SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - It’s almost summer and your social media feed is probably already full of promises for how to lose weight fast, but a local nutrition expert warns it could be doing more harm than good.

One woman fell victim to a lose weight fast hack and responded to a Western Mass News Facebook post saying she knew something was wrong right away.

“As soon as I put my payment in and hit send, I thought something was wrong,” she wrote. “They wouldn’t let me cancel till I used them for 60 days. After 30 days, I had no weight loss, instead I gained weight.”

Before you add anything to your cart, or your routine, you should know what a registered dietitian says about all of it because, according to Yahoo Finance, the weight loss industry is worth $135 billion.

Experts say much of it is built on promises that do not hold up.

“The social media hacks — honestly, the rule of thumb is, if it sounds too good to be true, it is," said Nicole Maslar with Pyramid Nutrition Services.

Maslar says she sees these hacks constantly and they frustrate her, not for herself but for the people who believe them.

“I feel bad for the general consumer who isn’t reading between the lines or may not know the science behind weight loss. It doesn’t happen with a magic pill or a magic drink,” she said.

We took the specific trends blowing up online to Maslar. She says some can be dangerous, but mainly, they just don’t work.

“Peptides are hot now. That’s kind of the new rage. And I haven’t seen, you know, any effect, positive effect,” she said. “I won’t say I’ve seen negative effect, but I haven’t seen people say, I’ve taken this and I’ve had significant weight loss that I’ve been able to maintain.”

Maslar says for something that doesn’t work, they aren’t cheap. She knows because she tried them herself.

If you’ve ever scrolled past one of these trends and thought, maybe this is one is different, Maslar warns to be wary.

“Any product that is going to sort of satiate the appetite so much that people don’t want to eat, that certainly isn’t creating good behavior and it’s ruining your metabolism,” she said.

Maslar says the moment a social media influencer - or so-called nutritionist - is trying to sell you something, that’s your first red flag. The second red flag is if the research behind it wasn’t peer-reviewed or independently tested.

Many of these supplements are not FDA-regulated.

“We’re truly wasting our money and potentially doing harm to our bodies,” Maslar said.

Some trends do have science behind them, such as GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, however, Maslar says even those aren’t a standalone solution.

“I’ve seen people take the GLP-1 medication, reach their goal weight, taper off the medication, and then immediately start to gain their weight back. It’s a testimony to needing to change what you eat,” she said.

Maslar adds that people often come to her as a last resort after spending hundreds on products that didn’t work, but there’s something many people don’t know.

“Your health insurance pays for the service of a registered dietitian. I think that alone should give credibility to the fact that this is what works,” she said.

Insurance coverage varies but many plans cover nutrition counseling with little or no copay.

Maslar’s bottom line: sustainable weight loss isn’t a hack, it’s behavior change. The right food, the right portions, and consistent activity will get you there.

Call your insurance company, you may already be covered.

Copyright 2026 Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.