*New Update from Facebook….it only gets better and better. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the latest.
Let me start by saying, I’m just having a little fun with a recent rejection letter that I received from Facebook, but I promise you will get great information from this article.
We made a post about our recent weight loss contest in which Cindy Hornbeck lost 21 lbs over 90 days. We were so proud of here that we wanted to share her story on Facebook to inform and inspire others. Here’s the post:
https://www.facebook.com/MedicalFitnessPros/posts/10152647768139285
Sharing Cindy’s Story with Others
There is something called, “Boost Post” that you can use to show it to more people than just those who are on your Facebook page. It’s a great way to share what is going on within your business with a much larger audience. Normally you submit it, they approve it, and then it gets shown to the audience you select. However this time it did not get approved. This time I got a notice from Facebook letting me know they would not let me promote her story.
Sadly, we can only blame the fitness industry for policies like this. You’ve seen the crazy, unrealistic claims that people make about weight loss. In fact, they mentioned the types of unrealistic claims that people will try to use on Facebook posts.
Unrealistic Results?
I’m not entirely sure how “losing 21 pounds in 90 days” is the same as “losing 25 lbs in 10 days”, but I guess their policy covers any kind of weight loss claims. So I’m going to share realistic goals with you so you can understand what is real and what is made up. When we do a weight loss contest, we track progress over time. Someone that loses a bunch of weight all at once sends warning signals that they are doing things with their body that are not safe. Here is a view of Cindy’s weight loss results over 90 days.
She had wonderful, steady progression in her weight loss over the 90 days. She lost, on average, 1.6 pounds per week. If you lose 1-2 pounds per week, you are losing weight at a safe, sustainable progression. We are very proud of Cindy for losing weight the right way, and we couldn’t be happier with her results!
Last Chance
By the way, I did try to reach out to them one more time with hopes of getting everything reversed. I got the same response once again.
Oh well, that’s the way it goes. Cindy, congratulations on your amazing, realistic results. We couldn’t be more proud of you!
*UPDATE FROM FACEBOOK*
I just got another update from Facebook and it gets better. They gave me a list of “Do Not’s” Take a look.
I’m no longer responding to Facebook about this, but I will put some information on here. Their response is humorous. Let’s go through their points.
- We definitely did not use language degrading to anyone. We would never do that. Our approach to the human body is different than you might image. For one, anyone with excess body fat, just has excess body fat. Body fat can be gained, lost, etc…, but it doesn’t define the individual. We all have various areas we struggle with in our life, but it should never reflect on your value as a human being. We love and accept all body types the same way. Yes, we do help those that are struggling, because they want us to help them, but we would never degrade someone for their struggles.
- As mentioned earlier in the article, losing 1-2 pounds of body fat per week is a very healthy weight loss. We can back that up with numerous studies.
- This doesn’t apply to us. Even when running our ad we didn’t select any age group under the age of 18.
- If you look at the original article again, you will see we didn’t use a “before and after” photo. Only an after photo was shown.
- We have no reason to mislead our audience. We only wanted to tell the story of how Cindy lost her weight. She accomplished so much and her story deserves to be told.
We know they are only following their guidelines on posting, but it’s interesting to hear the “rules”. We wanted to share the story with you, and hopefully you enjoyed it. Don’t take health advice from Facebook. 🙂
Medical Fitness Pros is Houston’s First Medical Fitness Facility. We specialize in working with clients with a variety of previously diagnosed injuries or medical conditions, and we work in conjunction with your medical provider.