You had a really rough day at the office. Your car broke down on the way home and made you late for dinner. Your significant other told you about all of the things you failed to do right today. Your co-workers are not helping you stick to your fat loss diet when they offer you Krispy Kreme’s every morning. Everything seems to be a bunch of suck at this current moment. One of the biggest deters is how much weight you’ve gained over the last few months. You want change and you want it now. Actually you want it yesterday. So as you lie in bed awake, tossing and turning from the previous days stress, you do what everyone else does. You turn on the TV.
Today I want to address some things that have been on my mind as of late. I work the third shift so when I get home I usually answer emails, work on my writing and then hit the sack about 2 am. While I am dozing off I always catch up on all of the late night fitness infomercials. Many people hate them but I love them. I don’t love them for the information they provide but because I find them comical. I like to learn about what makes people respond and what types of statements trigger someone to take action. The psychology of sales is very interesting to say the least.
Emotions and Mental Chicanery
As I watch the infomercials I pay very close attention to the actors’ body language, tone etc. Their choice of words, their body movement and their stunning appearance are synergistic in creating the overall desired effect of urgency. As I noted earlier, I pick up on the phrases they use over and over. Here are a few that I extracted out of only one infomercial the other night.
Quotes and my commentary as follows:
I have abs now at 54 years old. I didn’t have them in my teens.
Oh my! How does this not make you all giddy inside? If a 54 year old woman can have abs, so can I at 22!
Your body loves muscle! It is the fountain of youth.
This statement is targeting the baby boomer’s for sure. Who doesn’t want to reverse the aging process? I almost pulled out my credit card when I heard this one liner.
This is where we light a fire in your metabolism. I am now a fat burning machine!
More play on words here. Who doesn’t want to be a fat burning machine when you have a spare tire for a waistline?
Our program is clinically proven to burn up to 60% of your body fat.
Just where do they come up with these figures? Clinically proven? Where did they do the testing? Are they serious?
(insert product here) finally gives you the reason to finally make your personal dream a reality.
Admit it. Life would be much easier if we could just purchase a new gadget or weight loss product to solve all of our problems. The sad reality is that people actually believe what they hear and see on these late night advertisements. Notice the word dream and reality. They are promising to make YOUR dreams of a fit and better body a reality. Who doesn’t want that? We all do.
Do These Programs Work?
Most of the late night shed fat, get buff programs will work. Some of them work very well while others do not. Look at P90X. While I think it’s a bit over done, I know of guys that have gotten pretty lean by following the program. Now these same guys were also doing intense strength training while following the program to preserve their LBM whilst cutting calories. They would’ve shriveled up had they only been doing the body weight workouts suggested by the infomercial.
The fact is most of these in-house boot camps and workout videos will make you lose weight if your calories are in check. However, do not be fooled into thinking that the guy with a significant amount of muscle or the lady with a killer Oxygen body got that way by doing high rep body weight workouts and lots of running around half naked in the living room. Those bodies were built by being under a heavy bar over many years of hard work.
Promises, Oh The Wonderful Promises
To understand how many of these products sell so well, you have to understand the psychology behind the message and the way it’s delivered. If you watch one of these infomercials, you will notice they say the same thing over and over and over again. Ever heard the saying “if you hear something enough, you will eventually believe it”? It’s true. Couple the emotional intensity of the 30 minute segment with an audience that is exhausted and you get a product that is a fairly easy sell. You have wonderful phrases thrown all over the place. “I lost 50lbs in 12 weeks!” “Get 6 pack abs in only 7 minutes a day!” “Build a sexy body with only a few 15 minute workouts per week!” “Lose weight and eat chocolate cake every single day!”
It’s pretty funny when you think about it. You wouldn’t normally have an impulse to buy this stuff. Viewers need to hear and see the message for a certain period of time before they pick up the phone to place their order. Hence the length of these late night programs. The business model is brilliant but it sucks that people think a late night fitness program is going to solve their health and fitness problems.
