03: Frantic Weight Loss Attempts and Real Answers
Frantic Weight Loss Attempts and Real Answers
Replay & Transcript of Episode 3
Health Seekers Radio December 19, 2015
Phil:
Here we’re, time of the year. The time of year is the wrap up. I can’t believe it happened already, but it’s the wrap up of the holiday season. The holiday season is about done, but we’re in another season. We’re in the gullible season. Dr. Pompa, I want to tell you about Joseph. Joseph is a guy who attended two of my seminars two years apart. I didn’t know him; he told me this.. He sent me an email, and he wanted to talk by phone, and he seemed desperate. He told me, “I was at your seminar at Shula’s this year, and I was at another seminar” so I said okay. I gave him a call, and he just started.
When I say he started, he started describing his body in boxer shorts, because he had a moment. He was walking by a mirror, and it struck him, and that was the moment. He was graphic, and I said, “Joseph please, I don’t know you. Don’t give me this visual right now. Let’s talk about the outcome you want,” but he had to go through the whole thing. He told me every single part of what he saw in that mirror, and it wasn’t pretty.
Dr. Pompa:
He didn’t like it.
Phil:
He didn’t like it, nor did I, by the way. I go, “What are we going to do? Are you ready to start on a program?” and he said, “I’m ready to do something, because I don’t want to wait till New Year. Everyone’s waiting till New Year’s resolution, but I don’t want to wait. I want to do it now. I’m grossing myself out. No wonder my wife always wants the light off.” He had this all figured out, and he goes, “I’m going to change right now.” I thought I knew what I was going to do. I was going to go for the Al Roker surgery, which is the gastric bypass, but whatever celebrity people know, that’s the one that they think—
He goes, “I was going to do that, but my wife talked me out of it. She said that there’s this diet called the Master Cleanse that all the celebrities use.” Jennifer Aniston—she went through a whole list. She told him a whole list of all the celebrities. She goes, “Why would you go for this surgery, when you could just do the diet?” He goes, “Because I’m not good with diet.” This is where the wife got him confused, she goes, “When you get the surgery, you have to be on a diet.” That’s why he was calling me. He wanted me to help him make that decision. Does he do the gastric bypass, which he didn’t know the name of, it was the Al Roker surgery; or does he do the Master Cleanse that Jennifer Aniston used to become a movie star, apparently?
Dr. Pompa:
Before he knew that you had to actually change your diet and actually be on a diet, he didn’t have a decision to make, meaning that the Al Roker thing would be perfect for him, because you’d have to be on a diet, until he had to find out he had to be on a diet. Now he had a choice.
Phil:
Exactly right. I was trying to stop him because he was rambling; he was frantic. I said, “Joseph, you are putty.” He goes, “I don’t care. You can call me anything, I know I’m fat.” I go, “No. I’m not calling you a derogatory name. I’m telling you in this state, you’re putty for whatever an advertiser or marketer’s going to get you, whether they want to touch you with a knife, or whether they want to change the way you eat. Somebody’s going to get you, and you’re just putty, ready to be shaped into whatever victim they want you to be.”
Dr. Pompa:
There’s a lot of putties out there.
Phil:
That’s what I think. I think this’s the one who happens to contact me, but I think Joseph’s a representative of a whole lot of people who’re taking a look at their holiday season body and feeling that desperation. You and I are not the only ones who know this. Marketers of products know that this is the time that people are vulnerable, easily victimized, and willing to part with money.
Dr. Pompa:
Putty.
Phil:
Here’s the question. If people part with money, will they get the result they want? I’m going to have to ask you, in the grave majority of cases, if you were limited to two possible answers—Yes, they will achieve the results they want if they favor them, or no, in most cases, they will not—which would be your answer?
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely long term, no.
Phil:
Last night, Dr. Pomper and I were looking at—I called you Pomper.
Dr. Pompa:
You did call me Pomper. Are we going to continue this?
