SCAM ALERT: Lean Belly 3X Is Yet Another Overpriced Diet Supplement Scam

What would you do if you meet a new person and the first thing they say is clearly a lie?  You’d likely runaway.  Well, pretty much the first thing that Lean Belly 3X tells you is a lie; its alleged creator Shaun Hadsall doesn’t gives different stories about his wife’s weight-loss and is essentially just peddling overpriced safflower oil pills.   Our advice:  runaway!

Lean Belly 3X  is one of the newer Internet diet scams looking to sell useless pills with the claim that it’ll guarantee weight-loss.   It won’t.  This scam is yet another one of the weight loss pill schemes that proliferate on the Web.   The sad truth is the “hack” involves ingesting  one of their overpriced placebo supplements.  Their official website also states how it can help reduce hunger, increase metabolism, improve immune function, boost serotonin, support health cholesterol, and reduce blood pressure.  We’re surprised they didn’t throw in “reverse global warming” and “create peace in the Middle East”.   Sadly, the latter two wishes are more likely to occur than you achieving weight loss by popping these expensive pills.

There’s a reason this sales pitch is slick — they spend a lot of marketing money to get it to you.   Who is paying for that?  You are.   And, like many scammers, they are using Clickbank to sell their pills so don’t assume you’ll get a refund.  “Rock solid guarantee”…..don’t bet on it.   The scammers bet on the fact that most consumers won’t seek refunds until after the 60-day period expires.   In fact, they count on it.

If you look for a review of the product, you are deluged with lots of fake review or “scam” sites that simply direct you to the main sales site or offer some officious pablum talking about how the product is highly rated or recommended.   The marketers for this service pay 75-100% commission for any referrals they generate.   So these “affiliate marketers” create create fake review sites which effectively thwart any customer who is looking for real reviews.   It is also a tactic to obscure any customers who have posted complaints or alerts about fraudulent claims.  This affiliate marketing trick makes it very difficult for consumers to detect this and other such scams,  As one persevering blogger has noted, scam artists rely upon these fraudulent reviewers to be using tags like:  “does it work?”, “is it a scam?” or “verified review” to suck unsuspecting consumers into this fraud.    In the case of the Lean Belly 3X, they are offering affiliate marketers $128, which is twice the cost of a bottle of their useless pills.  How can they promise that?   Because they know they’ll be able to upsell — charge you for additional services — the poor folk that fall for this scam.  See this posting below from Clickbank — the company they use to sell this bogus deal:

Why Lean Belly3X Should Be Avoided

So what are you getting for your $60 per bottle of safflower oil pills?   Hadsell is putting all of his eggs into the Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) basket.  So does Conjugated Linoleic Acid work?  It turns out, on animals, it has some weight-loss effect.  But on humans, none at all.

But, these aren’t just placebo pills.  As per verywellfit.com, CLA causes serious side effects upon many people who take it.  They include stomach upset, diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, headache, and backache. CLA is mainly metabolized in the liver. On rare occasion, CLA may cause liver toxicity (usually in people with underlying liver disease). Large doses can also trigger the accumulation of fat in the liver, leading to fatty liver disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.  Conjugated linoleic acid may also slow blood clotting. Taking a CLA supplement along with an anticoagulant (“blood thinners”) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) can further enhance this effecting, leading to easy bruising and bleeding.

But none of these ingredients have any scientifically proven weight-loss properties. There’s no science to support them and, worse, most all of these offerings are horribly overpriced.  There is simply inadequate evidence for anyone to make the claims that these  nutrients result in weight loss.  Yet, use of weight-loss supplements in the United States is fairly common.  The government estimates that approximately 15% of U.S. adults have used a weight-loss dietary supplement at some point in their lives. So far, the marketers appear to be winning…..and weight-loss consumers losing.

Lean Belly 3X Pills are Horribly Overpriced

Hadsall is selling his Conjugated Linoleic Acid pills for $60 for 120 pills (enough to last one month).   You can get almost identical softgel pills from the reputable vitamin seller Vitacost for about $12 per bottle.  That’s right — it’s 80% cheaper at Vitacost for nearly the same pills.  That’s how Hadsall is able to afford to pay the lucrative affiliate marketing costs.

Belly Lean 3X a Weight Loss Supplement Scam

Weight loss scams are nothing new. In fact, the FTC has been prosecuting false diet claims since 1927. However, the Internet has greatly accelerated the speed and impact of scammer successes by gaining access to wide audiences and making it easy for them to reap large profits.

