Rush Limbaugh loses weight- should you rush to join him?
Filed under: Health, Buyer Beware
Rush Limbaugh throws his weight around the political world like a boy with a bazooka in a paintball game, but lately there's less of Rush's weight to throw; the radio talk show star has lost 90 pounds. Expect to see a stampede to Quick Weight Loss Centers, which Limbaugh credits for his loss. Unfortunately for the company, at the moment it only has 14 clinics, all in South Florida. Limbaugh says he achieved his weight loss by following the Center's 1,500-calorie-a-day plan, along with counseling and supplements such as carb blockers and protein boosters. Unlike some weight loss programs, the Centers' customers eat regular food purchased from the grocery, not prepackaged, branded program meals.
Clients work directly with counselors who help them stay on course. This sounded swell to me, until I read the web page pitching careers with the company. Counselor candidates are told "Experience in medical, gym, dancing, school, beauty or weight loss teaching and counseling is a plus, but not required." I guess it doesn't take a trained nutritionist to counsel a radio star.
How much does it cost? Quick Weight Loss Centers has a 'special' deal on its Home Program, for those will live outside South Florida. Six weeks of the program, including Herbal Balance Gold XTRM ("with pure South African Hoodia Gordonii") and other supplements, "Quick-boost Thermogenic Beverages", 12 protein supplements, online cookbook, and counseling -- all for $449, which it claims is a savings of $680(!).
Are they serious? If you are ready to lose weight, don't start by lightening your wallet with a overpriced program like this. Look for a local program that meets face to face, allows you to eat food from the supermarket, and doesn't sell its own supplements. Weight Watchers, for example, charges around $12 a meeting, and Consumer Reports rated it the best overall program among the nine it evaluated.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-05-2009 @ 9:09PM
Anniee451 said...
Yes, because Weight Watchers doesn't sell an entire line of products, from food to books to online (i.e. not face-to-face) programs; they have no financial interest at all, right? Check out their stats on maintenance, by the way - it ends up being something like 2 out of a thousand people keep off the weight after 5 years - people who can keep off weight for more than 5 years are literal freaks of nature (International Journal of Obesity states 98% of those who lose significant weight regain in that time.) I have a better idea - keep your money or spend it on a nice satisfying dinner out. Keep active, eat until you're satisfied, listen to your body and be comfortable with who you are, no matter what you weigh. That doesn't cost anything. (By the way, what "political weight" does Limbaugh have? He can't make laws, levy taxes or send you to war, for cripes sake. He's not even an elected official or a Czar to the president.)
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8-07-2009 @ 10:48AM
an80sreaganite said...
Amen
8-05-2009 @ 10:55PM
Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice said...
Now if he'd just chop off his head, he'd lose another 200 pounds! Maybe he'd disappear altogether!
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8-06-2009 @ 9:02AM
Pat Heisler said...
yes or else instead of wiring his stomach, wire his mouth shut so he wouldn't be spewing all that garbage!
8-06-2009 @ 12:28PM
Germain said...
I love it! He should be gone!
8-05-2009 @ 11:53PM
Evil One said...
My take is he's on drugs again. That's what happened the last time he went on a drugs bender.
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8-06-2009 @ 8:47AM
scarpelli said...
I remember being happy for Rush the last time he lost that much weight. Then I was disappointed to find out he was on the Oxycontin diet. After saying drug users should be locked up and throw away the key, too.
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8-06-2009 @ 9:32AM
Ed said...
Rush needs to do more than lose weight. How about he lose his radio contract.
Surely his weightloss won't keep him from saddling up to the table @ Morton's and filling that disgusting mouth full of food.
Note to Rush: You must sit up straight at the table and not hold your mouth open over the plate while "shovelling" it in.
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8-07-2009 @ 12:17AM
aptain said...
Spoken like a true liberal idiot . Limbaugh just signed a contract 2 years ago and is making boo koo bucks. He has NO zero chance of losing anything. Since he owns the company that syndicates his shows and compnies that advertise on his shows make money . No go back to your air america stations many are gone now thank god . Limbaugh rules !! you people do realize that if he was Oprah and had lost all that weight at this center it would be the greatest thing going .....what I am saying is Liberals are stupid !!! and you proved it by your comment
8-06-2009 @ 11:40AM
Steve daPeach said...
Tom Barlow and the Koolaid Kids...
Fraidy scared of the the truth? No, I'm not talking about his politics, WHICH ARE RIGHT ON THE MARK.
No, I mean how can you disparage and deny in the face of his LOSING 90 FRIGGIN POUNDS?!?
Oh, yea, that's right...your left.
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8-06-2009 @ 12:49PM
jim said...