Phil:
Dr. Pompa and I were just looking through some of the present infomercial offerings. Really, we were laughing, but honestly getting upset, because this is, to me, a crime. It really is. This is taking money from people with no hope of them getting anything in exchange for the money, not even a maybe. I took a look closely, and I printed them out, and I have here some of the ads for products. I don’t know if we should mention the name of this product, so we’ll call it Lipozip, okay? It starts out saying, “Seventy-eight percent of weight lost is pure body fat, not water.” Okay, it’s a good headline, because lots of people here that when they go on a diet—
Dr. Pompa:
“It’s just all water”
Phil:
Yeah, you’re losing water-weight. They’re saying 78%, which sounds real because it’s not 70%. It’s 78; there’s precision there right.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, someone did a study.
Phil:
Yeah. There’s a graphic, and the graphic show the capsule and whatever’s in the capsule going into the fat cells, and it says, “Seventy-eight percent of weight loss is pure body fat.” Now if Joseph saw this, don’t you think that he’d continue to read?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and that’s indicating that, “Hey, I can do it just with a pill.”
Phil:
Now you go to the next line, “Achieve fantastic weight loss results and still eat the food you love.”
Dr. Pompa:
Man, that would’ve got Joseph.
Phil:
Absolutely, right?
Dr. Pompa:
That’s what you wanted, right?
Phil:
Yeah. By the way, we have another one we could look at that would also get him, because it’s like the gastric bypass without the gastric bypass, right?
Dr. Pompa:
Oh yeah, beautiful.
Phil:
Let’s stay with this: “You can eat the food you love, and you can lose weight, and most of that weight’s going to be fat! All you have to do,” according to this piece of marketing, “is take a pill.”
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, but it could be stimulants, Phil.
Phil:
No. It’s a stimulant-free ingredient.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s got us there, too.
Phil:
It’s got a bullet point, “Stimulant-free ingredients.” Here’s what you have to wonder—
Dr. Pompa:
Over 25 million bottles sold, so it must work.
Phil:
It says here, “Our customers can’t be wrong”
Dr. Pompa:
That’s right. There are 25 million of them, so now I’m convinced.
Phil:
It’s possible one person bought 25 million bottles, right? The owner of the company’s wife, the distributor. I think we’ve got to take a break. We hear a little bit of music coming.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I just want to know about this product right when we come back. It’d be good.
Phil:
Yeah, Lipozip. It’s not really called Lipozip. Don’t go searching for this on the internet because we’re changing the name to protect the guilty.
Dr. Pompa:
The people who bought 25 million bottles.
Phil:
Right. We’ll be back to share this with you in just a second.
Phil
Before we took a break, Dr. Pompa and I, this is—Phil Kaplan, and Dr. Pompa with an “a” at the end, it’s not Pomper.
Dr. Pompa:
I was going to say, you’re overdoing the “a” now.
Phil:
Pompa. I’m just being careful. Dr. Pompa and I were reviewing some of the marketing that sells products to vulnerable people who are looking to change when it comes to the end of this holiday season. I think the great salvation in their mind, through the holidays, is, “I’ll have the cookies. I’ll have the alcohol. I’ll have the eggnog. I’ll have the drink. I’ll do the thing because when New Year’s comes, I’m going to change my life, give up everything I love, do things completely unrealistic that I’ve never done before, and completely change.” Of course they won’t.
Dr. Pompa:
They’re searching for the answer now so they can have their cake and eat it, too, enjoy themselves, then when January comes, “Man, I’m on it.”
Phil:
Here is the appeal emotionally of all of these offerings: “You don’t have work that hard. You don’t have to change your life that hard.” We were reviewing a product ad, we’re calling Lipozip, it’s not the real name, and it starts off by saying, “You will lose weight without changing what you eat, and you can still eat the foods you love.” The evidence here is 25 million bottles were sold. That’s where we’re at so far. Then they have a picture of scientists, people in white with masks. I think they’re scientists. You would think they were. What are the words under it?
Dr. Pompa:
Clinically proven.
Phil:
Those are good words because they mean nothing. Where’s the clinic? Where’s that clinic?
Dr. Pompa:
I was hoping close to here. We could actually go see the process.
