The Lose Weight Diet Blog

The 5 Best Weight Loss Products

November 16, 2006
Filed under: Diet & Fitness Junk,Weight Loss — TheLoseWeightDiet @ 4:10 pm

Weight loss doesn’t cost a thing. That’s why The Lose Weight Diet is free. There are absolutely no weight loss products that you need to buy, period.

In fact, there are actually certain products that you should purposely avoid buying at all costs. I even wrote a list detailing 10 ways to tell what those weight loss and fitness products are.

But, with all of that being said, I think there actually are certain weight loss products that you should buy. So far, I’ve conveniently come up with 5 of them, which is the perfect amount to make a pretty list out of. So, without further ado…

The 5 Best Weight Loss Products

5. Gym Membership
Ok, so a gym membership isn’t really a “product.” However, it is something that can be used for the purpose of weight loss, and it does cost money. To me, that certainly qualifies it enough to appear on my list of the 5 best weight loss products. Why, what you were expecting to see here? Recommendations of diet pills and ab machines? HAHAHAHA!

Back to the list. This first recommended “weight loss product” should be no surprise… a gym membership. Working out at home would be fantastic, but most people don’t have the space or money to really provide themselves with everything they need. A gym does. Sure, maybe you can fit a treadmill in the corner of your bedroom. And maybe you can squeeze a weight bench into the basement or garage. But let’s be honest here, these options do not replace a gym.

As if that wasn’t reason enough, there is always the thought that having your home double as your gym would kind of, you know, stop you from working out. When you go to the gym, you GO to the gym. You’re away from all of your house distractions. Phone calls, doorbells, family members, TV’s, and kitchens filled with food. At a gym you’re surrounded by workout equipment and… workout equipment. The only people around you are… working out.

Not to mention, when you have the option of working out at home, you also have the option of putting off your workout until “later.” This in turn creates the option of later becoming even later, and then eventually never happening.

Working out at home seems like it would be fantastic. But, it requires a certain amount of dedication and strictness to make it work, not to mention space and money as well. My recommendation… go get a gym membership.

4. Tape Measure/Body Fat Calipers/Digital Camera
Yes, this is 3 weight loss products in one, but there’s a good reason for that. A subject that I bring up a lot on here is the importance of tracking your progress, and these 3 products do just that.

The reason I place so much importance on tracking your progress is because, aside from being able to see for sure if what you’re doing is actually working like you want it to, it’s extremely motivating to see cold hard numbers proving that you are getting results.

For example, a tape measure will be able to tell you how many inches you lose/gain in various areas of your body. Nothing else can do that. Yeah yeah yeah, you might think you notice your clothes fit better or feel looser, but come on… seeing the actual numbers decrease is guaranteed proof of it. It serves as a real measure of progress, and it causes the type of motivation that makes you want to keep going and keep watching that number decrease.

Body fat calipers will tell you how much of the weight you lose/gain is actually fat. Remember, your weight can change (up or down) due to fat, water, or muscle. If you gain weight but your body fat percentage stays the same (or even decreases), that will tell you that the gained weight was NOT fat. This is a good thing to know. You can find one for less than $5.00 or get a fancy digital one for $30.00.

A digital camera will act as your truly accurate memory. I’ve mentioned this before… due to the fact that you see yourself every single day, it will be very hard for you to actually see differences in your body. Obviously you’ll notice something like losing 30 pounds. But, with a digital camera, you’ll see every single difference and every single bit of progress you make. It’s motivating to look back and see how far you’ve come, and it’s just plain entertaining to look back at what you used to look like. Your memory will not be anywhere near as good as actual pictures. Trust me.

3. Food
Alright, I know what you’re thinking. What is “food” doing on a list of supposed best weight loss products? Well, maybe I should have been more specific. How about, good food? Let me explain.

Weight loss is all about calories. Whether it’s burning more of them, or eating less of them, calories control your weight. And, guess what? Food contains calories. That means if you eat the right amount of food, and eat better types of food, you will lose weight. Therefore, food can be viewed as a weight loss product. Sure, it can also be viewed as a weight gain product, but honestly, when used correctly, there is no better weight loss product on the planet than food.

