Diet Patch Review: Do Diet Patches Really Work?

Diet patches, according to the heaps of spam flooding into my mailbox, are a dieter's dream (incidentally, the US Federal Trade Commission has recently charged several companies using spam to sell bogus diet patches -- click here for more!). Throw on a diet patch, and watch the weight melt away, no matter what you eat. Best of all, you don't even need to worry about taking pills on a regular basis -- your one-a-day pacch eliminates this worry. Easy, convenient, and effective.

Sound familiar?

It should. But it should not come as a surprise that it's just not that easy.

So let's talk about diet patches.

Let's forget about whether the various diet patches actually deliver the ingredients they claim to, and whether those ingredients are effectively delivered through the skin transdermally. Let's instead ask the most important question...

Are the ingredients these patches provide actually all that effective at promoting weight loss?

Although there are many different types of patches on the market, most contain a blend of four main ingredients...

ii) Chromium (reviewed in full here!): useful to help regulate insulin function and balance blood sugar levels. In other words, it is useful for the treatment of many of the characteristics of the disorder that is often called "metabolic syndrome." As such, ingredients that have a positive effect on insulin regulation can lead to more stable blood sugar levels, which in turn, may reduce snacking on sweets and carbohydrate-rich snacks.

iii) Garcinia cambogia (standardized for HCA -- hydroxycitric acid): touted to prevent the conversion of carbohydrates into fat by inhibiting the action of the enzyme citrate lyase. Although there has been some promising results shown with HCA, a recent study published Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 1998 Nov 11;280(18):1596-600), showed that HCA supplementation failed to produce any measurable weight loss. The study focused on 135 overweight individuals for a 3 month period.

Other studies (Physiol Behav. 2000 Oct 1-15;71(1-2):87-94) failed to prove HCA had any effect on satiety./

iv) Fucus vesiculosus (or bladderwrack or brown seaweed): touted by the diet patch makers to burn fat, bladderwrack contains a high concentration of iodine. Iodine is used by the thyroid gland to make the various thyroid hormones necessary for optimal performance. Low or sluggish thyroid performance can lead to low energy levels or overweight. Of course, iodine supplementation is only helpful if you actually have low levels of thyroid hormone, and are not overweight for other more common reasons -- like the over consumption of calories and a sedentary lifestyle (incidentally, overconsumption of iodine can actually pose a health risk).

Despite this, research showing bladderwrack to be an effective weight loss supplement is "dodgy" at best. More research needs to be done to verify its effectiveness. Nonetheless, bladderwrack does seem to be effective for reducing blood sugar levels -- helpful for reducing cravings caused by insulin resistance and simple carbohydrate overconsumption.

Unfortunately, there really isn't anything revolutionary in the average diet patch. Some ingredients, like chromium and guarana, although moderately helpful, have subtle effects and will not lead to much in the way of weight loss without accompanying changes to diet and lifestyle. Ingredients like HCA and bladderwrack don't have much going for them in the way of proven results.

So... Are diet patches worth experimenting with?

I don't think so, and neither does the US Federal Trade Commission. They recently forced the makers of the As Seen on T.V. "Peel Away the Pounds" diet patch to pay $1,000,000 in consumer redress (for making false and unsubstantiated claims about the weight loss effectiveness their diet patch).

In other words, the makers of "Peel Away the Pounds" were unable to provide the FTC with any scientifically viable evidence that their diet product actually did anything at all. And while it was the makers of "Peel Away the Pounds" who were under the gun this time, I'd be very surprised if other diet patches fared any better.

Bottom line?

Unless you feel like wasting your money and making someone else rich, give all diet patches -- even the hoodia-based ones -- a miss! There's really nothing here that justifies experimentation.

Have you used Diet Patches? Tell me what you think!

Want to learn more about fat burners? Industry professional Will Brink reviews dozens of top weight loss products in his superb "Fat Loss Revealed" Click here to read my review! Click here to visit the Fat Loss Revealed web site!

Have you been the victim of a product that makes exaggerated claims? Launch a complaint!

US visitors should submit a complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission!

Canadians, submit a complaint at the Canadian Competition Bureau!