Phil:
The clinic, in most cases, is people sitting in a room writing ad copy. Clinically proven. Now, sometimes, I’m going to share this with you, when you look at an ad, if it is in fact referencing a credible study, there will be a little asterisk next to where it says clinically proven, and you could look. It’ll either give you an excerpt, an abstract from a journal. It’ll give you a link. It’ll say, “Conducted at University of Wisconsin.” Here, I’m a little encouraged because it says, “Clinically proven,” and it has the little mark. You look down, wondering where the study was, and you think you’re going to find it, and what does it say?
Dr. Pompa:
“These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
Phil:
So far, there’s nothing saying that this is true, and nothing suggesting it works, but there’s a picture of scientists and the words, “clinically proven.” Now, we’re still hoping that they’ll tell us about a study so at least we can go verify. Did this really happen? How does the next paragraph start out?
Dr. Pompa:
“Numerous studies have proven that the active ingredients in Lipozip will help you lose weight. Researchers conducted an independent study on Lipozip’s exclusive formula and found that not only did the participants lose weight, but 78% of each pound lost was pure body fat.”
Phil:
If you’re just tuning in, don’t think this is a product offering. It’s not. We’re reviewing a product offering. Numerous studies? Where? Where are the studies?
Dr. Pompa:
There were numerous.
Phil:
Donald Trump uses that a lot. He goes, “Lots of people said. Lots of people. I speak to a lot of people, and they said.” It could be the same thing here. Lots of people said this works.
Dr. Pompa:
That qualifies it then.
Phil:
We could really run an ad that says, “Here’s the product, and lots of people say it works because it was clinically proven and 25 million people bought it.” Look, we’re not slamming the product. We’re slamming how vulnerable people become, how important it is to protect yourself. Now as you really look closely at this ad, I think what it reveals—because now we’ve got some really good pictures. Now we’ve got pictures and the number of pounds they lost. We have three people here. There’s an attractive looking woman, and another woman who lost 90 pounds.
Dr. Pompa:
The average Joe, there.
Phil:
The average Joe, who looks okay, not bad in his surf shorts.
Dr. Pompa:
Very compelling.
Phil:
Above it, it says, “Real people, real results.”
Dr. Pompa:
They look like real people.
Phil:
They do look like real people, and some of them have a before photo so you can see that they lost weight. Then, there’s an asterisk here.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s funny how they just threw the average Joe in here without a photo.
Phil:
Real people, real results, followed by yet another asterisk. When you follow that, what does it say?
Dr. Pompa:
“Results not typical. Endorsers used Lipozip in combination with diet and exercise, and were remunerated.”
Phil:
That means they were paid.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s right. Exactly.
Phil:
That means that they were paid to say this, and they used the product, and they dieted, and they exercised. Yet the ad makes the claim that none of that is necessary. You don’t have to diet. You don’t have to exercise. You can eat the food you love.
Dr. Pompa:
You can still eat the food you love.
Phil:
Yeah, anything you want.
Dr. Pompa:
But these people in the clinical study actually dieted and exercised. That’s very odd.
Phil:
Hold on to that common sense that lies somewhere deep in your brain. Think about, if in this ad, it says “Here are some people who lost weight. You don’t have to diet and exercise but they did, and they took the product.” How would that suggest in any way, shape, or form, that that product works? If we gave people hay to eat and we said “Before your workout take a little bit of hay.” They would lose weight because they’re working out and we’re putting them on a diet, and they happen to be eating hay. We could say it’s all natural. As a matter of fact, next week we’ll be talking about a new product.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely.
Phil Kaplan:
Lipo-hay.
Dr. Pompa:
Lipo-hay would work, actually.
Phil Kaplan:
We could work it, “Hey, it’s Lipo-hay!” How about that? Hey!
Dr. Pompa:
It’s Lipo-hay. I remember when the Twinkie diet came out. Folks, I’m not kidding.
Phil Kaplan:
That’s for real.
Dr. Pompa:
That is absolutely for real. I can’t tell you how many emails I got, even from my doctors saying, Dr. Pompa why is this diet working? It’s opposite of what we talk about. Hey, the Twinkie diet can work, the hay diet can work.
