Q: I am a 33 years old female wanting to join a fitness centre as I am 14 kg overweight. The gym instructors have told me that I would be made to lose weight with the help of heating pads and vibrators. They told me that the heating pads will dissolve the fat and it would go out of the body via sweat and urine. My husband, who is a doctor, disagrees with this claim. Please guide should I join the fitness centre or not?

A:The best way to keep in good health is to follow a healthy nutritious diet (with your age, conditions and activity levels in mind) and a balanced workout (including any aerobic activity muscle work and stretches). Without wanting to comment on the efficacy of these slimming institutes, considering there are no guidelines they follow, one would be suspect to the success of the process or the safety of the outcome. And from what is understood, they would make you follow a restricted diet and some amount of exercise also. There has been one study, published in the medical journals regarding the efficacy of these machines. Initially they were used as part of physiotherapy but are now marketed as miracle machines to help lose weight. The study suggested some difference when the machine was regularly used on the muscles in the abdomen but overall the amount of time taken to put the pads on, sit with the machine on and for the results to show, did not warrant its efficacy. There really cannot be any replacement to regular,consistent exercise and a healthy diet as ways to maintain a healthy body.