Lose weight by sitting down?
I was highly sceptical about a full page advert that has been appearing in the local papers for a product called 'Sit and Slim'. Having seen Dragon's Den last weekend I'm now wondering whether I should report them to the Advertising Standards Agency.
The product is a combination of a massage chair and an audio tape, and the company really does claim that you can lose weight sitting down. Apparently, in order to use the system, you have to enrol at a local centre at a cost of over £600 per year.
The founder of the company was roundly criticised by the Dragons. He seemed incapable of answering questions about his business plan and didn't know how many people had enrolled at the differing rates. But the most telling thing was his reaction when asked whether there was any scientific basis for his claims.
He kept saying that a hospital somewhere was carrying out tests, but he had to be pushed hard to acknowledge that there was no evidence to back his assertions. And yet the advert in this week's Kingston Guardian (page 12) states unequivocally "NHS Trial Proves Sit & Slim Chair Works".
There is also an article about it in the paper on page 3. I'm not sure whether he lives locally, but he has a centre in New Malden.
I have checked his NHS Trial claim. It seems that he did not have results from the trials when the programme was recorded, but now that he has got his 'evidence' it is not all it seems. Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust was given a chair which was tested on 18 members of staff for a 3 month period each. Of these 12 lost weight and 4 gained weight.
To quote from the Norwich Evening News: Vicky Stone, one of the trust’s physiotherapists, said the trial results were not “statistically valid” or rigorous, but they do offer the health and wellbeing board an insight into whether the chairs could continue to help staff and reduce sickness rates, and if they could even possibly be used for patients in the future.
In other words, it was not a controlled experiment and not a formal NHS trial, although the anecdotal evidence could certainly be a trigger for more detailed investigations into the promoter's claims. It certainly does not justify the "NHS Trial Proves ..." headline in the advert.
Now before anyone jumps in and tells me that his idea does have some merit, I would say that I think I do understand what this is about. Having lost 3 stone in a matter of 8 months recently, I do know that the most important thing was getting the psychology right. Motivation was crucial, as was a positive attitude to the process, and a determination not to demonise food. So sitting in a massage chair, listening to some positive thinking on an audio tape, could possibly help some people to find the motivation they need. Indeed, it is a form of hypnotherapy, but without the professional hypnotist.
But the ad says this: "We understand that you may be sceptical about losing weight by simply sitting on a Sit & Slim therapeutic wellbeing chair, most people are." Note simply.
Yes, I am sceptical. At some point you have got to get out of that chair, shop for suitable food, count calories, carbs or fat units, and get some exercise. Nothing else works.
Comments
Good piece of debunking the research claims Mary. Have you had any contact with the paper about the misleading wording of their report?
Yes, I have been chatting with the reporter, and he has now read my blog!
Take your point about the article in the Surrey Comet, which quotes him as saying "we now have medical proof". I'm afraid an uncontrolled test by an HR department (which just happened to be in a hospital) does not count as medical proof.
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/dragons_den_slimming_chair_on_test_i...
The programmes have many other additional health benefits other than weight loss, smoking cessation, etc....
Yes, I'd already linked to the item in the Norwich Evening News.
I can see that the treatments could have other benefits, but my objection is to the misleading wording of the adverts which claim you can lose weight "simply by sitting" on one of these chairs.
They also make false claims about the trial. Indeed, the article in the Surrey Comet quotes the founder saying that there is 'medical proof' that they they work - they have nothing of the sort.
Mary, when you say in your blog 'Nothing else works', maybe this is the case for you. This is your personal opinion - I suggest you read the results of the trial so that you can write your blog based on evidence and not personal opinions.
I have read the results of the trial as published in the local paper in Norwich. If you have further data then do share it.
The fact is that if I had used the chair but still carried on eating as before, then I would not have lost weight. What the tapes and deep relaxation do, presumably, is to develop motivation to change behaviour. Without that changed behaviour weight cannot be lost. That is not 'personal opinion' but the results of many, many research projects into weight loss.
Great job shining a light on the shady marketing practices at work here Mary. One only needs to take a look at how the snake in charge of this company tried to portray this product in the Den, then another look at how he promotes the product on his website to see how unlikeably disingenuous this whole thing is. Selling false hope to desperate and lazy people with fabricated scientific claims and 'statistics' that would make the makers of beauty product commercials blush. What a nasty piece of work.
