Those who are grossly overweight often feel guilty about many things. Now, add one more to the list: Their weight even gets in the way of helping others after their death by donating their bodies, according to an msnbc.com article.

If warnings about health issues don’t motivate people to lose weight, perhaps that reason will for those who want others to learn from their bodies after their deaths.

Fat bodies are not ideal for teaching anatomy in medical school. Given all the health issues associated with being blubbery you might imagine that students could learn a lot from an overweight corpse.  But first, they need to learn what a body not affected by the ravages of too much weight looks like. You simply can’t start with the abnormal and work your way back.

The fact that so many of us are obese does not, contrary to the laments of some fat advocacy groups, make obesity normal. When it comes to learning about the body and its parts, a student needs to be able to see what a healthy body is even if there are a lot of folks who do not have one.

Another, more practical problem, is that anatomy class equipment is not built for plus-sizes. Even if those who run body donation programs want to take bigger bodies, they simply cannot manage them. The process of embalming involves 5 to 6 gallons of fluid which adds as much as one hundred pounds to an already heavy body.  It is hard for the staff to transport, lift and manipulate this kind of dead weight. 

As we know, Americans are packing on the pounds.  The obesity epidemic will be a huge factor in driving up the bill for the next generation.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of furniture, clothes, towels, seat belt extenders and funeral caskets aimed at large people.  But, that revolution hasn’t and, given the cost, won’t reach the world of body donation and anatomy class.

If you want yet another reason to lose weight, know that if you want your last act to be the gift of helping medical students to learn after your death, you need to slim down.

Story: Donating your body to science? No one wants a chubby corpse

Weight-loss products containing the hormone HCG are illegal and potentially dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today, and consumers are advised to steer clear of the oral drops, pellets and sprays that can be found online and in retail stores.

The FDA, along with the Federal Trade Commission, issued warning letters today to seven companies selling over-the-counter, homeopathic weight-loss products marketed as containing HCG.

The products are marketed with claims that hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, which is found in the urine of pregnant women, is a "natural" way to increase metabolism and spur weight loss.

But the products are labeled with the recommendation to consume no more than 500 calories a day, and there is no evidence that HCG contributes to weight loss beyond what comes with such severe a calorie restriction, said Elizabeth Miller of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, speaking at a news conference today.

There are no FDA-approved weight-loss products that contain HCG, and HCG products that are marketed for weight loss are unproven and potentially unsafe, Miller said.

Moreover, limiting calorie intake to 500 calories a day is unhealthy, and increases risk of developing gallstones, heart arrhythmias and electrolyte imbalances, Miller said.

"The weight-loss industry, perhaps more than any other, is fad-driven," said Richard Cleland, an assistant director at the Federal Trade Commission. "It's also fraud-driven," Cleland said, citing the past examples of products containing the plant Hoodia gordonii and acai berries, which were also marketed as weight loss products without evidence of being effective or safe.

Neither agency had data available on how many consumers have bought such products, but the heavy marketing on the Internet indicates there are many purchasers, Cleland said. A recent survey showed  that almost 5 million Americans each year are victims of weight-loss fraud, he said.

The warning letters inform the companies that they are violating federal law because they are advertising products without having reliable scientific evidence that their claims are true. Letters were issued to Nutri Fusion Systems, Inc, Natural Medical Supply, LLC DBA HCG Complete Diet, HCG Platinum, LLC, Theoriginalhcgdrogs.com, HCG Diet Direct, LLC, Hcg-miracleweightloss.com and HCG Drops, LLC.

Other companies marketing similar products should also take action to correct any violations, Cleland said.

More from My Health News Daily:

4 Fad Diets That Don't Really Work

Lose Weight Smartly: 7 Little-Known Tricks that Shave Pounds

Dieters, Beware: 9 Myths That Can Make You Fat

Determined to slim down, Calvin Gardner opted to put his money where his mouth was: He bet $300 that he could drop 50 pounds in six months.

It was a gamble, but the odds were good. If he succeeded, he’d more than triple his money. The only downside: he’d lose his cash if he didn’t lose the weight.