Phil Kaplan:
Do you know, a lot of real science, not the people in this picture, but a lot of real science goes into the creation of snack foods. There’s a term that they use in the manufacture of these foods called “bliss point.” They’re looking for just the sweet spot, the right amount of sugar that brings you to a place where you create neuro-transmitters in your brain that make you feel a sense of bliss. If you put in too much sugar it backfires because then you get nauseous afterwards. I want to tell you, the Twinkie, the Oreo—they have really mastered that.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s why they brought the Twinkie back.
Phil Kaplan:
Yes. Now somebody says eat the food that will create a dopamine response in your brain and lose weight. How appealing is that? Eat Twinkies and get healthy.
Dr. Pompa:
They even mastered it beyond that. They started coming up with different chemicals that make your brain hit bliss point, even more addiction.
Phil Kaplan:
I think the intention here is not to rip apart an ad for a product. The intention here is to share truth. I think when you start to dissect these, this is one of thousands that we could have chosen—when you start to dissect it, you really start to see the, I’ll say, bunk that is in here. I would probably say something else if we weren’t on the radio because it’s fiction. It’s pure fiction. There’s some real art here. There’s some real artistry in the creation of the marketing piece that makes people buy and go completely against their rational mind. There’s no way in the world that this product, based on what we see here, was proven to do anything.
Dr. Pompa:
Good marketing.
Phil Kaplan:
It’s really good marketing and, unfortunately, it’s going to cost a lot of people a lot of money.
Dr. Pompa:
What about this product? Your buddy Joe, I think, came up with this one. This is the one that you don’t have to get the painful, potentially dangerous surgery; you could just get this belt here. What’s it called? I can’t remember.
Phil Kaplan:
It is the portion control belt—the Portion Controller weight loss belt. It says feel full faster. We’ll be back to tell you the real story.
Dr. Pompa:
Maybe this one’s a good thing.
Phil Kaplan:
We’ll find out, right after these words.
Phil Kaplan:
As we were talking on the break, Dr. Pompa said to me “As long as you enjoy putting things around your bell, great.”
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, right. There’re ads within the ads. I mean, this one makes your abs better, yet it’s a different product. I’m thinking I guess they’re trying to target people who just love putting things really tight around their belly.
Phil Kaplan:
For anyone just tuning in, we started out today Health Seekers helping you understand how to make better choices, how to make better decisions, what’s really going to help you improve your health and what is not. Right now, people are very vulnerable. They’re very gullible. They’re very easily misled because there’s this sense of desperation and this false hope of rescue. I’m desperate because I hate my body, but I found this ad, or I heard about this thing, or there’s this major surgery, or there’s this new diet that will rescue me. That allows them to go through this holiday season without all of the disgust that they would normally feel because they know that when New Year’s comes everything is going to change.
Dr. Pompa:
They’ve got a plan.
Phil Kaplan:
You can have a plan, but if it is a plan with a flawed technology, it’s going to fail. If Dr. Pompa and I decided—we haven’t yet, but we might decide this—to dig a hole to the moon, we will probably be digging that hole for a very long time because it is not a technology that will ever get you to the moon. I think if you tried to lose weight healthfully and permanently with a product that has no validity, no merit, no clinical science behind it, that has never helped a single person lose weight permanently, you’re digging a hole to the moon. You’re just not going to get there. We’re trying to save you the energy output. We’re going to help you build a rocket ship, but it’s not going to be the overnight. That’s the frustrating part from where we sit. Right?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, well, how long did it take you to get there is a good question. It didn’t happen overnight folks but Sarah lost 40 pounds, Phil, with this product. I’m not sure I buy into what you’re saying because she lost 40 pounds.
Phil Kaplan:
Alright. This product—we’ve been looking at some ads, we’ve been looking at some clever marketing, and kudos to the people who write these ads because they’re very compelling.
Dr. Pompa:
They understand human behavior.
Phil Kaplan:
You look at this picture of, I would say, a very attractive female body; the kind of body that most women would like. She’s got an hour glassy, small waist.
Dr. Pompa:
With the belt on.
Phil Kaplan:
You don’t see fat hanging over. All you could see is her midsection and her arms but you look at that, and if you’re a guy, you go, that’s how I want my wife to look. If you’re the wife you go that’s how I want to look. There is some science here, too, as they’re drawing you into this visual. It looks absurd because what this woman has around her waist is a super tight belt that, in the front, it almost looks like the air-conditioning vent in your car.
