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I recently bought a piece of exercise equipment to help counteract all the time I spend sat in front of StackExchange. I thought I got a very good price for the base unit alone, but I obviously didn't understand the fine-print, because it came with a bonus attachment I wasn't expecting: a belt massager, just like ones from the 1940s.

A vintage photo of a belt massager

(Caution: Image is for illustration only, and may not accurate represent the typical appearance of a Skeptics.SE moderator, or the modern equipment that has a narrower belt with some textured rubber. I can't even look at it, without falling into a bad impersonation of a 1940s newsreel, breathlessly advocating its benefits, using casually sexist descriptions of women and wondering "What will those boffins think of next?")

The poorly-translated manual says (amongst other claims):

physically obese, massage for half an hour every day morning and evening, you can achieve weight loss body effect.

I'll concede the manual itself may not be very notable, but there are apparently still enough people who believe belt massagers have some health value for them to be sold in 2020. I thought they were recognised as useless by the 1960s.

Before I throw it in the bin, I feel I should check: Are there weight-loss benefits to belt massagers? (I will accept evidence of other health benefits, too.)

Oddthinking
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    FWIW https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/whole-body-vibration/faq-20057958 They do not cite/ref any actual papers though. A bit more searching found https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090508045323.htm I suspect any evidence is of similar caliber. Frankly you could make your q more "modern" with these whole body vibrating plates as the new thing. – Fizz Dec 17 '20 at 09:02
  • Meta-analysis FWTF https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6944803/ Effect seems to be small to negligible. – Fizz Dec 17 '20 at 09:13
  • Another meta-analysis was a bit more optimistic https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31749405/ but it seems it was more focused on the severely obese. (Din't look at full text.) – Fizz Dec 17 '20 at 09:20
  • I'm so glad you added that caution in there! – Larian LeQuella Dec 17 '20 at 11:52
  • I would ask if they "Significally" promote weight loss. Because in the long run any massage help with muscle soreness and sleep therefore aiding in weight loss. – SZCZERZO KŁY Dec 17 '20 at 12:55
  • @Fizz: I was going to recommend turning thee references into an answer rather than using comments, but they seem to address the use of a vibrating platform rather than a belt.I assume the former require you to engage your core to remain standing, but I am not convinced whether that is true of the latter. – Oddthinking Dec 17 '20 at 14:48
  • @SZCZERZOKŁY: I don't want to ask "Does this device have *any* benefits at all?" because it becomes unfalsifiable, but if it actually helped with muscle-soreness or sleep, that would justify its existence and I would like to hear about it. I am dubious that such a scattershot approach to massage has the benefits that an anatomically-targeted massage may carry. – Oddthinking Dec 17 '20 at 14:53
  • @Oddthinking To last think: answer to that is that it don't have SAME benefits. In most researches there is always a caveat that such gimmick CAN have SOME benefit just because of the plethora of people who can use it. Some reasearches say that the benefit is negligible compared to healthier food, calories in-calories out, overall fitness or as you mentioned whole body profesionall massage. But t's just due to scale of other benefits. – SZCZERZO KŁY Dec 17 '20 at 15:16
  • I recall someone advising years ago a sort of bouncing-on-the-toes motion while letting the arms flop aided weight loss. It reminded me of these belt things. On another occasion, I tried one out as a kid and it threw me across the room, so I'd be worried about confounding factors like concussion and bone fractures affecting any weight loss benefits. –  Dec 17 '20 at 18:22
  • Stay safe! : https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2008261 Maddalozzo et al.1 recently reported that 12 weeks of whole-body vibration (WBV) reduced body fat accumulation and serum leptin levels in rats. Taken at face value, these results are potentially important to the treatment of obesity. However, the extremely high peak acceleration magnitude of the WBV raises questions as to whether the weight loss was due to positive metabolic effects of WBV or extreme loading conditions leading to animal distress. – bukwyrm Jun 21 '23 at 11:49

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