Why All Weight Loss Hacks Suck

Sometimes, when I want to go crazy, I read about crap internet trying to pass it off as weight loss hacks. Because they are all like that, very bad.

Articles about weight loss hacks never include hacks, but the headline always swears they do. A recent example: this is a Telegraph article entitled, and I swear I do not do this, "Why drinking vinegar can be the secret to weight loss for life."

 

The article doesn't really tell us why vinegar can be the secret to midlife weight loss, because you can't do that, because it doesn't. Instead, the author tastes-evaluates various vinegar-based beverages. They taste good, it turns out. No one has ever enjoyed drinking lemonade should be surprised that sour ingredients can make a drink taste refreshing. But when the author discovered this, they forgot to cover the weight loss.

We've written before about whether vinegar will help you lose weight here, so I won't bother removing the title claim directly. (Bottom line: no, science has not shown vinegar as a weight loss elixir. On a number of occasions, it has shown that one of the chemical components of vinegar can cause subtle mutations in genetic expression in mice. That is not the same and anyone who claims to be the same

I will bother to say that I hate these articles (and TikTok videos, and Instagram posts, as well as all the other ways people spread bad advice) because they are memorable enough to stay in your mind. You probably already think of it as "good vinegar," and put it in your brain next to "good black chocolate" and "bad margarine" and other vague entities that you take from things you have learned a little over the years. Months from now you will be learning how dangerous vinegar is for weight loss, and you will be confused about what to believe, "good vinegar" or "bad vinegar," and why scientists can't make up their minds.

The very thing that makes clickbait diet advice so appealing (one strange trick!) Is what makes it so irrelevant. Real health advice has never been one weird strategy. In hindsight, its providers are aware of this, and they use it to their advantage: Of course, no hacks “eat this one meal” have ever worked in the past, but perhaps this one will work. Despair breeds clutter.

To name one of the most common perpetrators, the Eat This Not That lifestyle site currently promotes the following stories on their weight loss page, and I repeat, I wish I had a joke:
The best fat loss belly-set in place!
The # 1 order for the best fast food for fat loss in the stomach, says a nutritionist
The top 6 omelet compounds for rapid weight loss, nutritionists say
This weight loss method really works
Exercise # 1 diet to lose weight fast
20 diet combos triple your weight loss
The # 1 fast food weight loss order [and yes, this is different from the # 1 fast weight loss diet order]
The # 1 breakfast you should avoid due to stomach fat
The # 1 best vegetable for weight loss
The best # 1 toast combination to lose weight fast

A lot, but I can't keep scrolling. I am very sad. The # 1 things, by the way, are: whole grain bread, Cobb salad, two white eggs and one egg, a doctor's pill that stretches your stomach to make you eat less, fasting (I remind you not to eat), avocado + whole grain bread + cayenne pepper, a soft subway veggie sandwich (lettuce sandwich), breakfast cereals (“# 1 breakfast you should avoid,” although it is a category of many foods and not just one meal), and peppers. The perfect toast combination is a toast with "spread".

In other words: food. Read their individual thoughts (or do not, if you value your intelligence) and you will find the letters of truth. Cobb salad contains eggs and meat, which are high in protein, and essential proteins. Lettuce sandwich is low in calories, and eating fewer calories will help you lose weight.

But if you were to eat # 1 diet on each topic, you would not be healthier or lose weight than if you did not eat anything from it. This is because losing weight is a huge image effort. If you eat fewer calories than you burned, you will eventually lose weight. It doesn’t matter how many of those calories come from toast, especially. Not a single “best” meal is perfect, let alone one of the best foods.

And if there were magical foods that made food easier, there would be no need for a website (multiple websites) to write 10 different articles about 10 different magical foods. You will be like “oh, it's cool, it's fried. I got it. "Then eat fried bread every day, the pounds will melt, and the whole food industry will crumble to dust.

In fact, a healthy diet or weight loss (alternative) diet does not depend on certain components; they are the number of all the things you eat and do. You can lose weight with a keto diet or a vegan diet or an occasional fast or by eating white omelets like egg and lettuce sandwiches. Do not believe anyone who tells you that certain foods are for your food or health. Because it is not.