Can you Vibrate Fat Off?

In the 1950’s, people thought that they could use this vibrating belt to lose fat. We all know that this doesn’t work, but some weight loss scams just won’t die. It just takes time to be reinvented in a more modern form.

People want a quick and easy solution to lose fat, and that hasn’t changed in the last 60 years. Now instead of vibrating just the areas that you want to lose weight, you shake the entire body. This is known as “Whole Body Vibration”. The vibrating machine looks like a fancy scale with raised handlebars to hang on to.  Instead of simply shaking the fat off you, the new theory is that you are flexing and tensing your muscles to stay balanced and this gives you the workout.

I was in a Shopping Mall today and went in for a free trial. I was told that my 6 minute session was the same as doing a 45 minute cardio and weight training session at a gym – and I didn’t even break a sweat. They forgot to mention that they also broke many of the laws of physics, thermodynamics and just plain common sense.  I’ll admit that I might have burned 2 or 3 extra calories per minute to stay balanced, but a pound of fat has 3,500 calories.  It would take over 20 hrs on the machine and that costs $25 for 10 minutes!

Why don’t professional athletes do this? They could stand on the machine for half an hour and have the same benefit of many hours of training?  The answer is simple, they know that gimmicks like this DO NOT WORK.

According to their brochure, the benefits include quick inch loss (from your wallet?), improved bone density (without calcium?), cellulite reduction (without diet), and hormonal balance (are mine out of balance?).

The machine vibrates from between 10 and 30 times per second. There are 9 different rehabilitation programs so that means that each program has about 2 vibrations per second difference. That means that in the morning I could vibrate at 18 times per second to remove my cellulite, and in the afternoon I could vibrate at 20 times per second to lose overall body fat. Each session costs $25 dollars, and the only thing that I would lose would be $50!

The thing that really amazed me was that the place was busy! People were actually believing this stuff. If vibrations caused you to lose weight, how come there are so many overweight truck drivers? I would think they are being vibrated all day long.

Please, if you are considering spending $300/month to lose weight, hire a Dietitian for a couple hours, buy some good healthy cookbooks, buy a gym membership and hire a personal trainer for a session instead. I can guarantee that it would not be a waste of money.