Can a Pair of Shoes Make You Thin?

I thought I'd heard just about every weight loss gimmick until the other day when someone special came up to me and said she'd just bought a pair of sneakers that advertised they were specially designed to help people lose weight. Interesting, I thought as my weight loss baloney flag instantly popped up in my mind. However, rather than immediately dismissing the shoes as another weight loss gimmick, I decided to check them out. After all, we do live in a technological age where anything is possible.

The sneakers looked like ordinary sneakers except that they had a thick, convex sole shaped much like the bottom of a rocking chair. I slipped them on and welcomed the thick padding, but found them a bit awkward at first. I felt off-kilter, which is the point, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Along with the shoes came a little informational booklet explaining how the shoes were supposed to work. The rounded soles force the person wearing the shoes to constantly adjust position in order to maintain balance. This works the core muscles, lower leg muscles and "burns more calories" than normal shoes.

I can't help but think back to a study that was published in the American Council on Exercise's Fitness Matters Magazine a couple of years back. The study compared the difference in caloric expenditure while sitting on an exercise ball versus sitting in a chair. Surprisingly, the differences were negligible, so negligible that they didn't make a difference in any of the test subject's ability to lose weight. I believe this will be the case with these shoes, too, although we'll have to wait for a peer-reviewed study to be released before we know for sure.

The bottom line is that no shoe will help you lose weight if your feet don't get out and take those shoes for a walk, run, jog, bike ride, etc...