Friday, December 4, 2015

Sweat the Fat Off

Way back when (okay, it was only during the 1970s, so doesn't seem that far back to me, but it will to the younger set), the big "new" thing to come along was the "Sauna Suit" ... I'm not sure about the exact name of it, but there were TV commercials, and ads in magazines and newspapers for this wonderful, fabulous, no "work way" to lose weight.

Now, I personally did not invest in this suit. But my mother ... well, she always looking for ways to stay thin, and figured this would do it. Just walk around the house doing the housework wearing this thing, and you'd sweat the fat off.

We lived in a third-floor apartment with old radiator heat and it was already pretty hot in there, even in the winter. I had to keep my bedroom window open just to breathe (and sometimes it wouldn't close cause the snow had built up in the roll-open part of the window).

Full body suit of plastic.
Adding a sauna suit ... well, you'd be guaranteed to sweat.

So mom ordered this thing and it turns out to be not much more than a 1-piece rain suit with elastic at the cuffs on both the arms and legs. So, we both tried it out.

Yep, you most certainly did sweat in it. God only knows why it had a hood ... for fat-heads maybe? I dunno. But you didn't lose weight, you simply lost fluid. The scale might show a difference for a few hours but once you re-hydrated, nope. Pretty much back where you started.

It looked stupid, it felt stupid ... and it really was stupid.  When you sweat, it felt truly disgusting. Ugh. Sweating is one thing, but sweating inside a plastic suit is just ... unbelievably gross.

A great rain suit for a fisherman, not so much for weight loss.

Not long after that came out there was the "saran wrap" weight loss fad. Dumb and dumber is all I can say.

It really is no different than the suit ... sure you might sweat, but you might sweat to the point where you are simply dehydrated ... making you sick instead of thin. Not only can dehydration cause you to lose the fluid your body needs, it can cause other problems with your health, and that makes it unhealthy (see: The Dangers of Wrapping).

What really surprised me was to see this method plastered all over the web again. This is an old fad, one that went out years ago because:

(a) it doesn't work
(b) there is no long term joy
(c) it's dangerous and unhealthy.

Sadly, with the development of the internet, everything old is new again. That doesn't make it better than it was back then. It just makes it more dangerous because people can easily propagate myths and false information without even a though as to whether it SHOULD be shared.

Share this instead.