Is Weight Loss Becoming a Deadly Trend?

A familiar picture for some.  Most of the time, it's all just in your head whether you are fat or not.

In my personal opinion, the whole weight loss trend is manifest particularly in California.  Just drive down any highway, and you will see endless amounts of billboards and public transports plagued with the 1-800-GET-THIN lap band commercials.  If you are unaware of what this is, basically it's promoted as a one hour quick and easy weight-loss surgery that places a silicone band-shaped restricting device (kind of like a collar) around your stomach which tricks your brain to thinking that your stomach is smaller and so you feel fuller faster and eat less.  Technically it is a last-resort method for treating obesity once all other methods have been tried, but the lap band has been drastically commercialized over the past few years.

I'm assuming that string of small scribbles on the bottom is the risk warnings?  Definitely needs to be more legible.

Following the deaths of 5 people since 2009, the FDA has finally made its move today to stop this craze by accusing 1-800-GET-THIN commercials for inadequate disclosure to consumers of the risks involved in the surgery.  Although I'm not sure that this is particularly a strong move by the FDA since they have only made legal gestures to the marketing firms for the lap band to amend the commercials, I see this as one of the first moves of the government to address the rampant skinny trend that is exacerbated by the media and businesses.  I only regret that the FDA hasn't done this sooner so that the deaths could have been potentially prevented.

"They're speaking to a very vulnerable patient population," says Steve Silverman, an FDA director  overseeing the investigation of the marketing agency. "People who are obese have often struggled through their whole lives to lose weight."

Healthy exercises and diets are the key to weight loss...  It's a long and hard process, not something you can just achieve in a flash like what you could with many other things nowadays with technology.

That isn't to say that I'm against weight loss.  I think that, with scientific backing, maintaining a proper weight is important to a healthier body, but that's not to say we need to go arms lengths to do it, and certainly not using such drastic measures.  Proper diet and exercise should be key here.  I can't say much for what kind of diet to recommend as I'm not a doctor or in any position to do so, but my favorites are jogging, swimming and cycling.  Even if it doesn't work, at least I know I have fun doing it!

What exercise do you do?