Do weight loss ads tell us the truth?

When we watch a weight loss advertisement, it’s only natural that we feel empowered to take action ourselves. Losing weight will always be a long-term goal for many of us however, when you watch a weight loss ad, it can often leave you with a sense of absolute certainty that you can make the same impact on your own body. However, the reality and what you see in the weight loss ad itself are often quite a bit different to what you would normally have expected. Picking up a set of weights or getting on a treadmill is normally the best solution, don’t be fooled by the products these ads try to sell.

Not sure what we mean? Then let’s take a look at the reality of what actually goes on behind the scenes when making those ‘wow factor’ weight loss ads. You see, many weight loss ads that we watch are … how to put this … garbage. They make abusive proclamations that really should be tantamount to false advertising. They create these terrifying messages that, really, nobody should be able to actually accomplish

When you see these crazy messages like “Lose X stone in just a week!” it makes you think of the fast possibilities. Looking amazing in just under a week. Not to be crass, but the only way you could lose so much weight in such a short space of time is with a total aversion to food and a really strong appetite for tough drugs.

So, what is the reality behind the scenes of these adverts?

The people in the adverts often look outstanding. They didn’t get there through illicit or illegal means. Most of the time, though, they never got into the shape they show you by following the plan that you are about to buy into. What, then, is the reality of these ads?

The work behind the scenes is vile

First off, it’s really easy to want to kick the fat back onto the frauds selling you the goodies in the advert. They show you this X-pound monstrosity being turned into a bag of sexual attraction in “just” X days. When you find out that these people actually undergo boot-camp style fitness programs and brutally restrictive diets for weeks on end, you think they are scumbags for selling you a false ideal.

Most of these people, though, are entry level actors/actresses looking to try and make a living just as you and I would. And most of these kinds of adverts are more than happy to hire people who won’t ask questions and will just do as they told.

Most of the time, the people in the ads have never even seen the fitness regime they are selling: they aren’t allowed to see it. Don’t blame the people on the screen, though, as they often go through horrifying fitness camps to get them into the shape that is needed to show on the screen – usually with massive calorie deficits and dreadful quality of life standards as they go through the regime.

The people involved are often put under immense strain

As mentioned above, the actors and actresses often go through the kind of fitness regime that a boot camp would be shut down for. Instead of selling the cheap as chips (and as healthy as chips) fitness plan they claim to have used to get into shape, they get put on these rancid fitness plans which eviscerate the body and ruin their quality of life for a time.

You take stuff like water retention tablets, and you spend a lot of the time basically going to the toilet and emptying the contents of your soul into some porcelain. Most of the people involved are in decent, but not great, shape, yet go through these horrifying fitness plans to make sure the before/after results look good enough.

The aim is often to try and shift as much as a pound flesh in a single day, which is horrifyingly unhealthy. Some were even loaded with dietary supplements and aids which were supposed to help them lose weight even faster – but let’s just say some of the results were less than impressive.

So, again, don’t blame the actors/actresses: they are as duped as you were.

Diet Ads love to lie

Sadly, these ads are often made up of sunshine and lollypop pictures that makes you feel good. You see someone who is bloated, puffy and overweight and then you see a photo of them looking like an Instagram model. It makes you very excited – but as we showed above, weight loss ads are often showing you a reality separated entirely from their products.

If you have to lose weight fast, then you often have to come up with some kind of background. Summertime holiday pictures. A wedding. Festive season. High school reunion. Whatever the fake story is, it will be given to the actor to perform. It’s brutal and actually pretty grotesque. They create these real sounding stories and backgrounds that are justifiable reasons to go through a weight loss program. It’s supposed to resonate with the viewer and make them “Me too!”

So, this is a big, big problem. From people who you see in the street with their wife and kids saying “Now I’ll set up my page on Tinder!” to the local IT technician claiming now he’ll enter into MMA as he looks so good, the stories are often utter garbage.

And it’s a shame, as the stories are often built around the kind of genuine cries for weight loss that people have in their own lives. If you see an ad of someone your size with the same reasons for wanting to lose weight having success, you’ll want part of that.

Sadly, like the rest of the ad, the likelihood is that you would get more benefit from slapping yourself in the gut for the duration of the advertisement. Don’t be fooled by the majority of weight loss ads: their stories, their reasons and their actual weight loss programs are often as fake as the sweetness in a diet soda.