Dr. Pompa:
I was just going to say that. That doesn’t look like the average belt. It looks like a little air-conditioning unit that does something that my belt at home wouldn’t do. I’d be like can’t I just do this with my own belt?
Phil Kaplan:
Did you ever take a first aid class?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I did.
Phil Kaplan:
CPR?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, um-hm.
Phil Kaplan:
With that first aid they tell you how to stop the bleeding, you find something and you create a tourniquet?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, that’s basically what’s happening here.
Phil Kaplan:
That’s exactly what’s happening.
Dr. Pompa:
Why couldn’t you put it around your throat? Wouldn’t it work better? I’m serious.
Phil Kaplan:
Here’s the premise. They’re calling this a portion control belt. The whole idea here is, before you eat the big meal, because you know you want it, you put this belt on and in a sense, it is the gastric manipulation, the shrinking of your stomach which is what makes—
Dr. Pompa:
Without the surgery.
Phil Kaplan:
Without the surgery. They’re constricting like a tourniquet, constricting your midsection. Let’s start with this. In this picture, that belt is pretty tight.
Dr. Pompa:
Very.
Phil Kaplan:
Most people who will buy this belt don’t have a body like that.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so how are they going to get it on?
Phil Kaplan:
When they get it on how are they going to make it tight enough? If somebody has eight more inches on their waist than the woman in this picture, now you’ve got to get through all of that eight inches. Man, that’s going to hurt.
Dr. Pompa:
Actually, this is why I think my idea’s a little better because on average, there’s not much difference in neck size, even with obese people verses skinny people—slightly, but we can still get a belt around it.
Phil Kaplan:
We need a disclaimer here: Please don’t try this at home. Dr. Pompa is being facetious. It’s funny. It is funny.
Dr. Pompa:
Until you realize that people are buying this and really thinking it’s going to work.
Phil Kaplan:
I’m sure they are, remarkably. Again, it really is. It’s still the same thing. That is choose whatever foods that you like. It’s the whole thing still about do this and eat what you want. That’s the draw. That’s the draw. That’s what Joe didn’t want; by the way, when he found out he had to do the surgery, which he was willing to do—take major risks there. As soon as he found out that he actually had to not choose the foods he usually wants—that’s what these ads are saying—he didn’t want the surgery anymore.
Dr. Pompa:
What these surgeries do, whether it’s called the lap band or the gastric bypass, is it reduces the available space in your digestive tract, in your stomach. Even if you want to eat you can’t because it’s completely filled up. When I look at the people who qualify because ethically you have to make sure that they meet certain criteria to do the surgery, here’s what’s amazing to me, their cardiorespiratory system is compromised. They’ve been carrying around a lot of weight. Their heart cannot possibly deliver enough oxygen to sustain all of that, so they’re compromised. Their blood sugar is completely out of balance because of the way they’ve been eating for so long. Their endocrine system is completely shot and needs to be rebuilt. I can go system, by system, by system. Their lymphatic system is dead. It is completely in suspended animation doing nothing to cleanse the body. There’s one system in the body that’s working, the digestive system. Let’s screw that one up!
This is where, really, people need to think. Just because it’s medical doesn’t mean it works. Because it’s medical may mean, and just be aware of this, it’s dangerous. If somebody asks me, should I get the surgery or squeeze my belt. I’d say squeeze your belt. You’re going to hate it, it’s not going to help you lose weight, but at least you’re not going to destroy your digestive tract.
Phil Kaplan:
You like this one then? You’re promoting this one? You would promote this one?
Dr. Pompa:
I think they have to make it a little more attractive so it becomes a fashion thing. I don’t know that you’d want to wear that. No, I’m not recommending this, I’m not endorsing it.
Phil Kaplan:
Oh, okay, I thought you were endorsing it for a minute. I was ready to buy one.
Dr. Pompa:
I still like the thing—we can reduce your desire to eat, we could knock your teeth out. We could pull your teeth out and you don’t have to wear that belt.
