Diet and exercise key to weight loss

How many times have you heard of a new diet craze that really works? People will do anything to try to lose weight. There are many diet pills that claim you don’t need to exercise or change your diet – all you need to do is use their product.

The tricky thing about diet pills is you need to continue using them in order to keep the weight off. For example, many green tea pills claim  they can help you lose weight. Through personal experience, the diet pills only work if you keep taking them, otherwise the weight will come right back.

The acai berry diet is the new craze. It is said to cause weight loss, increase energy, cleanse toxins and is free of side effects. But CNN.com found most acai berry products to fall short of the hype.

Acai berries are said to have more antioxidants than red wine, which fights premature aging. It is also said to promote cardiovascular and digestive health and contain essential minerals vital to proper muscle contraction and regeneration. On Oprah’s Web site, Dr. Nigel Perricone named acai berries as the No. 1 super food.

Green tea is healthy for you and companies developed a “metabolism-boosting” diet supplement. Having Acai berries called a superfood means people can use this to exploit the general public and try to make money off of consumers’ belly fat.

Companies are using Oprah’s and health show host Dr. Oz’s popularity to try to sell Acai berry dietary supplements or other products, like the Acai berry colon cleanse. The producers of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “The Dr. Oz Show” filed a lawsuit against these companies which are falsely claiming that Oprah and Dr. Oz endorsed their products.

There are articles online that claim  the Acai berry diet was endorsed by Britney Spears on “The Jay Leno Show.” But if you look for a video of that interview, it is nowhere to be found. On YouTube if you type in “Britney Spears Jay Leno 2009” there is a video that pops up from 2003. On many Web sites claiming that Britney endorsed their product, the picture from 2003 of Britney and Jay Leno is shown.

Using Britney as a marketing tool was genius because she transformed quickly in the public eye. She looked out of shape when dancing to “Gimme More” at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007; now she can be seen looking fabulous in magazines. It’s no wonder everyone wants to try her supposed diet.

The Acai berry diet is just another diet scam. Although a quick and easy fix is tempting if you’re trying to get rid of the “freshman 15” or the stubborn muffin top that does not seem to want to go away, it is a waste of money and a disappointment.

Diet and exercise has and will always be the best solution. Dragging yourself to the gym can be difficult, but if you stick to it and eat healthy then you will eventually see results; they just may not be as extreme as the results seen on diet loss advertisements.