Weight Loss Pictures: New Website Explains How to tell Fact From Fiction When Choosing a Weight Loss

Nov. 2, 2010 - PRLog -- Weight loss pictures.  We've all seen them, on TV, magazines, and online.

But how in the world do we make sense of what seem like impossible images of people who have lost massive amounts of weight and look like a completely different person?

Photoshop and airbrushing provide very easy ways to doctor up weight loss pictures to make the diets that they are promoting look very effective.  In a culture that is obsessed with body image and is at the same time getting more overweight everyday, weight loss pictures seem to be popping up everywhere with the purpose of selling one diet program or another.  

The problem, according to weight loss expert Belinda Kan, is that not only do most of these diets NOT work as the pictures would have you believe, but some of them can actually be harmful to one's health.

Belinda offers five specific things to look for when examining weight loss pictures and the programs they represent:

1) Background - How natural is the background scene?  Is it staged or does it appear plausible and realistic?  A photo with a plain white background is easily doctored.

1) Clothes and makeup - It helps if the person in the before and after photos is wearing the same or similar set of clothes, is in a similar pose, and is similarly made-up.  Otherwise, it can be hard to tell if it's even the same person!

2) Skin - How is their skin tone?  Weight loss pictures that show a lot of skin are better indicators of how healthy a weight loss program is than are pictures where most of the body is covered up.  A healthy weight loss program will result in weight loss that preserves muscle tone and does NOT lead to sagging skin on the face or body.  

3) Eyes - Dark circles under the eyes are a dead giveaway that this diet is lacking in nutrition and is one you want to avoid.  If the person in the after photo is not looking healthy and radiant, chances are the diet is not healthy.

4) Smile - Are they happy in their after picture?  Usually people are not smiling in their before picture, but their after picture should clearly demonstrate the benefits of transformation through a healthy weight loss program simply through the person's smile.  If a person is at their goal weight but looks miserable, the program is probably not worth it.

5) Others in the picture - One person's weight loss picture is good, but if the pictures are of a couple the effect is even more powerful.  It speaks to the fact that the couple is on a journey to optimal health together.  

Belinda, who runs a website for people looking healthy and affordable ways to lose weight, http://www.HealthyAffordableWeightLoss.com, claims that good weight loss pictures are hard to find.

"In my line of work I have seen so many bad weight loss pictures out there that I can easily spot the true and authentic pictures, which I discern mostly by looking at the people's faces.  While there are many different ways to lose weight, there are not that many pictures out there of people who have lost weight in a healthy way, which is why I am compiling them on my website."

Belinda offers a downloadable guide entitled "How to Eat Healthier with Limited Time and Money" at http://www.HealthyAffordableWeightLoss.com, which explains even more ways to save money while eating healthy and losing weight.

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Healthy Affordable Weight Loss is a website and blog whose mission is the cut through the confusion of diets and exercise and make the goal of losing weight easy and accessible to people of every social class and of every lifestyle.