Get real! Plastic suit no miracle fat burner

Scot Long

Q: What do you think of using those plastic suits to help lose weight?

A: Next to playing with a loaded gun, you probably couldn't do anything more dangerous. Remember a few years ago when movie star Martin Lawrence almost died while running in Los Angeles while wearing multiple layers of clothing?

Wearing a plastic or rubber suit only causes weight loss due to water (sweating) anyway. Then, when you rehydrate yourself, you gain all the weight back. There is no real fat loss.

Years ago a former beauty contest winner was shown wrapping herself in plastic kitchen wrap as a part of her so-called weight-loss/fitness routine. It is a wonder that hundreds of people did not die trying to emulate her. Exercising outdoors while wearing a rubber suit or after wrapping yourself in plastic wrap could easily be a death sentence, especially this time of year.

The heat buildup could quickly send you into heat exhaustion and then heatstroke, which can rapidly cause death.

I have also heard some people think that by covering plastic wrap around their mid-section, they can magically burn fat from around their abdominal region. Not so! There is no such thing as spot reduction, meaning you can't burn fat from just one specific area of the body. Some magazines even sell creams that supposedly burn fat by simply rubbing the cream onto a certain area, like the belly, hips or thighs, but again, this just is not true.

The old saying "if it sounds too good to be true ... " is certainly applicable here. No, you won't get fit in as little as two 10-minute workouts per week. And, no, you won't safely and permanently lose that belly via a pill or potion. It all comes back to discipline - discipline to both eat healthfully and to exercise consistently.

Scot E. Long, MSS, CSCS, is an exercise physiologist. He also is a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi and an adjunct professor at Mississippi College.