Lose 50 pounds in 10 weeks! Lose 5 inches off your waist in 3 weeks! Join now for these amazing results! We’ve all heard these outrageous claims and, since we all love the idea of the quick fix, we jump at the opportunity to get these miraculous results. Are these results attainable? Yes, but here’s what most product sellers and trainers who talk like this won’t tell you — not everyone will get these results and working towards results like these can actually be harmful to your health! Here are five gimmicks that fitness scammers push on unsuspecting clients/customers.

5) Slim Teas — These are possibly the least dangerous of them all, but research has shown no significant long-term (or even short-term) weight loss benefits. In fact, there have actually been class action lawsuits against companies that sell these because of their false claims. Teas, themselves, naturally have antioxidants and other ingredients which may be healthy, but slim teas tend to have added ingredients (extra caffeine, for e.g.) that may cause things like diarrhoea, weakened colon and may even be addictive!

4) Detox Diets — Sellers have pushed these using halfway science for a long time. The claim is that you’re fat because the body is toxic and you need to detoxify the body using specific diets and products. Here’s the reality — the body naturally detoxifies itself using the liver and kidneys. There is no need, barring a malfunction of these two organs or any of the other supporting organs, to use a special diet or product to detox. Additionally, some detox-diets call for ingesting extremely high quantities of foods high in oxalate (a compound that binds to nutrients, reducing nutrient absorption) like spinach and beets. Too much oxalate can actually lead to kidney damage!

3) Million Ab March — Want visible abs or a flat stomach? Many trainers will have specific abdominal days where you do hundreds of reps of ab exercises to give you that flat stomach. The problem? It doesn’t work! As discussed before, you can’t spot-reduce fat, so exercising that one trouble-spot (your belly) won’t work… There’s a tonne of research proving this. You want the flat stomach? You need to get into a caloric deficit and train your whole body. The end!

2) Appetite Suppressants — Do they work? It seems so… Are they safe? Nope… Do they support long-term weight/fat loss? Definitely not! First of all, suppressing your appetite instead of consciously controlling your food intake and activity may lead to huge caloric deficits which, in turn, can lead to malnutrition (various nutritional deficits). Most appetite suppressants contain ingredients which may lead to things like dizziness, insomnia, nervous conditions and digestive issues. Some even contain an ingredient that has been linked to thyroid cancer. Imagine putting yourself through all that risk to lose 15 pounds and, at the end of it, gain back 25!

1) Waist Trainers — I was training a client when I looked across at someone training a group of women. It was a hot and sunny afternoon. This “trainer” is actually a dancer who decided that he wanted to make extra cash. As I looked across, I saw him squeezing waist trainers onto his clients before sending them on a run in that heat. Instantly, I started worrying about them fainting as they ran. Here’s what people don’t tell you about waist trainers. They increase intra-abdominal pressure, increase blood pressure, limit your ability to breathe properly (severely restricting diaphragm-breathing), rearrange your organs, and increase how much you sweat. Please note that extra sweat doesn’t mean extra weight loss. It just means you become dehydrated and, as soon as you drink water to rehydrate, any weight you lost during your workout will just be put right back on. Did I mention that your core muscles, which are needed for, well, everything, can become weaker through the use of waist trainers?

Any trainer or weight-loss ‘expert’ pushing any of these on you should be considered a complete quack! Avoid them and look for a trainer who has a background in exercise science and biology or has been certified by a reputable personal trainer certification company/board. If you want the true benefits of it all, you need to change your nutritional habits and you need to exercise.