6 Shocking Weight Loss Techniques From History That Will Horrify You

From living on sunlight to consuming tape worms.

Losing weight is easy! Whenever you see food, simply nod your head for no.

Weight loss is a billion-dollar industry in today’s world where with each passing year, we tend to get tons of new pills, programs, supplements, diets, and exercises.

All such methods seems to be beneficial for weight loss and people tend to use them why? Because these kinds of new stuff make life much easier for everyone as far as weight loss is concerned.

These new weight loss methods might seem insane; however, not too long ago, things were much worse.

Not only were these methods crazy, but they were also extremely dangerous too.

Nevertheless, these methods were used by many because they really did seem to work. Let’s take a look at these horrific weight loss methods from the past.

1. Living On Just The Sunlight And Air

Breatharianism, a belief that comes from Buddhists, is one can live without food solely on sunlight and air. In recent years this practice has been used for losing weight.

This method of spiritually shedding some extra pounds is much more dangerous than you might believe. It is believed some have even died while being on a diet that includes only sun and air.

There are many things that can kill a person who is only living on two elements of nature.

First comes dehydration, second comes malnutrition and I guess thirdly comes death.

No matter what way you look at it or how much you try to justify it, the only picture that comes out would be deliberate starvation.

2. Washing It Away With The Obesity Soap

This magic product is from the early 1900s, perhaps the only soap that would wash away those extra pounds off your body just by taking a bath with none-other than La Parle Obesity Soap.

The fact people actually believe this is shocking on its own.

The chemist who made the formula stated that the soap would help the user easily lose fat from areas like the ankles, chin, and neck and even reduce the size of your bust.

People formulating this soap knew marketing more than chemistry.

It didn’t take long for other brands to come up with similar soaps that “helped” in weight loss. Soaps were soaps, after all, and even if these weight loss soaps didn’t help in losing weight, they surely left their user clean as a baby’s leg.

3. Use Poison If Necessary

Victorians were really serious when it came to their weight and appearance — especially Victorian women. It was the Victorians who made the corset perhaps one of the most uncomfortable types of clothing ever made; why? Well, just to maintain that figure.

However, it was in the 19th century when they went way over the limits and started using arsenic poison to reduce weight.

The poison was sold and advertised as medicine that increases one’s metabolic rate, which resulted in weight loss.

The problem here was that none of these pills mentioned arsenic in the list of ingredients, which could result in death if not consumed in the right manner.

4. Weight Loss “Beauty” Salons

The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about beauty salons is hair and nails or makeup.

However, things were very different in the 1950s. Beauty salons, or reducing salons as they were called in those days, offered a wide range of weight loss therapies using machines.

These therapies included stretching, pressing, and electrocution, which was believed to reduce unwanted fat on one’s body.

These salons were most popular among the housewives as they made life much easier for them even when they were next to useless, but they were good get-together spots.

The reason why we don’t see these reducing salons anymore is that they were just useless.

5. Consuming Tapeworms

If someone is infected with tapeworm, it can make life miserable for the infected person and make it impossible to gain weight or absorb nutrients.

It was these characteristics of tapeworm that fascinated the Victorians, and they thought that these parasites were perfect for losing weight.

The way this worked was easy; first, the tapeworm cyst was consumed, and then began the long waiting process for it to grow inside; and once worms multiplied and grew enough, the weight loss journey began.

However, they were to be removed when the desired weight was reached, and one started looking like a zombie because of being malnourished.

The procedure of removing these 30 feet long mega parasites wasn’t that easy either.

6. Smoking Helps In Losing Weight

Many weight loss remedies popped up in the early 90s, and one of them was cigarette manufacturers like Lucky strike.

These companies started putting out ads claiming smoking cigarettes helped in weight loss which promoted smoking in women.

The logic these companies used was smoking cigarettes could help with curbing one’s appetite, which resulted in weight loss.

However, smoking cigarettes meant an increased risk of cancer and various other illnesses, and any weight that one might have lost was temporary and people often doubled in weight soon after.

Final Words

Being slim and smart has always been linked to beauty; because of this, people have come up with many remedies to reduce or maintain weight.

After much research, humans of our era have come up with the right and perhaps the only way to live healthily — proper exercise with a balanced diet.

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