Objective Research

In case haven’t noticed, not everyone in the “getting in shape” industry is entirely truthful. In fact, there is so much corruption that the Federal Trade Commission has launched a major initiation to inform consumers about bogus weight loss products (see www.ftc.gov/redflag). In October, 2007 the FTC created “Consumer Fraud in the United States: The Second FTC Survey.” Check this out:

“More consumers were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products than of any of the other specific frauds covered by the survey. For purposes of this report, fraudulent weight-loss products are considered to be products, such as nonprescription drugs, dietary supplements, skin patches, creams, wraps, or earrings, where the seller promised that by using the product losing a substantial amount of weight would be easy or could be achieved without diet and/or exercise and where consumers who purchased the product lost, at most, only a little of the weight that they had expected to lose. An estimated 2.1percent of consumers – 4.8 million U.S. adults – purchased and used such fraudulent weight-loss products during the one year period preceding the survey.”¹

Earrings? Someone actually believed that wearing earrings would help them lose weight? Holy crap!

Anyway, take a look at that first sentence. Americans are more likely to be taken in by a fraudulent weight loss product than any other. I should note that purveyors of this stuff often use all sorts of "research" and "statistics" to make it seem like they're telling the truth. If you're not already a skeptical son-of-a-bitch, then I want to turn you into one so that when you hear claims about the next great thing in diet or exercise, your bullshit detector starts going off.

Identifying Quality Research

Quality in scientific research often comes down to objectivity. When a company that makes protein supplements tells you how much protein you need on a daily basis in order to build muscle, you need to question their objectivity because they have a conflict of interest.

According to the Medical Research Council, "A conflict arises when a person's judgement concerning a primary interest, such as scientific knowledge, could be unduly influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain or personal advancement."²

The best research for such things is conducted by an objective third party that has no financial stake in the outcome. You are much better off to believe the claims of researchers who have a reputation for objectivity and ethical scientific research to maintain, and who use rigid controls in their studies following the scientific method.

Majority Rule

An important note is that people can use scientific research to make just about any point they want appear legitimate. If I was willing to cherry pick little bits of information here and there I could come up with a seemingly convincing argument that eating rhinoceros shit and drinking pond water was an effective weight loss method. The way to find the most accurate representation of the facts is to rely on the weight of scientific evidence. Not everyone agrees on everything in this field, that is for certain, but I look at what the vast majority of scientific folks with half the alphabet after their names are saying is true. That’s what I want to know.

In conclusion, please note that even the best research isn't always perfect. People disagree, and over time someone comes up with a better hypothesis or an improved way to test something and the old way of doing things gets thrown out. Science is self-correcting that way. What I've created is based on what we know right now. It's possible and even likely that some of this information is going to be outdated one day. That's what future editions are for.