Before & After Fraud Photos

There is nothing that bugs me more than health and fitness sites that convince unknowing users into buying their product or services based on before and after photos.  We’ve all seen these.  They show a person who apparently completed their diet or training plan with side by side pictures.  The first is a heavy photo, the second is a slimmed down version.  They conclude that the weight loss was a result of following their advice and/or instruction.

If their product worked in the first place, would they have to resort to doing the following to sell it?  Take a look…

Say Hello to Nicholle, Kathy, and Jenny! (no, they aren’t triplets)

Take a look at the women below.  They are featured on three seperate weight loss blogs that push different products.  Screen shots were taken from each blog.  Notice anything familar?  Quite obviously, this is the same woman…

As of right now only Kathy’s blog is still up…it can be found here:   Kathy

Each blog had almost identical content, including the same health products they were trying to sell.  There are fake comments below each entry to make it seem like other users are trying their products.  The blog used IP filtering to filter out any comments along the lines of “this is a scam – do not buy!”.  The health and fitness field is rife with things like this.

Looking a little further into the scam…

The woman in these photos is an innocent party, whose images were bought for a few dollars off a stock photography site.

Notice anything yet?  Let’s look at these images side by side.

The Photoshop Effect

See what’s going on here?  They simply took the original picture and slimmed it down.  They did this for all three blogs.  The whole job probably took no more than half an hour.  But you were probably fooled werent you?

You really need to be careful out there.  Moral of the story is, don’t believe everything you see on the internet, especially when it has to do with health and fitness.  I’d go as far to say that the MAJORITY of health and fitness information out there is bogus.  They use scams like the one illustrated above, and many others to seperate you from your hard earned dollars.  Worst of all, they are setting you up for failure, which will only make getting healthier harder down the road.  Look for certifiable experts to lend their advice.  Don’t go for products that oversell.  Trust your gut.

Share It Fitness is trying to seperate ourselves from the pack.  On our staff we have Ph.D’s, MD’s (medical doctors), RD’s (registered dietitians), and nationally certified trainers and instructors.  Don’t settle for anything else.  Anyone without a certification behind their name is useless to you and your health and fitness goals.

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Matt

Co-Founder at Share It Fitness

Matt has been involved in the fitness industry for over 10 years and has worked with, and helped countless individuals improve their lives. After college, Matt started his fitness career working in the trenches as a personal trainer for a big corporate gym. It was here he saw how impersonal Big Fitness really was. Clients weren't people, they were just sales waiting to be made. After branching out and starting his own personal training business in San Diego, Matt soon developed the idea of Share It Fitness and started our (now highly successful) blog. A fitness junkie himself, Matt knows the importance of incorporating exercise into your life. When he isn't working at Share It Fitness, you can find Matt running, biking, taking yoga, or pumping iron around San Diego.

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