It’s been a rough start to the year, right? I mean, you couldn’t turn on the television, open the paper, or go online without being bombarded with weight-loss ads. (I mean, come on, bikini season is right around the corner. PANIC!) My favorites (sarcasm!) come from a chiropractor here in Rochester who sells a weight-loss system called NutriMost. Maybe you’ve heard of it? NutriMost claims they can help you lose 20-45 (or more!) pounds in forty days. Forty days, people! I totally believe it, too (not sarcasm).
I used the website contact form to ask Dr. Nate a few questions, such as if he has ever been fat, if perhaps he used this miraculous system to get thin (I am extremely skeptical of thin people who claim they can make me just like them). I also asked for statistics that show long-term weight loss of participants. I asked for stats of five years or longer after participating in the program, because pretty much every weight-loss success story you’ve ever seen is within a year or so of the weight-loss attempt. (Case in point: As a former contestant pointed out, the reason they don’t do reunion specials on The Biggest Loser is because they’re almost all fat again.)
Dr. Nate wrote me back very quickly (I’m sure he thought I was a potential customer), and told me that no, he’d never been fat, and no, he did not have the data I was looking for. He did let me know, however, that “Everyone has the ability and tools to keep the weight off.” He later clarified that he meant everyone who has used in the NutriMost system. Of course.
I looked up this system, which was developed by a chiropractor out of Philadelphia. Apparently it costs over a thousand dollars to participate, and involves eating 500-600 calories a day. If you research it, you’ll find two things: People who tried it and regained all the weight, and people who are currently using it and think it’s the greatest invention of mankind. Pretty typical of any commercial-weight-loss program.
As you can imagine, Dr. Nate and I disagreed about a lot of stuff. I believe that rapid, massive weight loss is not healthy or sustainable. I believe that weight-loss programs like this are about making money, not about wanting to help people be healthy. I believe that programs like these can’t provide long-term success rates because they don’t exist. Dr. Nate believes he is helping fat people get healthy, forever.
Through all that, you know what really bothered me the most about our conversation? When Dr. Nate said: “Honestly if someone goes back to eating French fries, Oreos, and/or hot dogs of course they will gain the weight back.” Wow. That’s just the kind of doctor I want to help me with my health: one who assumes they know what I eat by looking at my body, one who perpetuates the idea that fat people make “bad” food choices. When he said that, I knew I was done with the conversation.
In our email conversation, Dr. Nate had the last word, and I’m willing to bet he thinks that’s because he was in the right, and I had nothing left to say. The truth is, I had nothing left to say to him. I’d rather talk to you good people any day.