2. Digital Scale
The reason I didn’t lump this one in with the other weight loss tracking methods in #4 is because I wanted to include a little bit of extra explanation. First of all, I was really thinking of making this one just “scale.” After some extensive thought (about 15 seconds worth), I decided to go with digital scale. Yes, I have a good reason for it.

Your old fashioned bathroom scale just doesn’t cut it anymore. Don’t get me wrong here. As far as tracking your weight, it will do. But, I think if you’re going to take the time to weigh yourself on a regular basis (I recommend weekly), I say go for the best way of doing so which to me, is the digital scale.

Trying to see if the dial is nearer to the 0 line or the 5 line while standing on the scale is borderline torture. Not to mention, it could ruin the accuracy of tracking your progress. You’re not losing or gaining 10 pounds a week. You body is changing 1 pound at a time, sometimes even just half a pound at a time. If you can’t tell exactly what your weight is (and I mean EXACTLY) because you are unable to line up the stupid line with the stupid number on the stupid dial, then you can’t tell if what you’re doing is or is not working.

And as a huge fan of progress tracking, I think this is something you need to know.

Enter the digital scale. It will clearly print the numbers. Big, clear numbers. There will be no need to call a family member into the bathroom to help you figure out what your weight is. But even more important than that is the fact that most digital scales will give you your weight in half-a-pound increments. The good ones will go even smaller than that.

This may not seem so important now, but when you’re watching your weight slowly decrease each week, there is a big difference between seeing 200lbs two weeks in a row, and seeing 200lbs one week, and 199.5lbs the next. Progress is progress, but a digital scale will show it to you better and more accurately than an old fashioned analog scale will.

And if anyone is wondering, I use a Tanita brand digital scale that I bought in 2004 for $30.00.

1. Digital Food Scale
This list isn’t really in any order. If it was, food would probably be #1. However, I purposely went out of my way to put digital food scale at #1 because I wanted it to stand out a little extra. This will honestly be one of the most useful purchases you’ve ever made. This is actually the item that gave me the idea to write this list in the first place. I bought a new food scale a couple of months ago, and I can’t emphasize enough just how useful it really is.

First of all, it’s extremely small, extremely light and extremely easy to operate. It won’t be a problem to store, and it won’t be hard to use. You put the food on it (cooked, raw, whatever), and it says what it weighs. That’s it.

But now you might be wondering what exactly makes this one of the 5 best weight loss products. You know what your food weighs… but so what? I’ll tell you what. You take that food weight, enter it in on a (free) web site such as a Calorie Counter and guess what it tells you? Exactly how many calories and grams of protein, carbs, fat (and more) you are getting from that EXACT amount of food. Knowing this information is the absolute key to weight loss.

Sure, some foods have their nutritional information right on them, but what good is that unless you’re eating exactly 1 serving size? And even then, how do you even know if you’re eating 1 serving size? Look at the back of some foods. Serving sizes are measured in grams and ounces. It just so happens that a digital food scale will tell you how many grams and/or ounces your food weighs. So really, whether there is or isn’t nutritional information right there on the food… a scale would still be needed.

And I’m not telling you this as though it’s my guess. I weigh out most of my food. I know just how useful it is. It takes a second and it lets me know exactly how much I’m eating that meal and that day. Once you know this information, you can make your weight do whatever the hell you want it to do.

I use this $30.00 Salter Kitchen Scale. I seriously rank it up there with my computer and TiVo as the three most used items in my house.

So, there’s what I think are the 5 best weight loss products. Like I mentioned at the very beginning, weight loss is free. You don’t have to buy any of these things. But then again, you’d be better off if you did.

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10 Responses to “The 5 Best Weight Loss Products”

  1. aaron Says:

    Great list. I already “own” and “use” 4 of these 5 “products.” The only one I don’t have is the food scale, which you just convinced me is something I really should have. It should be arriving any day now.

