Missguided is selling ‘hunger-busting’ and ‘carb-blocking’ pills

One big L on the road to female empowerment


When you think of Missguided, fast fashion, bold prints, and Love Island-esque outfits are usually the first things that come to mind. What you might not know is that tucked away in their Sports Nutrition section of their website, Missguided are actually selling hunger-suppressing, fat-metabolising and carb-blocking capsules.

These Protein World products promise to “reduce cravings”, eliminate hunger pangs and “contribute to weight loss”, and are being sold on the fast fashion giant’s website for around £15 per tub. These are the exact type of products that influencers get called out for selling all the time, but here we have Missguided selling them directly from their website which is aimed at young women between the ages of 16 and 35.

Normalising the culture of taking of diet pills is nothing but irresponsible considering the pressures young women feel in relation to their bodies, and it’s so disappointing to see a fashion brand we love so much both facilitating this and making a profit from selling them.

Missguided were approached multiple times for comment before publication and have yet to respond. This piece will be updated if they do.

“Hunger pangs be gone!”

These “must-have” hunger-suppressing capsules retail at £14.99 and contain “ground breaking ingredient glucomannan”, a naturally soluble plant-based fibre that absorbs water. This serves to reduce cravings and contribute to weight loss “in the context of an energy restricted diet”.

Hunger pangs are our bodies’ magical way of telling the brain that we are lacking energy and that it might be a good idea to eat something soon. But never fear! Hunger Buster Capsules by Protein World promise to make these natural indications of hunger a thing of the past.

Oh, and for maximum results, Missguided advises its shoppers to take these capsules alongside the fat metaboliser capsules (£17.99) and slender blend (£35), which are conveniently also sold on the website.

The products are described as “award-winning”

If hunger-suppressing tablets aren’t already enough, the fast-fashion brand goes further in selling carb-blocking capsules for £14.99 in addition to the aforementioned fat metaboliser capsules.

The Carb Blocker Capsules contain white kidney bean extract which apparently stops carbs being broken down into sugars, leaving less to be stored as fat if unused. They also contain garcinia cambodgia which is said to contribute to normal macronutrient metabolism and the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels. This means that these capsules have the overall effect of “reducing cravings”, whilst also blocking out “terrible bloating”.

Last time I checked, bloating was a natural reaction of the body. It may be uncomfortable and even painful at times, but bloating is absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. If we are to change the dialogue about how we see and address women’s bodies, calling something as natural as bloating “terrible” is one fat L on the road to female empowerment and the acceptance of our own bodies.

Oh, and about those Fat Metaboliser Capsules. According to the product description, they’re “packed with green tea and caffeine” to help speed up your metabolism and “take your weight loss journey to the next level”. There’s also this magic thing called going for a jog, or even making healthier choices in your own diet if you’re feeling wild, but why bother telling young girls that?

These diet pills are just a few of the Protein World products Missguided is selling on its website under the label of Sports Nutrition. I will admit I’m not aware of the science behind these magical pills, nor have I tried them myself, and so I cannot fully speak towards their effectiveness. It may even be the case that these capsules, if taken in conjunction with a healthy balanced diet and a workout routine, actually “work”.

Whether the science is legit or not, selling diet pills in the name of “Sports Nutrition” on a website marketed predominately at teenagers and young women will not be without worrying repercussions.

Missguided’s About Us section on their website says: “Our mission is to empower females globally to be confident in themselves and be who they want to be.” Selling hunger-suppressing capsules on a website predominantly marketed at 16-35-year-old females is a very questionable way of striving to “empower” these young women.

Describing carb-blockers as “award-winning”, and fat metabolisers as “extremely popular”, normalises the culture of taking of diet pills. Worse still, chalking them up as some essential step in your “weight loss journey” reinforces the dangerous belief that girls need to lose weight in order to be healthy. What happened to the #strongnotskinny mindset that fashion retailers and influencers seemed to be doing so well in promoting?

The bottom line is that nothing good can come out of advertising and selling diet pills to impressionable young women on the internet, and it’s disappointing to see that retailers like Missguided, whose clothes we love so much, are allowing this to happen.

We all thought the fashion giant was doing better: it had stopped photoshopping out its models’ cellulite and stretch marks, and seemed to be taking big steps towards improving the overall diversity of its models, size-wise as well as racially. But selling capsules to promote fat loss, and even promoting the very notion of weight loss in the first place, is a really sinister marketing strategy, and its young female consumers deserve better.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please visit Beat for help and resources.

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