Phil Kaplan:
It says you won’t be hungry when you put this on. I think if you put a belt on and you’re hungry when you put the belt on you’ll probably still be hungry when the belt is on. If you squeeze it tighter, and tighter, and tighter, sooner or later all of your attention goes to the pain that the belt is causing you. You have no room to even think about hunger.
Dr. Pompa:
I think knocking your teeth out actually decreases your hunger at that moment even more than the tight belt. Eating would be not pleasurable, so you would eat less.
Phil Kaplan:
I think we could teach a program called The Heimlich Portion Control Program. You know the Heimlich maneuver? That’s what this is. You could help your spouse by, “Okay, it’s time to eat, honey, get in that Heimlich position,” and squeeze. “Are you hungry now?” “I’m still a little hungry.” “Are you hungry now?” “No!” “Okay, perfect.”
Dr. Pompa:
I like the toothless diet better because it’s more permanent. Once the teeth are gone you don’t have to worry about your spouse actually squeezing you or wearing a belt, it’s just always there.
Phil Kaplan:
If, in fact, we were on television now you would see a little flashing thing that says “Sarcasm. Sarcasm.” I don’t want you to listen to this. There are people, you know, “All I have to do is knock my teeth out? Okay, and I lose weight?”
Dr. Pompa:
Isn’t that proving our point? However, as ridiculous as it sounds there might be somebody out there that thinks if that works I’m willing to do it. That’s how frustrated America is. Would you agree?
Phil Kaplan:
I would. The message here isn’t don’t buy anything. There are certainly things that can help you. Let’s start to think about this, let’s start to think about all of the people who truly do get fit. They do it by changing what they eat and changing how they move, and in most cases, changing how they think. The cost of that is zero. If you total up all the dollars that you can waste on these absurd products, this could put anybody in bankruptcy. If you buy enough of these products you have no money left and you got nothing for it, in fact, in some cases you got pain. Even though the ad says you won’t be hungry, you’ll be hungry. You will definitely be hungry.
When people say things like I need something like that because I don’t have willpower, here’s what I want you to understand. You do. Every single one of us has will. We all have will. Otherwise, you would not get out of bed in the morning. You find the will to put one foot in front of the other. The question is will you access the power to use it? If you use something that will not work, your willpower will shut down because it’s causing you pain.
He’s being facetious by saying knock your teeth out, but if somebody everyday knocked a tooth out, knocked a tooth out, knocked a tooth out, and didn’t lose weight, sooner or later they’re going to go this is causing me pain, I’m going to keep the four teeth I have left, and get nothing for it. This is really what’s happening. When we see an ad like—we just saw one that says eat anything you want, this woman lost 40 pounds eating the food she loved. If somebody came to me and said I want to lose 40 pounds, here’s what I’d say. Amputate a leg, get on the scale, and see how much weight you lost. If it’s only 35, amputate a little bit of your arm. I really think when people start to understand the absurdity of that it’s not much different than squeezing.
Phil Kaplan:
We’ve learned that people are easily fooled. I think that’s the lesson at this point, is protect yourself, grab hold of common sense, and before you believe hype, whether it comes from an ad, whether it comes from an infomercial, whether it comes from a friend, because the friend might have seen the ad or seen the infomercial and is simply relaying the fictional information to you as fact, you’ve got to be protected. We’re going to give you solutions. We’re going to give you answers, but here’s the challenge—Dr. Pompa, when somebody comes to you and they go just like Joseph did, “I want it now—I want it now, I don’t want to wait, I want to lose the weight now,” you almost have to say then go be a victim because I can’t help you. That’s the hard part; here we are doing this only because we’re going to help people.
Health Seekers—we’re helping you discover the keys to rediscovering, for many of you, your health. This is what you need to know. It doesn’t happen that way. It doesn’t happen because you take a pill. It doesn’t happen because you squeeze yourself with a belt. I’m going to even say, it doesn’t happen with a surgery for the great majority of people who are looking to lose weight and improve their health. We’re going to give you some foundational information but I’m going to tell you this, you’re going to be disappointed because your emotional brain says I want it now, and we’re controlling that and speaking to your rational brain and saying, you can’t have it now. Not because we won’t give it to you, it doesn’t exist. What you’re looking for doesn’t exist. There are lots of people far less ethical than we are who are willing to lead you to believe it exists and sell it to you for money.
