How to beat the weight-loss scams at their own game

A select few businesses have grown rich foisting weight-loss programs on the American public. Despite their promises of easy weight control, if you fall for their slick marketing, the odds are slim that your dollars will buy you a slimmer waistline.

Many of the folks selling a quick ticket to weight-loss imply there are studies showing their programs have worked for a lot of dieters. After all, most of their ads are filled with before and after pictures that depict massive reductions in waistlines and show how average, pudgy people have transformed themselves into svelte, attractive supermodels.

Don’t you believe it.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins took a close look at the research that supposedly backs the claims of these weight-loss programs and they discovered that the people behind the curtains of these dietary flim-flam schemes have been cooking the books.

They found that among 32 of the largest commercial weight-loss programs, only 11 of the programs have any kind of reliable research on them. And then, out of those, only two programs have shown any type of dependable success rate for customers.

But even then, here’s the real scam: The definition of “success” in these cases is just that the programs helped people lose a pound or two extra compared to people who just dieted and exercised on their own.

You can do just as well designing your own program without shelling out money to a company that may or may not support your efforts, and probably makes no difference if they do.

The best tactic, in my book, is to eat the real food of the paleo diet, identify and then phase out the processed junk you’re offered and choose whole foods instead, and then exercise at least every other day. The sugar and the processed carbs cause your body to pack on the pounds.

That’s the kind of plan I follow. Of course, I must warn you, when I go out socially, I’m sometimes told I’m too thin. But that’s because our definition of what’s a normal weight has become so warped by the obesity epidemic.

In any case, I eat more food than most people but I won’t eat much processed food. I don’t eat at restaurants much, and when I do, waiters find me pretty annoying since I stay off grains (including wheat and corn), dairy and soy.

But by eating real food, I can eat until I’m full and snack almost all I want. And my weight rarely budges. It can work for you too if you stick to it.