Personal Fitness Professional - March 2008 - (Page 8) CONTROVERSIES c THE WEIGHT LOSS PILL PARADE BY PHIL KAPLAN CURRENT let’s imagine you begin your first day at a new health club, and you’re the personal trainer hired to do the “intake” interviews with all new members. “Hello,” you appropriately begin with your first appointment. “I’m a fitness professional, and I’m here to help you achieve your goals. I’d like to ask you some questions.” The client’s response: “I don’t need a personal trainer! Don’t try to sell me on anything. I know what I have to do. I’m stacking cocaine and Lexapro along with some diuretics and laxatives. I need to lose 50 pounds.” It’s an absurd scenario… or is it? We all recognize that cocaine is addictive, is a brain cell cannibal and can have destructive or lethal ramifications, if abused. We also know it’s illegal — oh, and I don’t think anyone would dispute it can be a very powerful weight loss aid. Few, if any, sane people would opt to use cocaine as a preferred weight loss compound, if they understood the potential outcomes. What much of our society fails to recognize is that the quest to find a legal product that mimics cocaine consumes the researchers for both the pharmaceutical companies and some of the nutritional supplement sellers. Suppose we could go back in time and modify the above example so the user opts not for cocaine but for ephedrine, Prozac, “pee-more” and Ex-Lax. Most people would likely acknowledge that it’s starting to sound a bit more acceptable. Sure, you as a personal trainer see the flaw, but you’re not “most people.” Most people have limited access to reality when it comes to the cut-throat competition among those seeking to drive the fitness and weight loss-wanting consumers to part with their money. 8 MARCH2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM
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