With that in mind, Dr. Pompa, where does somebody start knowing that they’ve got to go through a process, and knowing that at the end of this vulnerable season we are, in fact, in a new year. There’s nothing wrong with making a resolution to improve in that year.
Dr. Pompa:
You had said something, Phil; earlier in the show you said “You have to change your mind first. You have to change your thinking first.” You asked where did people start, and that’s really where people start. We can’t answer this in one show. I think it’s going to take a series of shows which we’re committed to this time of year. People are looking and searching, they’re health seeking, and this time of year I think they’re weight-loss-answer seeking.
We all become vulnerable when we want something bad enough. I talk to a lot of people every day about their health. One thing, when it comes to weight loss is they’ve tried everything. They’ve tried every diet. The questions I get all the time are, of course, what really works? They always come to me with more specific questions than that. They say “What about the Paleo diet? I had a friend that lost 30 pounds on the Paleo diet. I have a vegan friend that worked for her. What about this particular diet?”
There’re many different things that many people are doing that are in vogue right now. I think one of the things, Phil, that we have to do is, number one, is I think we have to change people’s thinking. We’re not going to do that in one episode, one show. I think that I want to give them some answers about some of these diets.
Phil Kaplan:
We, together, have used the term “sheeple” because that’s what we see. We see people following the masses, even though the masses are not getting what they’re looking for. If you look at statistically our obesity problem is increasing as more and more dollars are being spent to reverse obesity. Obviously, what they’re spending money on isn’t working. I think the first part of the mindset adjustment is stop. Seriously, that’s the first part. Nobody likes hearing that. Nobody likes hearing that we’re telling you to slow down. I don’t think there’s a single listener—if the whole planet was listening and we said “We’re going to give you the secret, here it is. Eat right and exercise.” I don’t think there’s a single person who would go “Oh my God, that’s incredible! They gave me the secret!”
Everybody’s heard eat right and exercise, but even when they’re not there’s so much confusion. What does eat right mean? How much exercise should I do? What kind of exercise? I heard Pilates is really good. No, Pilates doesn’t work. You’ve got to do CrossFit. You need the right intensity. No, you have to buy a video-based program. People’s heads are spinning. Low-fat diets, high-fat diets, Paleo diets, vegan diets.
Dr. Pompa:
Twinkie diets.
Phil Kaplan:
Twinkie diets. You’ve got to put the brakes on. Again, I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s what you need to hear. If we had an agenda here, to shove a product down your throat or around your waist and make money at your expense, you’d hear a different message from us. Our agenda is rescue. We are looking to make a difference because you can gain control. It does have to do—I’m not going to say eat right and exercise, it’s too simplistic—but if you want change you’ve got to change what you eat, you’ve got to change how you move, and you’ve got to change how you think. I think Dr. Pompa is right on. The changing how you think is right now just stop.
If you put aside something that came in the mail that offers you a diet and it’s free food—get our food, signup for the program, foods are free. If you put something aside, lose 30 pounds in 30 days, and you’re thinking I’m going to use that New Year’s—all I’m saying to you is stop, and look at it, and question it. Forget about the clinical stuff because I’m not going to ask you to become a researcher, I’m just going to ask you to find two people who are like you, who had the same problem you have, who got what you want. In other words, if somebody is saying a diet works, say “Show me two people who are overweight like I am,” or whatever your circumstance is, “who would achieved permanent [00:46:44]. Show me those two people and I will—” Then go for it but I would bet that you’re not going to find those two people with most of the offerings out there today.
Dr. Pompa:
I always say the truth when it comes to health, in this case diet or weight loss, is typically 180 degrees opposite of what you’re thinking, of what the media’s promoting, obviously, 180 degrees opposite of these ads. Folks, you’re going to have to open up your mind in these next few shows because I’m telling you, the things that we’re going to teach you, most of it is 180 degrees opposite of the things that you’ve heard. Caloric restriction, lower your calories.
