'Why did it work for me then?'

How to avoid getting conned

This week I spoke about some pretty wild and extreme nutrition messages from a celebrity who now sells supplements… Most of which have little to no evidence.

This was an interesting experience and I was somewhat taken back by the response..  a lot of people thanked me as they had been close to buying these products or had bought them and got stung by the false claims and then there were a handful of big advocates for this individual and their supplements -

Some had their own bias (also sold the supplements) others had simply found they got results..

A lot of the argument was based on ‘different things work for different people’ - this isn’t really true.

Fat loss example:

The application may look different but the mechanism is the same. The ONLY way anybody ever loses fat (liposuction aside) is by being in a calorie deficit.

This can be achieved in various ways…

keto
low fat
high fat
fasting
weight watchers
calorie tracking
only eating apples
1 meal a day
10 meals a day

… you get the gist - if you are consuming less calories than you expend (no matter how you do it) you will lose fat.

So back to the point why did this supplement seem to work for some people and not for others?

Well in this instance the product being discussed was MCT oil. This is a form of fat.

There is some research for its use in fat loss but its important to consider the research findings more closely..

as an example.. this study (which is the one most MCT pushers reference when you ask for evidence) found that ‘The consumption of MCT oil as part of a weight-loss plan improves weight loss compared with olive oil and can thus be successfully included in a weight-loss diet.’

So if you were planning on supplementing your fat loss diet with a high fat supplement (I would not recommend this) then you may be better with MCT oil over olive oil.

The study does not show that taking MCT oil and thus adding in fat and calories to your diet is better than not supplementing with fat.

So why do people lose fat when they supplement with MCT oil?

They eat less and or move more. They create an energy deficit.

It’s not the supplement itself that is having an impact…it’s the diet and lifestyle changes you made at the same time.

And give yourself some credit for that!!!

The other HUGE impact is the placebo effect - people always underestimate this but if I gave you a pill with nothing in it.. NOTHING and told you it would reduce your appetite… it would.

Appetite isn’t as tightly regulated as people often assume - a huge amount is perception.

There are numerous studies showing that simply telling people they have eaten more reduces their appetite and subsequent food intake.

Example: one study told people they had consumed either a 2 egg or 4 egg omelette - the actual omelette contain 3 eggs. The people who thought they had consumed more naturally ate less the rest of the day, the group that were told they had only had a 2 egg omelette ate more.

The impact of your expectations are huge. So you may very well feel better on a supplement but that doesn’t mean it’s working in the way that is being claimed.

The reason this is important is that consuming extra fat (in this case) may be detrimental to your health and to your bank balance.

So many of these supplements are targeted at women who have been victim to diet culture for decades, who feel like nothing works for them, who are desperate, often who are menopausal and would try and thing and marketers are taking advantage of this.

I have nothing to gain here, I have no supplements to sell you (I could quite easily make a lot of money selling supplements to clients but I don’t… because I care about my clients and my integrity)

I want you to avoid being conned.

I had a lot of conversations with people who were confused and felt they didn’t know who to listen to.. here is a tip.. look for people’s biases.

& here is another…

Don’t take advice from celebrities with no nutrition education,

If someone makes WILD claims, be skeptical - big claims require big evidence. ‘It worked for me’ is not evidence.

Be aware of financial gain.

Example: when I recommend you take creatine I make absolutely no money from it. When someone recommends you buy MCT form THEM be extra skeptical.

If you’re interested and want to read the post here it is.

Stay skeptical.

ESG x