The Truth – I Speak It
Living in America, I am very familiar with wanting everything yesterday. We are so accustomed to everything we could ever want being at fingertips length. If we want a doughnut, we go to the nearest shop. If we want a coffee, there is always a Starbucks just around the corner. Heck, to get a pizza all we have to do is pick up the phone. We live in a society that is so full of luxury we have forgotten the value and promise of hard work. This is where we fall into the trap of believing we can undo all the years of getting fat and out of shape with 6 weeks of (insert your favorite late night program here). It’s just not going to happen.
Keep These Ideas In Mind When You Are Up All Night
- The buff bodies in these workout videos did not get sliced by running in place and doing nothing but band work.
- These people have been training for a long time and are professionals. I can assure you they were not fat and flabby just 12 weeks ago before doing their special ab program.
- If you expect results over night, you are bound to fail. This will only make you miserable, so pick a program with planned progression and stick with it long enough to see results.
While it’s possible to get into great shape with a product and/or program pimped on the late night TV, you must ask yourself two questions. Are you willing to commit to real, long term change? Can you do a similar program(or better) elsewhere for the same amount of money(or less) invested? If you can answered yes to those questions, then you have no need for some special gimmicky product or program, you simply need a well mapped out plan to accomplish your goals.
yes, the beefed up guys/gals in the infomercials are past the newbie stage, some are well off into the upper intermediate levels and a few are advanced. Those people need consistent strength training to maintain their mass. It’s just not possible to maintain that level of aesthetics without the proper stimulus. That’s why the infomercials are misleading – making one think that body is achievable with body weight resistance only.
while that may be true, many of the people I work with want to improve their physique beyond the initial newbie gains which requires more than just body weight stuff when alternating hypercaloric and hyopcaloric phases. Would I incorporate body weight/GPP stuff into a fat loss program? Sure, but it won’t be the only type of resistance because it won’t fully serve them.
However it’s all about individual goals. You are obviously happy with your development and that is just wonderful. It’s awesome to be comfortable in your level of accomplishment. thanks for your input JE
Are you talking about the muscle mass beyond the first 20-40 lbs? Those are very easy to maintain, but anything beyond that does need constant heavy training. Those first pounds stay on with any type of resistance. In fact, that small amount of mass is all I ever aim to keep.
@JE Gonzalez: Is it impossible to maintain your lean body mass with body weight circuits? No. There are many ways you can create/manipulate the resistance. If you are fairly strong + big and go to nothing but body weight exercises will you lose mass on a diet? Most likely yes. One of the reasons people lose mass on a diet is because they make the mistake of going to lighter weight + higher reps when they should be using lower volume, maintaining intensity(weight on the bar) and focusing on keeping their strength.
If you are losing strength on a diet, it’s highly likely you are losing muscle mass. If you are squatting 405lbs for reps and have some huge glutes and quads because of it, how are you going to recreate that resistance using nothing but body weight stuff?
I have experimented(on accident) in the past. I lost muscle mass. The only way I have ever been able to maintain my lbm was by focusing on keeping the strength I built during a hypercaloric period.
You don’t shrivel up with resistance training, bodyweight or bar. Ever heard of Craig Ballantyne? This guy maintains (but did not necessarily build ) his muscle mass with these type of circuits. And remember, you maintain muscle mass even at extremely low calorie intakes, as long as resistance is there.
Actually why don’t you try a cutting phase using only these types of circuits to see what happen. If you lose some mass, you know how to gain it back, but you most likely won’t. And no you won’t turn into a twig, the absolute worst that can happen is that you end up looking like a pro swimmer.
Thanks for using my photo. I totally forgot about that thing. Now, I plan to dust it off and restart my commitment to stronger, fitter me. Tomorrow.
I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
Clever, but I’m going to try something new this week and maybe get some sleep
1) yes, that is correct 99% of the time.
2) word.
It’s really very simple.
1)If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
2)Nothing worthwhile is easy.
haha, what a way to make a living!
The great thing over here is that german tv takes the american infomercials and synchronizes the spoken words so badly it’s almost unbelievable. Some comedians over here live from making fun of those, like famous Oliver Kalkofe in <this one