This blog spends quite a bit of time exposing some of the worst offenders, but we’ve only scratched the surface.  Regulators have the same problem; since 2005, the FTC has brought 82 cases against scammers for using false or unsubstantiated claims about weight-loss products, and yet they continue to proliferate.  We can try to help protect you, but you’ve got to be alert to the sophisticated tricks being used by the weight-loss scammers.   Here are some red-flashing lights to alert you to a probably scam:

  • The product claims you will lose more than one pound per week. Diet experts believe about one pound per week is the ideal rate for healthy weight loss. Any product that claims it can shed weight faster is probably too good to be true.
  • The product advertises you can lose weight without diet or exercise. It’s not fun to hear, but if you really want to lose weight, a diet and exercise are the only proven and healthy paths.
  • The pictures accompanying the ads show dramatic “Before” and “After” pictures.
  • Promises substantial weight loss no matter what or how much you eat.

The problem has gotten so severe that Congress has held formal hearings to determine whether new laws would help curtail the scourge of false advertising.   Sadly, the hearings didn’t result in any useful reforms.   But there are a number of things that YOU can do to avoid getting suckered by the weight-loss swindlers.   Just like how magicians don’t want to show you how to do a trick, the scammers don’t want you to know their tricks.   That’s why we are going to bust them and show two of Hadsall’s tricks.

TRICK #1 –  Endorsements and Friend Referrals

Advertisers are beginning to realize that millennials have begun to catch on to the fraudulent ads.  Most young consumers no longer trust ads — instead they rely upon referrals by their friends.    So, the Net shysters have retaliated by creating fake referrals.  That’s why many recent email scams have used Americans’ faith in their loved ones against them by hijacking email addresses to make it look like the scammers’ pitch was coming from a close friend or family member. In addition, these emails send readers to false versions of respected news websites, giving their false claims an air of objectivity, because even people who might not trust Hadsall’s diet tips might accept claims made by faux-journalists.

TRICK #2 – Before and After Pictures

The camera never lies….right?  You know better than that.  And when it comes to weight-loss photos and testimonials, you can be sure that the weight-loss tricksters are playing fast and loose with the camera.    Just read two stories:  one by a weight-loss model who was paid to lose weight in 30 days and one by a guy who explains how the camera can be used to fake weight loss.   You’ll never believe a Before and After picture again……nor should you.

The reputable scam website Contrahealthscam.com did a deep dive into Shaun Hadsell’s many diet scams.  It exposed him several times misinterpreting and – in the case of his previous program Over 40 Hormone Reset Diet – flat-out doctoring scientific data in order to sell his product.  The site also claims that Hadsall frequently cites scientific studies incorrectly or uses completely-unrelated scientific studies to prove his claims.

The website also tracks the frequently shifting story about his wife “Karen”.  It determines that his alleged wife didn’t use Lean Belly 3x to lose the weight claimed by the video.

OUR SUGGESTION:  Use Free Proven Weight Loss Plans Available on the Web

The vast majority of reputable health studies show that quick weight loss pills and potions simply don’t work.  If you are serious about exploring a diet aid, check out these free and reputable dieting and weight-loss resources for you on the Net:

Smart for Life

Livestrong Diet –  Aims for a loss of about 1-2 pounds per week.

GM Diet  –  It’s not really a General Motors-designed diet plan.  It’s actually a short one-week detox program.   But it could be a useful starter to a major personal diet reboot.  Linora Low gives a helpful (and free)  step-by-step video and written guide to how to do this detox program.

The Lose Weight Diet –  It does what many of the diet scammers do (take free  information and distill it down to 3 easily understood phases) but he actually offers it for free!

Contrahealthscam recommends Truth From Within (Truth About Keto It claims that this program by Brad Pilon is designed specifically for women in response to the 2017 keto craze that left a lot of women in hormonal disrepair. So if you are a woman who wants to lose weight the right way, Truth from Within is something you should try.   It also recommends Eat Stop Eat, also by Brad Pilon has been studied extensively and has stood the test of time.

And if you are serious about wanting to shed some pounds, begin by going to the Mayo Clinic’s free and reputable website.  The medical experts at the Clinic have fashioned a thoughtful and time-tested plan that has worked for untold numbers of people.  Effective weight loss requires you to master the habits, urges, and feelings that rule our lives.   It’s really all about learning more about your impulses.  Once you do, you can create your “new” normal and the pounds will begin to disappear.

But whatever you do, avoid Lean Belly 3X and its unproven, overpriced placebo offering.

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