Michelle Lewin, a fitness influencer with 13 million followers, has been criticised for promoting “extremely dangerous” weight loss pills that claim to “allow you to cheat on your diet.”
As we all know social media influencers are subject to very few rules when it comes to sponsorship deals.
They can promote what they like without any evidence that whatever they’re flogging works or that they use it themselves.
Fitness model and bodybuilder based in South Florida, posted a picture on her Instagram story of her holding Base Carb Crush pills “To indulge like crazy… And don’t give a f*** [sic].”
The post linked to an Amazon page selling the “cheat meal solution” pills, which are marketed as “carb blockers” and “appetite suppressants” that “allow you to cheat on your diet.”
“Indulge on the carbs you love while minimising weight gain, allowing you to not feel guilty and enjoy life,” the tagline states, recommending the consumption of three pills before a “cheat meal.”
Although the full ingredients are not listed, the pills reportedly contain “chromium, grape seed extract, and Maqui berry extract.”
Although she’s since gotten rid of her stories, others like PT and co-host of The Three Dumbbells podcast Freddie Ray, have screenshotted them.
“Why are you promoting such crap?” he asks, while telling Michelle to “stop being an idiot” and pointing out how expensive one bottle costs of $36.
“You’ve got a million people who follow you and will believe this,” he writes.
A brief scan of Michelle’s website reveals that the company that makes these ‘carb crushers’ – Base Nutrition – also makes her products.
Recall, the pills promise to help you ‘indulge on the carbs you love while minimising weight gain, allowing you to not feel guilty and enjoy life’ and recommend that you take three before having a ‘cheat meal’. There are so many things wrong with that concept, that’s hard to know where to start.