to build the house of Super Supplements &
Fitness - nutrition, exercise, and motivation would make up
the foundation; they would also make up the framing, the
walls, the roof and pretty much the whole house.

Supplements would then maybe be the satellite dish, or
perhaps the little gnomes in your garden - not real
worthwhile without the house there. So why would you treat
supplements as a precursor to weight loss and write off
nutrition and exercise as expendable activities. Are you
one of these serial supplement users? Do you subscribe to
the "abc" product plan or the "xyz" metabolism makeover? If
that's you - Stop! Please!

There are new diet pills and gimmicks hot off the press
every month, just waiting for their prey - the desperate
dieter wishing for that next "breakthrough" product. Don't
be that victim. The confusion from the diet and weight loss
industries mixed with a dose of media muddle would have you
believe that Super Supplements are indeed needed for
weight loss, and it's your fault if these "worthwhile"
products don't work for you. Many of these hocus-pocus-like
solutions tout their creams, potions, wonder pills or
gadgets as a no-effort and no-exercise-required approach to
fitness - the fat is going to just melt off.

Let's get this straight; fat does not melt off - unless you
use a strategy involving a blowtorch. But I don't recommend
that. Even the manufacturers stress that their products
should be used along with proper nutrition and exercise. If
you ever need some good entertainment - watch a late night
infomercial for a diet product. Look at the before and
after pictures they show. If you look carefully you'll
often see in real small print - the size of a toenail
clipping - "results achieved along with proper diet and
exercise".

Wow! That is a real breakthrough product. Ever heard of the
placebo effect? Often these products are just a good excuse
to eat right and exercise - which then produces the desired
effect of weight loss.

Yes, there are a few helpful supplements out there. But
again, they are not "needed". Even the useful Super
Supplements can be used as a crutch, delaying the onset of
proper nutrition and exercise. What you eat and how much
physical activity you get will make up 95% or more of the
results you achieve.

So why would you try to maximize the 5% when you can get
the most effect from just working out and eating right. And
when you do include supplements in your diet, be sure they
are legitimate and proven products with research to support
their claims. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publishes
an excellent report on how to avoid supplement scams - it's
called "The Red Flag Report" - with a fitting subtitle, "I
lost $350 in two weeks. Ask me how!" It gives a list of the
top 7 red flags to watch out for when buying diet products
and exercise equipment. Here they are:

A supplement or product is too good to be true if it says
the product will:

Cause weight loss of two pounds or more a week for a month
or more without dieting or exercise

Cause substantial weight loss no matter what or how much
the consumer eats

Cause permanent weight loss (even when the consumer stops
using product)

Block the absorption of fat or calories to enable consumers
to lose substantial weight

Safely enable consumers to lose more than three pounds per
week for more than four weeks

Cause substantial weight loss for all users

Cause substantial weight loss by wearing it on the body or
rubbing it into the skin

You can download the full supplements report with some
more detail about each of these 7 red flags along with
examples of products that would violate each of them.
Download the report here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/redflag.pdf

If you get just one thing out of this article I would
really be pleased if you realize that you don't need any
supplements to be successful with weight loss. You are
empowered, you have the capability, you have all you need
to do this, without any gimmicks.


----------------------------------------------------
Zach Hunt is a Nutrition expert, personal trainer and owner
of Physzique, a fitness coaching service in Spokane, WA. Go
here: http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com /index.html
or you can go here for more super suplement tips:
http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com/articles/super-supplement
s-spokane.html

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