Four Weird Ways People Used to Lose Weight!

Four Old Ways USA Folks Tried Losing Weight

Trying to cut costs through weight loss? I know what you mean -if I were leaner, it would cost me a lot less to find clothes. Sometimes it is fun to look at the ways things were previously done. 

This fun Frugalist List has four ways that frugalists might have tried to lose weight in the past. I hope this post will make you laugh, or at least bring a smile and brighten your load for a while.

 Note: The writer of this post cannot boast about having successfully lost a ton of weight. This post is just for entertainment.

Wish you could lose weight? I've been struggling with my weight in a variety of ways for years. This post has a couple of fun videos about wacky weight-loss tips from the past as well as a few antique ads that were really fads.

If weight loss tips are your passion, perhaps you'd like to write a guest post or two. Pop a note in the comments below.

Note: Posts on this blog have referral links that may help our writers eat when readers make purchases through them. 

Welcome to the Wacky Weight-Loss Show!

Did you know that they say 15 minutes of belly laughter is the same as a two-hour cardio workout? Hey, what would you rather do? Me? I love laughin', especially with Jim Gaffigan! He's gone on the road with his shows again. Click here to see the Awesome Seating Tickets for when Jim Gaffigan will be at a venue near you.

Not familiar with Jim? I hope this clip of his exercise videos will make you grin.

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Four Weird Ways People Previously Tried Losing Weight 

Before we start our Frugalist Frugal List of Four Ways People Tried Losing Weight. wait! People did not always think losing weight was great! In 1895, the following ad provided a solution to help people gain weight.

Loring Fat-Ten-U Corpula Foods
Guaranteed to Get \You Fat!

Previously, being lean was associated with ill health and corpulence showed you were healthy- and probably more wealthy. What was in Fat-ten -U? Apparently mostly alcohol. Soo... cutting down on alcohol might be a great way to lose weight and it could help you save money too!

1. Diet Pills Containing Tape Worm Eggs 

Weightloss Ad for Sanitized Tape Worm Eggs

Now if you think you might like to try the tapeworm diet before you buy it, you might like to know a tapeworm is NOT your diet friend it will grow and turn into your foe!

 

Tape Worm Image from Wikipedia

2. Weight Loss Glasses!

Vision Dieter Glasses

Advertisements for Vision Dieter glasses in the 1970s boasted  “You won’t believe your eyes,” and claimed that wearing these “special” glasses, reduced hunger and food intake. The Arkansas inventor of these weight loss glasses originally set out to create a product to deter shoppers from buying food packages simply because they were colorful. The lenses in the glasses distorted the colors, creating a disincentive for shoppers. 

However, the product’s inventor soon discovered that pitching to consumers who were interested in losing weight was far more lucrative. He claimed that the combination of blue and brown lens colors was a “secret European color technology” that tricked the user’s mind into reducing hunger pangs. This claim was false. The product didn’t work at all. The only accurate part of the ad was its claim that there were no side effects from wearing the glasses (twice a day for an hour at a time) and that a single pair lasted for months.

While this claim was disproved, studies have shown if you paint the kitchen in your home yellow or green people will be less often seen eating in that room. Now, this might be clever if you never want people eating in your kitchen or dining room, but even if you were to paint the whole house those colors, you might soon discover you either spend more on takeout or star dining alfresco.

3. Weight Loss Cigarettes  

Trim Reducing Aid Cigarettes

Puff your pounds away with Trim Reducing Aid Cigarettes? My mother tried a variety of these and almost died! She was deathly allergic to whatever they put in these toxic sticks and they made her really sick. 

Trim offered a double-your-money-back guarantee that smoking at least 3 cigarettes a day would help consumers lose up to 20 pounds in as little as 8 weeks without modifying their diet. The Cornell Drug Corporation, which manufactured Trims, claimed that their special patented formula of flavored tobacco treated with tartaric acid was an “absolutely harmless,” “clinically tested and medically approved” method of decreasing appetite by causing sensations of “drying,” “puckering” and “tissue-shrinking” in the mouth. 

4. Shake Your Weight Off

Although these weight-loss fat-shaking machines were keen in the sixties, apparently the fad to try and remove fat this way was invented way, way back in the late 1800s as a method of helping people who could not do vigorous exercise lose weight. Here is an interesting video that exposes the uselessness of this tool.

 Now, wait, you might be able to lose some weight by simply wiggling and jiggling when you sit, and it won't cost you a cent! Here's another keen idea - lower the temperature in your house and give your house a deep clean.

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Su

About This Author

Sister Su is grateful to God for keeping her alive. She writes on several blogs, has a YouTube channel and is most easily reached through Twitter @Sister_Su