The fantastic miracle weight loss system that can make you lose 10 pounds in 10 days no matter what you eat! Eat as much as you want, eat more than you want, eat double what you want, and still lose weight without working out! Drop one pant size in a day, but beware because this might work so well you’ll pop out of existence! If these advertising claims are true then rapid weight loss is a miracle solution of the modern world, requiring no effort on the dieter’s part.

Hogwash! Americans still spend upwards of $40 billion on weight loss products that mostly don’t work. Failure doesn’t stop new diets from springing up out of the wood work, or people from trying them. Remember Joe Frazier’s diet, chew the food but spit it out? He bragged it made him full and gave him all the nutrients without the fat. See, mimes had the secret to weight loss all the time. Then there are the magic pills, creams, and diet supplements that guarantee to burn pounds without exercise, guaranteed. No that wasn’t a typo, they use the word guarantee so often it starts to lose meaning. And when they don’t mention precisely the details of the “guarantee” it doesn’t have any meaning. It’s simply a tricking people to think the product works.

Studies show that Very Low Calorie Diets, or VLCDs, work. People got wind of this and now try them at home. That’s a problem because of their nature. VLCD’s are extreme diets intended for seriously overweight people. These diets are designed to be used under medical supervision in a closed setting where people can’t cheat. When used outside those parameters people tend to cheat, and what’s worse they can incur serious health issues.

Rapid weight loss, if it works, creates a number of problems with the body. Gallstones, dehydration, malnutrition and even protein poisoning can develop as a result of the severe caloric starvation involved in VLCDs.

Rapid weight loss is a great idea. But it’s not for most people, and should be administered and supervised by qualified medical professionals.