Phil, we’re being taught by our government bodies, protective bodies, and the experts, and “they” that if you just cut calories you’re going to lose weight, or lower fat intake, you’re going to lose weight. As a matter of fact, what we think is putting fat on is 180 degrees opposite of what we’ve been told. It is a mindset shift. We have been lied to. Our government just makes us want to seem lazy and gluttonous. Eat less and exercise more, does that work? Does that work? Well, we have right now an epidemic of weight-loss resistance. We spoke about it last week. More and more people eating perfect and still not losing weight. What works?
Phil Kaplan:
Here’s why that window is open for so many marketers to take advantage of people because people try it. They know they have to change what I eat, and I have to eat less, and I have to exercise more. When it doesn’t work they blame themselves. Think about how vulnerable they become because rather than going “I got ripped off. They lied to me, they told me that the pill was clinically proven, 25 million were sold, and that meant it was going to work for me. It didn’t work for me.” Rather than getting mad at that, they go “I couldn’t stick to it. I didn’t eat right. They told me I had to not eat breakfast and I’ve been eating breakfast. I had a donut yesterday. I blew it.” They blame themselves, which keeps them vulnerable because they go “It wasn’t the diet’s fault, it wasn’t the program’s fault, it was my fault.” Here’s what you need to know, it’s not your fault, you’re being misled.
Dr. Pompa:
By the way, that was an ad that we ran for years.
Phil Kaplan:
It’s not your fault?
Dr. Pompa:
It’s not your fault. That was an educational seminar we were bringing people and educating them on some of these topics that we’re going to talk about in the next few weeks, that it’s not your fault. We realized that people did have great guilt because they thought it’s just me, it’s just me. There’s a reason why you’ve failed on every diet. There’s a hormonal reason why that you cannot stop eating the bread, or the sugar, or whatever you’re addicted to at bliss point.
Phil Kaplan:
Being that we’re running out of time, there are really two points that I want to leave them with today. One of them you mentioned was weight-loss resistance and you spoke about hormones. They’re directly correlated. Weight loss resistance, sooner or later somebody’s going to use that phrase in infomercials. They’re going to go “It’s weight loss resistance, and here’s the pill that changes it.” There is no pill that changes it. You change it. You can change it. Nobody’s helped you identify that you have maybe a slight condition, maybe an advanced condition, but chronic metabolic disease. You have weight loss resistance and it’s fixable. It’s fixable by you. You just need the tools, and we’re going to give you that. Just talk quickly about how you can treat weight loss resistance independently without, of course, devoting the time to all the specifics. Give them a sense so they know they have that power.
Dr. Pompa:
I said on the last show, I said that weight loss has more to do with hormones than even the food you eat. That should tip you off right there that this is more complex than just not eating, or different foods, or eating Paleo, vegan, or whatever it is. This is a hormonal issue. This is a cellular issue. One thing that I want to educate and keep educating you on is that the hormone problem and why people just can’t stop eating, why people eat perfect and still can’t lose weight, this is a hormone problem but it’s a cellular problem. The receptors to the hormones are on the cell. Folks, not to completely lose you here, but it’s this, if we can just get your cells hearing hormones that tell you to stop eating, if we could just get your cells to hear hormones that tell you, hey I’m full—oh, and there’s actually hormones that tell your brain to burn fat for energy instead of desiring sugar. The bottom line, Phil, if we can get your cells hearing these little messages, then guess what? You’re not going to give into the bread; you’re not going to give into the cake.
Phil Kaplan:
The solution will not come in a pill or in an injection, or an IV.
Dr. Pompa:
No, absolutely not. It’s not so simple. When you understand that, and again, I say we have to start with changing their minds—when you understand that what we can do to actually stop this cellular problem and therefore affect our hormones, and therefore affect our appetite, this is the key and it works.
Phil Kaplan:
We’re about out of time. I want to make the second of two points. When people go “What is the right diet, what is the diet that I should be on?” The answer is there is not one right diet.
Dr. Pompa:
No, there’s not one diet.
Phil Kaplan:
We’re going to talk about diet variation.
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely.
Phil Kaplan:
The best way to do it is to move through cycles, nutritional cycles. We’re out of time, but not to leave you hanging we’re coming back next week. Hang out with us, you’re going to learn, you’re going to change.
Dr. Pompa:
Find out what diet variation is and why it works. Bye-bye.
