Having a tan is 'secret to looking 7 lbs lighter'

So says a fake tan manufacturer and I call bullsh*t! A study commissioned by Fake Bake self-tanner has "revealed" that women with bronzed skin appear 7 lbs lighter than they would with pale skin. WTF. This is JUST ridiculous. Where to even begin?

Let's start with the Daily Mail's headline: "REVEALED: The secret to losing half a stone overnight... Get a tan." Uhm, no. None of this is true. Being tan will not make you lose any weight. There is no secret revealed by this study. This isn't even a proper study, it's a publicity stunt commissioned by Fake Bake to get women to buy their product. And why is it just women who "will look thinner," and not people? Because it's aimed at the people who are more likely to feel subconscious about their skin and their weight and thus more likely to try to get tan to look thin. But heaven forbid anyone promote risking cancer by sunning themselves to cover up their fat rolls!

Not surprisingly, the CEO of Fake Bake says, "By using fake tan women can safely add colour to their skin to give them the confidence they need to step out in summer clothes or put on a bikini to head to the beach. And the deeper the tan the thinner it seems to make women feel. More importantly it means a summer glow can be achieved without the lethal and fatal effects of over exposure to the sun or excessive sun bed use." Thanks.

Now for a look at the self-esteem bashing that continues throughout the article. It starts by referring to white skin as "pasty" and darker skin as "bronzed glow." It sets up anyone without a perfect complexion to feel inferior. Then it follows with a load of unattributed claims: "Almost half of women say they get more compliments from their partners when they have a tan, while 59 per cent say they feel slimmer with bronzed skin... 59 per cent of women feel slimmer when they have bronzed skin and more than a third said they felt even slimmer as their tan got deeper.... 72 per cent said they felt more confident when they had a bronzed body. Sixty-five per cent felt sexier with golden skin. And another 67 per cent said they were more likely to wear skimpy clothes if they have a tan. A lucky 45 per cent said it improved their sex life." Sorry, who is saying this? There's no mention of where these 2,000 people polled were selected from. They could have been Fake Bake employees for all we know. So what if you have a tan and aren't feeling more confident or getting lots of compliments? Maybe your tan isn't deep enough and you should go buy some Fake Bake to sort it out.

Anyhoo... I'll stop ranting about this shameless promotion for Fake Bake. I know this article is from the Daily Mail and maybe I shouldn't expect more... but people DO actually read that paper and don't think twice about what they're reading. I'm going to have faith that they at least have the capacity to see through this and realize it's just advertising disguised as "journalism."