Don’t Believe the Over-Hype!

I subscribe to a magazine on “healthy whole living,” and the latest issue had this teaser on the cover: “8 Secrets to Healthy Weight Loss.” Now I’ve read a lot of stuff on weight loss and being healthy, so I wasn’t really looking for any new secrets. But I was very curious as to what they considered “weight loss secrets.”

(Side note: I am not a whole living guy at all. One day a couple of years ago I was in a Whole Foods and saw this magazine in the checkout aisle. It looked interesting so I bought it. After reading it I thought that if I subscribed and read it regularly, that might encourage me to live healthier and more wholistically. I can’t really say that’s worked. Oh, and after reading an issue or two I realized that the target demographic for this magazine is women. That’s ok, I’m comfortable enough in my masculanity to still enjoy it…)

As you may have guessed, the “secrets” were hardly that.

According to dictionary.com:
Secret: done, made, or conducted without the knowledge of others: secret negotiations.

“Without the knowledge of others.” This means that the eight tips they give should basically not be known to others. Sure…

Of the eight, at least four of these can not possibly qualify as a secret:

– Not enough exercise
This is a secret? Everyone and their mother doesn’t already know that not getting enough exercise can make you fat? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight…

– The wrong foods
Thank you health magazine! I had no idea that eating a bag of Doritos with a jar of Queso sauce would be bad for my plan on losing weight! I am so glad you revealed that secret to me.

– Getting older
Do we really live in a world where people don’t realize that metabolisms slow down as they get older? Really?

– Poor portion control
Wow, now this is a revelatory reveal; a secret that Dan Brown himself could not have written about. Listen up people, because we may not have the opportunity to pass along this secret ever again: over-eating makes people fat! There it is – the cat’s out of the bag!

Don’t get me wrong, these are all sound weight-loss principles. But are they secrets? Are these really things that are done, “without the knowledge of others?” No, not at all.

So half this list is just a ridiculous list of common sense tips that everyone already knows. The other four (Mindless Eating, Stress and fatigue, Goal Plateau, Yo-yo dieting) are not neccesarily secrets to me, but at least I can see how they may be unfamiliar to people. But when I think about the first four in light of the title, I tend to care less about the article. Maybe it’s just me.

Lesson #1: Properly set your expectations. A perfectly decent weight-loss article loses some credibility to me because of the title. How are you pitching yourself, professionally (in your marketing, in your resume, etc) or personally (online dating profiles, puffing yourself at cocktail parties, etc). Will people be dissapointed when they discover the real deal (and will you care when that happens?)

Lesson #2: Don’t believe the hype! “Secrets” is definitely a marketing super-word. I know, I’ve read the books. People are going to use those marketing super-words to suck you in. Don’t get me wrong: a lot of the products and articles that use the marketing hype words will be very valuable. Just be sure to do your due diligence and don’t get sucked in expecting to get something you’re not…

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go write a new article titled, “5 Secrets to writing a 5 Secrets Article”

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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