Posting/Comments Policy
Most of the reviews and articles on UltimateFatBurner.com feature a “comment” form, which provides you with the means to share your feedback and comments, and interact with us with any questions or concerns you may have.
And while we are eager to encourage an active and vibrant discourse here, there are some very clear and fast rules which you must abide by if you wish to see your comment(s) posted here. Please read these carefully before posting any material to this site…
- All comments are held for moderation. Provided your post meets our standards, you can expect to see it live within 2 business days.
- We will not approve comments made for the sole purpose of obtaining an in-pointing link for search engine optimization purposes.
- Comments that include links to products or services with which you are affiliated will be removed. However, links to supporting documents or quality resources germane to the discussion in question are allowed.
- Rude, inflammatory, belligerant, condescending or otherwise unpleasant dialogue – directed towards the editors or other commenters – will not be tolerated and you will be banned from participating in further discussions.
Here’s The Bottom Line On Commenting…
We are happy to engage in intelligent, rational discourse with reasonable people all day long.
What we will not do is enable bad behavior. Frankly, we’re happy to carry on any discussion in a civil manner, but should visitors accuse of of slander, question our motives and generally leave comments that are not made in the spirit of a genuine exchange of ideas, you can expect us to respond accordingly. But we do retain complete and total editorial control over any material posted on this site. We reserve the right to reject / accept posts for any reason we see fit.
Our job is to act as consumer advocates. Occasionally that means telling people what they don’t want to hear, or to force them to think about things in ways they hadn’t considered before. Yes, that does mean we ruffle a few feathers now and again.
The bulk of the material found on UltimateFatBurner.com is not based on opinions, it’s based upon supporting science. So while you are free to disagree with us on anything we write, you will need to provide some evidence to support your argument if you expect to be taken seriously.
It also helps to know a little about how science works.
Some people, for example, get annoyed with us when they read a negative review for a product with which they experienced positive results. They seem to think such a review disputes the authenticity of their experience, and often perceive it as a personal attack on their intelligence.
Nothing could be further than the truth.
The fact of the matter is that there a million reasons why the product may have worked for them – incluing the placebo effect – and it’s very likely none of them have anything to do with the potency of the fomula and its ingredients.
Most Common Criticisms
Here are a few of the more common reactions we’ve received… and our responses to them.
Q: If you haven’t tried the product, then how do YOU know it doesn’t work?
A: “We don’t know that it doesn’t work: and if you actually read the review in question, you’ll see that we make no such claim. Rather, ours is a probability estimate: based on objective evidence, we conclude that it is unlikely to work as claimed, for reasons that are clearly specified.
In the end, this is the best – and most rational approach – to writing product reviews, since there are hundreds of products out there: we could not possibly try all of them. Beyond the expense involved, it’s also damned impractical. For one thing, we would need to be constantly gaining/losing weight – not a healthy thing to do. And – to give any one product a so-called “fair trial,” we would have to use it for a minimum of a month. This would limit us to approx. 6 – 8 weight loss product reviews per year (2 – 4 weeks to gain weight; 1 month to lose it again, wash, rinse, repeat).
That’s no way to live; let alone run a successful review site.
If that’s not enough for you, here’s the kicker: even if we did it, that trial would still be an “n = 1” observation, that would be difficult to tease out from the effects of diet/exercise. If we praised the effects of a particular product, there would still be someone to say “you’re wrong, ‘cause it didn’t work for me.” On the flip side, if we wrote that the product was ineffective, there would still be someone to say “you’re wrong, ‘cause it did work for me.”
In other words, we’d still be in exactly the same place we are now – except with fewer reviews to argue over.
This is why double-blind, placebo-controlled human studies are so important. High-quality studies control for external conditions and take individual variations into account – something that even the best-intended personal trials cannot do.
Q: Why don’t you conduct a study, if you’re so sure it doesn’t work?
A: The onus, or the burden of proof, lies with the ones making the claims. It is not our job to conduct studies to prove a product does or does not work, it is the manufacturer’s. Our job is only to point out whether any supporting evidence currently exists for the claims.
Q: Are you a doctor? If not, why should I listen to you?
A: Neither Elissa or I are medical doctors (although Elissa is a former research scientist from the University of California at Davis), nor is it necessary for us to hold such a degree to do our jobs properly. Even if we were, it would not necessarily mean we were suitably qualified to write about supplements, since they are not part of a medical doctor’s regular study curriculum. It is not necessary, for instance, the be a MD in order to research and report upon the clinical data that supports (or does not support as the case may be) the claims made for any product.
Q: This product is doctor approved or formulated. What qualifies you to critique it?
A: The first question we would ask is; is it really doctor approved? Plenty of unscrupulous retailers will claim their products have the “blessing” of a medical doctor and even feature his or her picture as “proof.” This picture is a usually a piece of stock photography and more often than not, the doctor in question does not exist. Then there’s the issue of medical moonlighting, where doctors will lend their names to products for nothing more than money.
If the product really is doctor approved, that is no reason to exempt it from criticism. Doctors hold a lot of “sway” with the public, and for that very reason, they should be questioned and critiqued, to determine whether their motivations are customer focused and genuine, or their recommendations are flawed and made only for monetary gain. Retailers know how much respect a doctor endorsement can command with the general public, which is exactly why they will move heaven and earth to get one, or lie about it outright.
A doctor recommendation will often make people accept a product’s claims at face value, without questioning their authenticity.
Regardless, the bottom line is simple; having the prefix “Dr.” in front of your name does give you a “get out of jail free card” at UltimateFatBurner.com. We do not allow doctors to make broad, sweeping generalizations, present statements that contradict established theories and practices and promote their own theories without providing one iota of supporting evidence…
We call them on it.
