What's Making You Fat?

After reading out loud the provocative headline, "Are Your Shoes Making You Fat?" on a magazine that shall remain nameless, immediately the office was filled with other ridiculous weight-gain claims. One favorite was the news clip titled, "Is Your AC Making You Fat?" (Not a joke.) A deeper look revealed even more egregious and hilarious "revelations."

If some of the claims listed below were true, then this scenario would be plausible: A doctor explains that the cause of a patient's recent weight gain was due to wearing leggings. Yes, leggings. The patient's response? "Totally! It's not the doughnuts I've been eating, but the fact that I was wearing leggings while eating them. Phew." Let out a sigh of relief with that one.

As most people probably know by now, for most people, the key to maintaining a healthy body weight comes down to a well-balanced and low-fat diet paired with exercise and an overall healthful lifestyle. Of course, genetics as well as everyday life and work come into play and can affect our ability to plan out and prepare our own meals or have time for the gym. It's generally easier to put the blame on someone or something else rather than ourselves, especially when it comes to self-control, but there are just some things that cannot be blamed.

While there is probably some way to stretch these claims into minutely representing a possible truth, the reality is that most of them are written for pure shock factor. Instilling fear that an everyday object (or person) in your life is making you fat is a great way to sell magazines or earn page views. It begs the question, if we stopped reading the crazy claims out there, would we be healthier and less paranoid?

This is our tribute to some of the more ridiculous weight-gain claims. Please do share any others that you've see out there — it will only help us all. 

Click here to see the What's Making You Fat Slideshow.