  2. invah Says:

    I have lost 14 lbs. (yay!) and I don’t see a difference in how I look at all. Keeping track of my measurements was the best thing I could have ever done to keep me motivated.

  3. Nev Says:

    A good list.

    The only omission (yes, I think there should be 6 items) is: affirmations.

    Unfortunately, most people don’t share your willpower, and the reason that most quit whatever diet they’re currently on is…. they can’t go on.

    Start any diet with the wrong mindset (as most people do) and the result is a foregone conclusion… eventually, they lose heart and quit.

    Even with great, reinforcing feedback from digital scales, skinfold callipers and such, many people want to lose weight overnight, and with minimal effort. While this may not be realistic, it’s so easy for them to become disheartened. Which is why….

    affirmations are the ticket.

  4. Michele Says:

    …plus a calculator, or the free calculator on the PC. The PC that is now permanently on all day (I work at home) with my diet/exercise log spreadsheet also now permanently open.
    Thanks, great list.

  5. Samantha Says:

    I am such a “lose weight yesterday” gimmick junkie! Thanks for helping me see this. I can’t wait to start this common sense diet. You deserve a medal. Seriously though thanks for opening my eyes.

  6. Angela Says:

    These all sound like great suggestions – I got burned on a gym membership though once and I will never go back unless its something like the Y – which is awesome. I’ll probably join in winter when all the fun things to do outside go away! They are thankfully free…

    Do Americans have the same problems with gyms that we do up here (taking money out of your account after you have cancelled, not letting you cancel like a normal person would expect to, etc.) – I had to take them to court to get them to stop running up a bill on my account, after I put a stop payment on my account AND notified them by letter via mail & courier that I wanted to cancel. I won.

    Awesome site BTW I love it. Just hit 199 today after 1 month of dieting and more activity – I started at 210 (yikes factor for me is being over 200).

    Cheers!

  7. Lourdes Says:

    This web page is awesome, great info, I only wish there were spanish translations, so I can send it to my friends!!!

  8. Jan Says:

    I just read this page a yesterday. And i am going grocery shopping for healthy foods as soon as i leave work today. I am going to try this and I must admit I feel like an idiot not seeing how obvious weight loss is. I mean I am the person who beleived every gimmick on tv.I hope that the next time i write will be to brag about pounds lost.

  9. Lucid Splendor Says:

    This website absolutely makes you realize how simple losing weight really is and the fact that so many people fail at this is mainly due to the media. It’s true that they confuse most of us into thinking there’s an easier way out, or a way you can lose quicker. I’ve tried numerous diets, some eliminated food groups like carbs. If you’re losing more than 2 lbs a week it’s water or muscle! I’m upset I didn’t wake up sooner, maybe that way my weight wouldn’t have ballooned up so much. But this website really woke me up. I started my Journey in January 7th at 170 (I’m 5’4″ female in her 20’s) and I am currently using 4 out of the 5 recommended things. I do have a gym membership and try to work out 3 times a week. I have a tape measure. Don’t have calipers yet, and I refused to take before pictures because I was so traumatized at my weight. I have good food in the house, and I plan all my meals for the week on Sundays. I also purchased a digital food scale which I absolutely love!! I still need to get a digital scale to weigh myself every morning. I currently use an analog kind and it is a pain to try to see the little needle first thing in the morning. It would be nice to just see a number. So far by watching my calories (I use http://www.sparkpeople.com and they’re wonderful and free!!) and exercising I’m down to 162.5! And I’ve only been doing this for about 7 weeks!! I have lost 4 inches off my waist already! I only wish I had started this earlier. I wish everyone the best on their journey!!

  10. Toni Says:

    Well, Here I go. I quit smoking in October and have put on about 15lbs. I know it doesnt sound like alot, but nothing and I mean nothing I own now fits me. I have done the atkins, 3day diet, got a water pill from my mom, and susanne sommers. All to no avail. I will keep you posted on this seemingly sensible and easy diet. 500 less calories a day? I can do this. I am wondering why I only seem to gain in my upper body. My chest and stomach seem to hold every one of those 15 pounds. Good luck to all!