All you Limbaugh haters,,,,,,,,I have heard quite enough from "your" side with MY ears and MY eyes....How many of you have ever actually "listened" to Rush????? Better think a bit before you answer,, and if you truly are looking for facts you will find them there.... The best way for YOU to discredit Rush would be to "listen" then YOU check out the facts,, THEN, bash the liars
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8-06-2009 @ 3:01PM
JP said...
Don't listen to the Rush radio program and I think he is a bit of a loud mouth. Don't know about the diet plan he is on but if he has lost 90 lbs with the program it can't be all bad. But what I do know is Rush's political and economic beliefs would not morally or financially bankrupt this Country the way the current 1st idiot who occupies the White House will. Proud to say "NOBAMA 2012." And sooner if we are really lucky.
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8-06-2009 @ 4:18PM
The Duck said...
II can tell some of these lazy demo's didn't get their welfare check on time again. I like him - he tells it like it is. Some of those folks don't like him because it sounds like he is talking about them. Ya know, he is . .!!!parasites, we have an abundance of whiners that think we don't notice them - actually who wants to even notice these garbage faced whiners!
Worthless crap . . . walking.
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8-10-2009 @ 8:09PM
Duane said...
You Rush fans kill me. You are a fan of a coward and a hypocrite. He was all for everyone going to jail for using drugs, and idiots like you applauded him. Now he gets caught and he doesn't think he should go to jail. That makes him a hypocrite. That he will not address the issue makes him a coward. Birds of a feather flock together.
8-06-2009 @ 4:43PM
John said...
To Tom Barlow: You are criticizing a diet plan that has obviously worked, so I must conclude that you only appreciate the ones that don't work. How about complete disclosure. First, are you getting any type of compensation for pushing weight watches or have you tried any of the diet plans for yourself. Second, do you bother to read and understand your own column. First you state that Rush can purchase his food from the grocery store not prepackaged meals, then you criticize the price and tell us to "Look for a local program that allows you to eat food from the supermarket", and doesn't sell its own supplements. Are you interested in a program that works or just one that you think is better for your wallet. Some how you strike me as a dumb a$$.
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8-06-2009 @ 8:22PM
D said...
The Limbaugh diet-----Take plenty of drugs and bitch and moan daily.......LMFAO
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8-06-2009 @ 9:25PM
keno said...
Blubber comes off sooo easy, and he's the Son of Blubber and Blabber....now if we could convince Anna Nicole's lawyer and the King of Pop's Doctors of Drugs to move in with him all would be good in due time...
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8-06-2009 @ 10:58PM
Jeanne said...
bob & carol, ted & alice Let's chop off your heads and we will get rid of about 600 pounds. How about that! I Love Rush Limbaugh. Long may he LIVE!
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8-06-2009 @ 11:50PM
jp said...
Diet plans by a drug addict that scammed several doctors for pain killers? I don't think so. Maybe his weight loss is from some new addiction, not from dieting. Sadly he (and his doctors)m should have been jailed. He will always be a porker in all sense of the word.
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8-07-2009 @ 5:25AM
Lonnie McVaigh said...
Pensacola FL
My 9 year old neice got a radio for her birthday and happened into Rush on the radio and thought Rush was trying to spoof people iinto believing he was actually believing the stuff he said. I told her he was for real and she swore he was just charactorizing personalities and trying to get people to call in just to argue with him on the air. I asked her what he was talking about and she said he was actually trying to convince people that lower cost or free health care for everybody and food stamps is communistic. I said "its true."
She paused for a minute and said, "Then why do you say I have to clean off my plate telling me all the chinese are sick and starving when they get free heath care and food?
I said, it's like this Freedom is just another word for when you have nothing left to loose and we are free to pay 10 times more than what insurance companies or business's do because Capitalizm is Free Enterprise, in China the Government owns everything. She said, "you mean the banks don't take away their homes either?" I said I guess not China is booming right now... When she started to talk again I stopped her and told her maybe I was wrong about Rush, he must be a liar... She still wanted to know why the Chinese worked and with most everything for free what would they spend all their money on. I didn't say, but as thinking that they buy our junk bonds so we can give Billions to Big Business CEO's to use to campaign against our Government forcing the CEO's Business to offer health care to the American Workers so they wouldn't send all the work to china....
She probably would have said, why don't the American Business's get there money from the American Banks?
Well honey, the banks have forced millions out of their homes and have to pay all their bank money to cover the loans and keep up all the yards and stuff because if they claimed a default to freddy mac or fannie may insurance they would be loosing all the equity that the house is really worth. That is the free part of the enterprise. In stead of loaning money out to people who could try to buy the house and live in it, they need it to help them keep them until the people from China can get over here to live in them and pay them there free money that communists get from there welfare state that is so inferier to our State Government....
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