It has also been extensively reported - the Alan Titchmarsh Show, Daily Mail, The Sun etc - that the NHS is going to spend thousands of pounds buying these chairs. Is there any truth in this?
The Norwich Evening News report of August 5th says that a chair was loaned to the Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust for 6 months, during which time 18 people tried it out.
This report seems to be quite factual but there is no indication that this Trust, or any other, was actually planning to buy any chairs.
Mary thank you for highlighting this. I would like to add a cautionary tale to anyone thinking of signing up to sit and slim/Miruji Beach. I have just paid the owner of this company a large sum of money to extricate myself from a contract for membership. I foolishly signed up to this as a result of, in my opinion, a high pressure sales pitch from the owner after I took advantage of an hours free trial. I did not have the cancellation rights, I thought I had.
I tried to cancel and offer the owner a generous compensation which he refused. I was then threatened with a debt recovery agency. I had the choice to continue the membership or pay up. There was no way I would consider this as I had lost trust in the owner, I never went back after the so called free trial. I was advised to pay him and put it down to experience!
The problem...I signed a contract whilst I was on the premises.
If you are tempted to take advantage of a free trial, dont feel pressured into signing up for a years membership - take the paperwork away, go home and think about it and only then if you are sure sign up.
Oh dear, poor you. But thank you for sharing your story with the people who read this post.
I would advise you to contact the National Fraud line and tell them your story.
Thank you Mary, I am just glad I don't ever have to have anything to do with sit and slim anymore. All the best to you
I was also subjected to high pressure sales to sign up but I told them I was too busy and would call back on Saturday. By this time I had decided against it, but a month later I received a threatening letter telling me that I owed them £240.
The only time I remember signing anything was during the chat before hand to talk about any health issues you have. I thought I was signing to agree to the treatment. They enclosed the 'contract' that I had supposedly signed and this was a carbon copy of my signature. The rest of the contract had been filled out by them but not a carbon copy. I thought this was very strange. I sent them an email saying that I did not want to take them up on their membership and had no response. A month later I had a very threatening letter telling me they were going to refer my debt to an external debt collecting agency and charge me another £100 on top of that for administration charges. I have written to them again and I am now waiting to see what happens next. Be very careful if you do decide to visit Miruji. Do not sign anything at any time unless you have had plenty of time to read the small print.
Apologies for not moderating the last two comments earlier. I've been getting a lot of spam comments recently and overlooked these two genuine ones.
Kim - that sounds like fraud to me. Contact your local police.
We also were subjected to a high pressure sales pitch after a free trail, and were told it was 'company policy' that we had to sign up there and then to get the dicounted rate on the sessions.
By making people sign on the premises, and calling it a 'membership', we found there was no cooling off period so even though we contacted the saleswoman within 10 days they refused to allow us to cancel or even reduce the number of hours we had bought and we were locked in for 12 months at £20 per week.
To add insult to injury, we also found that the company will not replace lost or stolen cards so could not even use the chairs despite having paid over £700. Eventually they did offer to provide a new card, but only if we paid a further £250.
At the time of signing, we were told that there was a 'money back guarantee' but when we tried to claim this we discovered it was not covered in the small print of the contract. Trading Standards have told us that a verbal guarantee should still be binding but of course it becomes difficult to prove.
This company has just run a 4 page ad in the local paper and has opened in several new areas and I fear lots more people are going to be caught out in this way unless they can be persuaded to behave in a more reasonable way towards their customers.
Your experience is not good and sounds very dodgy to me.
There are several courses of action you could take - some of which I can't do myself because I never actually paid them anything. For example, have you considered making a claim against them in the Small Claims Court?
Then it is really worth reporting them to the Advertising Standards Authority. I have put in a formal complaint but it is always useful if several people do so. I will be contacting them in the morning about the Guardian wrap-around last week.
And it would be worth writing to one of the consumer programmes or press columns as that way the media will pick up the story as well.
Watchdog would be interested in this I'm sure.
The three people on here who have been intimidated and paid out money should be taking these people to the Small Claims Court as well as complaining to the advertising authority.
Kim should be contacting the police.
Mary is right on all 3 counts.
If anyone would like to contact me through the Email me form (at the top of the page), I can put you in touch with others so you can take some collective action.
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