The unusual betting scheme Gardner chose is offered by the HealthyWage company, which essentially has become a bookmaker for the fat and  flabby.  Of course, like any good odds maker, the company seems to come out in the black.

Courtesy of Calvin Gardner

Calvin Gardner lost 50 pounds in six months after wagering $300.

Just 1 in 4 who place the bet actually end up collecting, the company’s founder, David Roddenberry allows.

Gardner was one of the lucky 25 percent. But that’s probably because the 25-year-old San Diego graduate student was highly motivated. His weight had crept up during a busy school year in which he’d gone from a trim 170 pounds to a stout 220. He stumbled upon HealthyWage online and immediately signed up. In less than six months, Gardner shed 50 pounds and turned $300 into $1,000.

Research shows that people vastly improve their odds of losing weight if there’s cold, hard cash involved, according to Dr. Kevin Volpp, a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and director for health initiatives and behavioral economics at the Wharton School, both at the University of Pennsylvania.

“We as humans are really wired to focus on immediate gratification rather than delayed benefits,” Volpp explains. “And because any single indulgence doesn’t affect health that much, we can rationalize that we’re going to have an ice cream cone and some fries today and we’ll start dieting tomorrow -- or next week. Our focus is on the present.”

The idea behind monetary incentive programs is to nudge the equation we form in our brains a little bit more toward the long-term benefits. And that’s something that appeals to corporate America.

With health care costs skyrocketing, in part because of the fattening of the American population, some companies are using the “stick” approach  -- motivating employees to be healthier by raising their health insurance premiums if they smoke or are too fat.

The HealthyWage program is more about the “carrot” -- offering people a chance to win money by shedding pounds.

HealthyWage’s Roddenberry got into the weight-loss business because, he says, as an ex-hedge fund manager, he personally understood the power of money.  The company offers a variety of weight-loss programs to individuals and companies -- all with a financial incentive.  Dieting betters are required to verify their weight loss through a health club or a physician.

What works best, according to Roddenberry, are programs where participants put some of their own cash at risk. “You have to be more committed to put up your own money,” Roddenberry says.

The 1 in 4 payouts might seem like a bad deal, but Roddenberry argues that clients are still winning because they’ve stayed with a weight-loss program for six months to a year.

Gardner isn’t sure he’d have worked out most days, slashed calories and dropped the pounds without the promise of a big payout.

“It kind of set a deadline for me so I couldn’t procrastinate anymore,” he says. “And being a poor student, the idea that I could turn $300 to $1,000 was pretty motivating.”

Twenty brands of dietary supplements touted as so-called natural weight loss aids have been found to contain a prescription drug pulled from the market for safety concerns, the Food and Drug Administration warned today.

Products marketed under names like “A-Slim 100% Natural Slimming Capsules,” “P57 Hoodia,” “PhentaBurn Slimming Capsules,” and “Dream Body Slimming Capsules,” were found to contain sibutramine. That's actually the medication more commonly known under the brand name Meridia -- a prescription weight-loss drug that was removed from the U.S. market last October  because it was linked to heart attacks and stroke.

According to the FDA warning, “the product poses a threat to consumers because sibutramine is known to substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients and may present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke.  This product may also interact in life-threatening ways with other medications a consumer may be taking."

Click here for a full list of products listed in the FDA warnings.

The FDA cautioned consumers taking these supplements to immediately stop and to throw away any unused pills. People experiencing symptoms like the ones described in the warning should contact their doctors, the FDA warned.  

The new warning comes as no surprise to Dan Hurley, author of “Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry.”

“Unfortunately this is not the first time that pharmaceuticals have been found in so-called dietary supplements,” Hurley said. “These kinds of announcements come from the FDA on a semi-regular basis.”

Marketers know that Americans are partial to products that sound like they’re all natural, Hurley said. “They claim that you can lose weight naturally just by taking a pill – a natural supplement that has no harmful effects,” he added. “There exists no such thing.”

The good news is that the FDA spotted the problem and put out the alert, Hurley said.

“Sometimes we need a sheriff in town to make sure the laws get obeyed,” he added. “I’m very glad to hear that the FDA made this announcement.”