Fat Trapper Pays Dearly for Fake Fat-Loss Claims

The Enforma System, which hit the marketplace early last year, promised users effortless weight loss from the use of its Fat Trapper and Exercise in a Bottle pills.

Thirty-minute infomercials featuring former baseball player Steve Garvey enticed viewers by insisting it was possible to eat whatever you want and still lose weight with the Enforma System.

We didn't buy it — and neither did the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). So now the makers of the Enforma System have been ordered to repay $10 million to customers as penalty for engaging in deceptive advertisement.

The FTC's primary objection was the use of false claims about scientific testing. The company claimed the Fat Trapper product, which contains a byproduct of shellfish exoskeletons called chitosan, could effectively block up to 120 grams of dietary fat every day.

And Exercise in a Bottle, which contains the supplement pyruvate, was purported to increase the body’s capacity to burn fat. Neither of these claims is supported by any existing scientific research.

Under the settlement, Enforma is prohibited from making deceptive claims about its products or any scientific research.

The company has also been ordered to include a disclosure on all its weight-loss advertising that eating less or exercising more is necessary to lose weight.

The Enforma System will, however, continue to be sold through television ads, the Internet and at GNC and Sav-on stores.

This appeared in ACE FitnessMatters, ACE's official magazine.
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