Sunday, May 19, 2013

Slimming Body Wraps: Do they really work???

 As a fitness professional; its my job to teach people safe and effective exercise techniques. Also, being as though I personally lost a lot of weight; I feel that it is my duty to inform individuals about diet/exercise fads, misinformation or flat out lies.

One diet/exercise fad that I'm constantly hearing about lately is the "slimming/body wrap". At dinner one evening, my cousins fiance was telling me how wonderful the body wraps are; so I thought I would do a little research for myself.......I had to see what all the hype was about!!!
 
 After researching about 3 or 4 different body wrap distributors as well as a few "homemade" body wrap methods I noticed that they all promised the same things:
  • lose weight, 
  • shed love handles, 
  • get rid of cellulite and stretchmarks 
All the promised benefits mentioned above are supposedly accomplished by placing the "slimming wrap" around ones "problem areas" and leaving it for 45 minutes or more...........Now, I know for sure that I'm not the "sharpest knife in the drawer" and I definitely dont have all the answers.......but these claims are not possible. And this is why:

  • First of all, losing weight is all about basic math. One pound is equivalent to 3,500 calories. So, for one to lose weight and/or fat, calories must burned by exercising or simply reducing calories from the diet. 
  •   Secondly, it is impossible to lose weight from one part of the body or shed love handles only". When weight/fat loss occurs; it will come from all over the body. The final outcome will largely depend on your genetics and how fat is distrubuted throughout your body. This process will be different for each individual.

  • And lastly, the weight and/or inches that individuals seem to lose come from water weight. If one were to check their body fat percentage before and afterwards, it would be clear that no amount of fat was ever lost. Also, according to an article posted on ABC News.com........ This technique is similar to hot yoga: "You'll put back on any weight you lose once you start drinking," says Dr. Peeke............ Your skin might appear tighter for a couple of days afterward, as the caffeine in many of these wraps temporarily constricts skin, notes Elizabeth Tanzi, MD, a dermatologist in Washington, D.C.
  
I wrote this article knowing full well that eating healthy exercising is time consuming and sometimes frustrating for a lot of people. Every week at least one individual will tell me that "they simply dont have the time". However, my answer to that is always the same......"we make time for whats important"!! And I believe that it's a waste of time using body wraps for weight loss!!!!

With all the time spent on- buying/ordering the product, using the product ( 5-20 minutes) and sitting around waiting for the product to work (45 min or more)...........One could have been to the gym and back!!!! And on top of that save a ton of $$$$.

When it all boils down to it; eating healthy and exercise is the only weight loss method that that will last. If you want to just waste $$$ and time, keep trying all the "lose weight quick" methods. However, if you want to seriously improve your health..........you know what you got to do...........and always remember that:

 "Time is the only thing that we cannot make or buy, use what time you do have wisely"!!


 



 


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