Oh Slender Shaper and the age of slimming belts.  Yes, you can see them on TV, and we have seen plenty of them on TV.  They talk about stimulating the muscles in abs, thighs, and other areas to tighten, tone, reduce fat, and otherwise promote skinnier limbs and areas of fat.  It all sounds great, especially when you see fitness models wearing them and their muscles supposedly contracting. And you can do it while watching the next cheesy infomercial on TV!  How could you get anything better?

Really, it’s one of the bigger jokes.  Yes, we don’t always depend on the medical community to keep up on everything, there are studies to be conducted, and it takes time.  However, really, this is a joke.  They have actually determined the facts here.  First of all, the best known fact is that stimulating muscles does not burn fat. You actually have to use cardio to burn fat.

But there’s also the fact that while it’s fun, and while if you go to the chiropractor, they use machines similar to this, it has never been proven to contract the muscles in a muscle stimulating and building way.  Otherwise, we would be at the chiropractor a few times a week at the very least! Still, we’ll admit those machines can be quite a bit of fun.

They advertise it like the next big miracle, but their basic mechanisms of action are completely meaningless to say the least.  They don’t actually stimulate muscles, they don’t actually burn fat.  The models using this machine aren’t skinny or toned because of it.  They do crunches, they run on the treadmill, they use the whole package of exercise, diet, and otherwise weight loss and maintenance.

We love the commercials for this.  We see them right after the Snuggie and right before the Magic Bullet, both of which we actually do love, because the Snuggie is surprisingly comfortable, and there is no reason to spend so much money on bigger systems for chopping, blending, etc when you can get it all in one.  We are infomercial junkies just like the rest of the world.

The difference is that you will NEVER find a diet pill or valid weight loss mechanism on TV. Cooking machines, maybe, but no, not weight loss.  And for all of you Chuck Norris fans out there, that also applies to the machine that he just loves.  Taebo might be the only exception to that rule for us.  But then again, you can take some kind of kickboxing class and get the same thing these days.

Either way, Slender Shaper is not one of those that even has the slight potential of showing results.  There are obviously no ingredients to evaluate.  But as far as exercise, we know like many personal trainers and other professionals that as much as WE WOULD LOVE IT, there is no way around the traditional weight loss methods of diet and exercise.  The best diet pills only compliment that effect.  Too bad huh.