The only randomised trial of a corset for weight control watched compliance fall from 100% to 10% in nine months — the authors said it 'could therefore not be evaluated.' There is no mechanism, and the one measured effect of abdominal compression is worse reflux.
Cold exposure does raise the calories you burn, and over weeks of daily cold air one study trimmed fat mass slightly. But the research used hours of cool air, not a three-minute plunge — and no study shows a cold plunge takes fat off.
Twenty-four years of literature contains zero randomised trials of a commercial detox tea. The mechanism is a laxative — and even four to six litres of diarrhoea cuts calorie absorption by only about 12%. The liver damage, though, is documented.
You lose about 0.65 kg in an hour and the researchers called it 'bodily fluids' in their own conclusion. The one trial that randomised people found sauna added no significant fat loss on top of exercise — but with 15 per arm, it couldn't have detected much.
116 trials and 6,880 people say aerobic exercise works: about 2.8 kg at the recommended dose. The 'fat burning zone' printed on the machine is a different matter — and it's set at the wrong heart rate even by its own physiology.
Low-carb diets drop weight fast — 61% of it water in one measured study, against 37% on an equal-calorie mixed diet. At matched calories they don't remove more fat. The model's own advocates funded the trial that showed it.
Across 143 studies creatine adds 0.86 kg of body mass — and 0.82 kg of it is fat-free. The water is real, it is inside the muscle cell, and the premium 'bloat-free' creatine sold to fix it was not better than the cheap stuff in a head-to-head trial.
Thirteen controlled trials and 1,158 people say no — the pooled effect of targeted training on targeted fat is indistinguishable from zero. The belief didn't start with a study. It started with a machine that needed a reason to exist.
It works — but so does daily calorie restriction, and at matched calories the cleanest trial found fasting lost less fat. One good 12-month study does favour it, for a reason nobody sells: people stuck to it better.
Protein genuinely preserves lean mass while you diet — replicated across four meta-analyses. But the effect is small, it mostly fails without resistance training, and the metabolism claim was dismissed by a review the meat and dairy industries paid for.