Yep, I was looking at weight loss supplements.

One of the things I like to do is to make sure I keep up on the weight loss supplement industry.

I don’t work in the weight loss supplement industry any more, but I find that it is beneficial for me to keep up to date on the latest products and their advertising.

From my experience, the supplement industry is always on the cutting edge for what is new and “in”. If certain catch phrases are in a supplement ad, then you can bet they will be mainstream in another couple months. In fact, I think some of these companies are innovative enough that their marketing can actually create media trends.

As I was going through the ads and the products out there I realized two things – There isn’t much new going on in the supplement industry, and the supplement industry has actually managed to put a price on weight loss.

That’s right. With a quick little experiment we can actually figure out how much the supplement industry is charging you per pound of weight lost.

Assuming their weight loss claims are correct, and that if (and this is a big if) you were to take their products you would actually lose the amount of weight they say you will, then you can actually put a price on weight loss.

For instance, the very best claim that I have seen on a supplement is that you will lose about 15 pounds in 8 weeks. So, hypothetically if you took this product (we’ll call it product X) for 8 weeks you would lose 15 pounds.

Now, with product X you had to take 4 pills per day and the bottle contained 80 pills.

Therefore, to take the product for the full 8 weeks you would need to buy 2.8 bottles, and since you can’t buy .8 of a bottle, you’d have to buy 3 bottles.

You can buy fat burning supplements for a wide range of prices, but the average is around 29.99. However sometimes you can find the 29.99 ones on sale for as low as 25.99, so lets just say product X costs 25 dollars per bottle.

What do we get from all this math? Simple, according to the supplement industry losing 15 pounds should costs you 75 dollars (3 bottles in 8 weeks, at 25 dollars per bottle).

Or about 5 dollars per pound (And remember, this is assuming their products actually work!).

No wonder they are a multi billion dollar industry!!

Truthfully, weight loss shouldn’t cost you this much. In my opinion there are only three things you need to lose weight, and once you have them, you can lose weight and maintain that weight loss for as long as you want without ever having to pay any more money.

Those three keys?

A proper diet that you can stick to long term, an exercise program that you find challenging, and supportive friends and family is all you need to lose weight.

BP

PS- speaking of exercises, here are two cool videos from Craig Ballantyne of turbulencetraining.com

Bodyweight workout
Fat Burning Workout

lose weight easily with intermittent fasting

Unfortunately, this ‘feel‘ was mostly increased gustatory sweating (not your metabolism revving up 2017% higher than normal), and in my personal opinion all the capsaicin in the world isn’t going to make you lose weight.

However, capsaicin isn’t completely worthless. After all, it’s the chemical in chili peppers that makes them “hot”. And, from my experience most pungent components of foods such as capsaicin tend to have health benefits.

Lucky for us a company has finally found a great way to use capsaicin in one of their products.

(Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate with Chili – Pure Awesomeness)

Rich dark chocolate and chili pepper extract. Trust me, it tastes way better then it sounds.

BP

PS- Happy Valentine’s Day!

So the other day, when I received an email from Craig that was about “fat burners” I felt I had to share it here.

When ever I am questioned about ‘metabolism’ and ‘metabolism boosters’ I’m quick to point out that nutrition plays a very, very small role in increasing your metabolism. Typically, I then go on to explain that the only real way you can increase your metabolism is through exercise.

However, Craig does an amazing job in the following email explaining exactly what type of exercise you need to be doing to increase you metabolism.

I hate to give you the bad news, because I wish there was an effective fat loss supplement as much as the next person. A real “fat burner” just doesn’t exist. BUT, there are ways to boost your metabolism without supplements…

1) Strength training – aiming for 8 reps per set.

2) Interval training – rather than long, slow boring cardio.

3) Extra bodyweight circuits – done either in the AM or PM.

4) A whole, natural foods diet, rich in high-fiber fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, and high-protein foods.

Craig’s rules are simple and easy to follow. All you have to do is commit to them, and follow them consistently, and you will boost your metabolism.

Straight up, if you want the very best workout information on the net today then visit Craig’s site TurbulenceTraining.com

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training