It’s a widely acknowledged fact that the diet industry, as it is now, is more or less one big con, with many arguments brought along the years to show that those behind it (authors of books, producers of pills and slimming products) really do not want us, the average Janes and Joes, to lose weight. According to a recent study, we might not even need all those books and pills and diets, since thinking of losing weight alone can work, the Daily Mail says.

Anne Shooter of the Mail, an esteemed author of diet books and boasting a 40-year expertise in the field, wonders how come women continue not to lose weight, and, on the contrary, are even heavier than before, despite the proliferation of the diet industry. Her conclusion is the same as above: the industry is too lucrative to offer real solutions, while the temptations at hand are too many to fight off successfully. There is a way, though, Shooter says, citing the findings of a recent Canadian study.

Apparently, scientists have determined that one can lose weight without moving one single muscle: just by thinking of it. With this in mind, only imagining a 15-minute workout would have the same results as actually putting in the effort and breaking off a sweat at the gym or at home. It’s called “thought exercise” and, allegedly, it works so, as Shooter puts it, we’re to expect “thought clinics” popping up any day now.

“Scientists say that ‘thought exercises’ make our bodies release hormones that cause muscles to grow and speed up our metabolism. So say goodbye to the misery of the weekly weigh-in at your diet club or an expensive personal trainer. […] A Canadian study compared a group that exercised regularly and one that didn’t but whose members thought about exercising three times a week – the non-exercisers experienced nearly the same gains in strength as the exercise group. And another survey showed a substantial increase (35 per cent) in the muscle strength in people who imagined exercising for 15 minutes a day, five days a week over 12 weeks.” Shooter writes in the aforementioned piece for the Mail.

Of course, the theory is not new, but whether thinking about something actually gets it done is still open for debate. Obviously, if losing weight or toning up were as easy as this, we’d all be slender and fit as a fiddle, and we wouldn’t even get off the couch, Shooter concludes by saying.