He may be a surgeon, he may reach more people in an hour than most doctors treat in their
lifetimes, but it's no secret that TV star Dr. Oz doesn't exactly prioritize evidence-based
health advice.
Especially when it comes to weight loss.
He was even called before a senate sub-comittee recently to explain, "I don't get why you
need to say this stuff because you know it's not true."
Dr. Oz once told me in an interview that he didn't have the "glitzy stuff," nobody would
watch his show.
The trouble is viewers get common sense advice along with a big dose of nonsense.
It can be hard to tell the difference.
Here are three of Dr. Oz's biggest weight-loss lies to watch out for.
Number one - so on the show Dr. Oz often likes to claim "metabolism boosters" are the holy
grails of weight loss.
"Behind these walls I've got five revolutionary metabolism busters to bust through the fat
after forty."
He tells people to invest their money in everything from special powders to teas and extracts
for their "mega metabolism boosting capability."
There are certain foods that will boost your metabolism momentarily like coffee or chili
spices, but the change is so small that it would never have an impact on your waistline.
We're talking less than half a calorie per minute for a short period of time.
So Dr. Oz's metabolism boosters won't burn your fat, but they will burn your money.
Number two: Dr. Oz will often say that you can "blast away your belly fat" by going on
a diet or taking supplements.
"Add these to your diet to get rid of your belly once and for all."
The truth is there's just no evidence whatsoever to support this notion that targeted fat loss
is possible.
You just can't lose weight in one part of your body, no matter how appealing it sounds.
Number three: on almost every Oz show, he likes to claim certain supplements can help
you lose weight.
"Supplements: those simple, safe, no perscription required pills and potions that can blast
your fat, kill your cravings..."
Garsenia cambotia, rasberry ketones, green coffee bean supplements -- most of these supplements
have not been properly studied in people and some have actually never studied in humans.
Or if they have, the studies are generally so small and flawed by design there's no way
to know whether they actually work.
And lets face it, if there was a fat buster in a bottle, we wouldn't have an obesity problem.
So when should you listen to Dr. Oz?
I'll let him explain: "What works for most people?"
"What works for most people is a diet based on real food, food that comes out of the ground
looking the way it looks when you eat it that's not been processed, with some physical activity.
Most of weight loss, I believe, is about the food choices you make.
Most of keeping your weight low is about the physical activity you engage in."