Have you heard about the new weight loss patch? It sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? According to Dr. Michael Myers, who maintains the popular web site weight.com, it’s just another of the hoaxes that clever promoters are using to bilk you out of your money. Weight loss is a gold mine, and unscrupulous operators will use any gimmick to convince you that their product is the magic cure that will melt away your pounds without any effort on your part.

Here are a few of the current weight loss gimmicks and the truth about them.

The Diet Patch

Transdermal delivery of medication is a reality, and there are certain medications that are absorbed readily through the skin. Iodine was once a recommended treatment for obesity, because it helps promote healthy thyroid function. It was abandoned because of side effects and the untoward effects when treatment with iodine ceases.

Wash your fat away with slimming soap!

The claim is that this is an ancient Chinese soap that contains a unique blend of ingredients derived from seaweed which will ‘emulsify’ the fat. In all truth, the ingredients sound like they’d do a lovely job of softening and toning your skin, but there’s not an ounce of research quoted anywhere that can be checked for the results. Until I see the proof, I’ll just figure that any weight loss resulted from vigorous scrubbing - not the ingredients!

Magnetic Weight Loss… earrings

Yes, earrings. By wearing a magnet near the ear, you can suppress hunger, increase metabolism, speed up the healing process and reduce pain. It won’t kill you, at least, and the earrings are pretty, but I wouldn’t put much stock in their weight loss properties.

All of these new weight loss discoveries should be filed in the “Yeah right” file, right next to sauna wraps, copper bracelets, and electro-slimming belts. The only gimmick to weight loss is to eat less and move more!