10 unnecessary things today that you don't need for health or slimness

Human convenience and the desire to achieve a slim and fit body effortlessly plays into the hands of marketers who invent more and more "miracle" products. In this article, we'll look at why detoxes, slimming teas, corsets and other similar aids are a waste of money.

1/ Detoxes

Various detox preparations are nothing more than a good marketing ploy. People easily believe the rumours that their body is guaranteed to be riddled with toxins and if they don't buy this or that, they'll be dead in a few years. The human body is naturally capable of cleansing itself, for example thanks to the liver and kidneys. If someone really needs detoxification, it is drug addicts and alcoholics, but there the whole process belongs to the hands of doctors.

Many highlight detoxes in terms of weight loss, but the important thing is WHAT you are losing weight for - in a "detox" you are in a calorie deficit and rapid weight loss in a short period of time is achieved simply by depleting glycogen stores, getting rid of retained water and emptying the bowels. Once you're done with the detox and back on a regular diet, you'll gain those pounds back[1, 2, 3].

2/ Teas for weight loss

So-called slimming teas or "detox" teas are definitely not something you can drink long term. If we look at one of them at random, we can find herbs with a draining effect in the composition, such as nettle or dandelion, but also senna - a natural laxative that is recommended to be taken before diagnostic, endoscopic and X-ray examinations. Prolonged use may disturb the balance of water and electrolytes, especially potassium, and reduce bowel function. Failure to follow instructions can reduce the effect of some medications, such as hormonal contraceptives in women; cases of pregnancy when taking products with a laxative effect and taking contraceptives at the same time are not uncommon.The effect of teas on weight loss is beneficial, but only in the sense of draining and emptying the bowels.

3/ Slimming corsets

On social media, you've surely come across "fitness" women promoting slimming corsets. Advertising does its thing, and I often see a group of teenage girls at our gym who work out in corsets doing everything from cardio to sit-ups. Some fitness corset retailers even recommend wearing them most of the day for a slimmer waist. There's even such a craze as the corset diet, which tells you how many hours to wear your corset on any given day, steadily increasing that time over the course of a month.

No scientific study has been done to confirm that wearing a corset has a positive effect on burning fat in the waist area.

What might wearing a corset achieve?

• Increased sweating in the waist area and loss of water in this area
• eating less food - logically, if your stomach is cramped by the corset, you won't be able to cram much in
• better posture - only when you are wearing the corset

What wearing a corset doesn't achieve(even though the sales people will tell you it does)

• local fat loss only at the waist
• reduction in hip size
• permanently slimmer waist and hourglass figure

Possible negatives

• sagging of the mid-body muscles due to the body being kept permanently corseted
• pressure on internal organs
• digestive disorders
• dehydration - when tightening with a corset you not only feel the need to eat less but also drink less, which is especially undesirable with increased sweating
• the corset prevents deep diaphragmatic breathing
• skin problems caused by wearing a tight corset made of impermeable material.

4/ Slimming leggings

Many people still think that the more they sweat, the more they lose fat. Marketers love to take advantage of this entrenched myth and come up with nonsense like neoprene slimming leggings that make you sweat like a pig. Fat burning depends on factors other than sweating, such as the length and intensity of aerobic activity. Sweating in sweatproof leggings gets rid of water, not fat.

5/ Anonymous online trainers and advisors

You've never seen their face, yet they sell diets like a treadmill. All they had to do was set up a Facebook page, hold a few sharing contests and a base of potential clients was built. Although the photos of their charges' transformations may look promising, it's always worth checking that they're not just flaunting someone else's feathers and actually selling the same menu to everyone.

6/ Smoothie

Who knows where this weird trend of drinking fruit and other ingredients instead of eating them came from. As we know, digestion takes place already in the mouth during the chewing of food with the help of an enzyme of the salivary glands - ptyalin. For some, the absence of this process can result in stomach upset, bloating, etc. after drinking. Of course, having a smoothie once in a while is not a disaster, but if you are looking for a weight loss helper and you only drink blended fruit instead of breakfast every day, it is not a good choice. If you cut up the fruit and eat it normally, it's likely that a smaller amount will be enough to fill you up. For example, a smoothie like this made with banana, peanut butter, milk, honey and oats is quite a calorie bomb.

7/ 30-day challenges targeting one body part

Exercising just one and the same body part for a whole month is pure nonsense. For a flat belly, it's not enough to just do crunches daily until you pass out. You can't locally lose weight just your waist, if you want to burn fat in the abdominal area, focus on a healthy diet and exercise your whole body. You need to shock it, if you keep doing the same thing over and over, the body will get used to the type of exercise and you will start to stagnate.

You can read about the mistakes in abdominal training and the causes of fat deposition in this part in the following articles:

• 10 mistakes in abdominal training
• 12 causes of fat storage in the abdominal area

8/ Miracle shakes that make you not need to eat

When someone tells you that you don't need to eat at all and that for a great figure and solid health you just need to drink the cocktail they offer, don't believe them. There is no shake that can fully replace a healthy, balanced and varied meal. After eating a classic meal, the hunger hormone ghrelin is suppressed and the satiety hormones cholecystokinin (CCK), peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) are released. These hormones send a message to the brain that you have eaten and are full. This process takes about 20 minutes, if you just drink a shake in a hurry, the feeling of fullness may not come because the brain has not had enough time to process these signals. You can lose weight on shakes, the principle of calorie deficit works, but count on the fact that you will most likely have a yo-yo effect when you go back to a traditional meal. The ingredients of these products are a chapter in themselves - if you manage to find it on the Internet, you will find that it is mostly a mixture of soy, fructose, thickeners and other "schmacullas".

9/ Tools that work out for you

Teleshopping advertisements for machines and bands that lose weight and exercise for you will make many more experienced people laugh, but in the eyes of the more ignorant and comfortable individuals, they may raise hopes of a slimmer body without effort. And so they are willing to invest a lot of money in such foolishness, but the only thing that will lose weight in the end is their wallet. It is not enough to put on a vibration belt and expect to grow a "six pack".

10/ Overly restrictive alternative eating styles

Unfortunately, many people ignore the science-based facts and get blindly influenced by some almost fanatical followers of alternative eating styles. Their vision is that they are doing the best for their health and slim body. Yet they can easily become deficient in vital vitamins and minerals due to their very limited food choices.

[Image and information sources: t-nation.com, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed, sciencebasedmedicine.org,medlineplus.gov, gosawa.com, mamamia.com.au, cuencahighlife.com]