A New Way to Lose Weight?

A new year has begun! I’m sure there are countless people around the world that have made the very common place resolution of losing weight. However, according to a recent television ad, those of you looking to drop a couple pounds in 2010 may have yet another option to add to your list of ideas! Or do you though? Well I suppose I’ll leave the deciding up to you. Anyways, back to the new option, drum roll please……………….. Taco Bell folks! Nope, that is no typo.

Taco Bell has recently been advertising a new line of meals that can help people lose weight. A 27-year-old woman by the name of Christine Dougherty is the face of the campaign and is portrayed in the new T.V. commercials. It made me instantly reminisce of Jared and the Subway commercials that aired a few years ago. Let me please apologize in advance in case anyone reading this was planning on taking this “weight loss” idea seriously, but I could not help myself from having a good laugh when I saw this on T.V. Has our society become so dense that we can sit on our couches and legitimately toss around the idea of trying to lose weight through a fast food restaurant? Unfortunately I think we have come to this point. It’s quite sad really. People don’t realize or think of all the other contributing factors to this woman's weight loss. For example, whether or not she exercised and what else she ate other than Taco Bell. According to an article on CNN.com, Dougherty reduced her daily calorie intake by 500 calories, and then just replaced her normal Taco Bell meals with items off their “Fresca” menu. She did not lose weight solely by eating low calorie Taco Bell foods. It doesn’t matter what you’re eating, if you reduce the amount of calories you intake by 500 a day, you’re going to lose weight. However, there are many alternatives that work even better, including not eating out as much and exercising often. The vice president of Taco Bell’s consumer insights, Tom Wagner, stated that “The disclaimers at the bottom, we say this is part of a lower calorie effort. We say you should exercise. We don't in anyway try to market this as a miracle solution to lose weight." I’m sorry Tom, despite that statement I find it hard to believe you after seeing your commercial. I feel Taco Bell is indeed trying to make themselves appear to have a wonderful solution for weight loss, otherwise why would they put the other info in a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen and make it only possible to read if you have an electron microscope on hand. Using Taco Bell to lose weight would be like using a new cigarette to stop smoking in my opinion.

I suppose people can do whatever they’d like when it comes to weight loss, as long as it works for them and they’re happy. I’m not really qualified or in a position to be criticizing the way someone loses weight, because I can't even gain it, however I just find this particular ad from Taco Bell quite amusing. Although, it’s like I said earlier, I’ll leave it up to you whether you approve or disapprove of the situation. After all, I guess you can never have too many options when it comes to losing weight.