I had thought I wouldn't need to check out those electric abdominal-muscle-stimulating belts. I figured my likely conclusions would be obvious, as with so much other infomercial fitness equipment: They're too good to be true, there's some catch in the fine print on the bottom of the TV screen, we have to eat sensibly and exercise to make them work.

But the infomercials, the belts and presumably their sales have proliferated so much I decided to suspend my skepticism long enough to look into them. Taking note of the Web site from one infomercial, I went online to order.

Past infomercial orders had prepared me for what came next: the "But wait! There's more!" add-ons to the initial $39.95. I bit on the $19.99 extra for a second Super Power Stimulator ("twice the results in half the time!") and $5 more for express shipping (seven to 10 working days instead of four to six weeks). But I passed on a second complete system ("a great gift for family and friends"), a renewing four-year replacement warranty ($4.95 a year) and automatic shipments every two months of a water-based gel ($9.99), which conducts the electric current to the body.

I'd planned to return the set within 30 days to get my money back (minus shipping) but didn't get my act together enough to give it a fair trial in that time, so wound up eating the $77.88 total cost.

The stretchy Velcro-adjustable belt has four metallic squares on the inside, where the gel goes, and two sets of snaps on the outside, for attaching small units that produce electric pulses. Also included: two smaller pads and adjustable belts for arms and legs, a small bottle of gel (pleasant-smelling but messy to use), two watch-type batteries, a 16-page instruction and fitness guide, 20-page nutrition guide, and a sheet with "five secret foods for fast action and weight loss." (Tuna, nonfat cottage cheese, salmon, oatmeal, broccoli.)

The first catch is in the second paragraph of the fitness guide: "The enclosed 14-Day Fast Action Food Plan & Nutritional Guide will help you shed pounds when you combine sound eating with your aerobic exercise plan. Then the FAST ABS DELUXE Massager Unit will help you tone." For maximum results, according to the 14-day plan, stay on it 30 days. It looked like a standard low-fat, portion-control diet emphasizing lean proteins, fruit and vegetables.

I could have stopped right there. Eat right and exercise to lose weight, then tone.

Next were the warnings: The device shouldn't be used by those with heart conditions, pacemakers, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, inflammation of veins or tissue from recent injury or disease, or by children or women who are pregnant, post-partum or having heavy menstruation.

The electronic units offered three programs — steady, intermittent and alternating pulses — and 10 intensities, but when I put the belt around my ample belly I had to laugh: It seemed unlikely those jolts were getting through the fat to the muscle. I could feel them, though: steady jiggle, intermittent jiggle, alternating jiggle.

What's more, fat increases resistance to such electric current, according to Ellen McGough, a physical therapist and clinical instructor in the rehab medicine department at the University of Washington. A person with "adipose tissue," as she kindly called it, may need so much current to cause a contraction that it might be uncomfortable. (I certainly reached the discomfort level before triggering any contractions.)

I'd taken the belt to McGough because she teaches classes in electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), a legitimate physical-therapy tool similar to but more powerful than such belts.

"We apply electrical stimulation to specific areas of muscle weakness and atrophy, following muscle injury or conditions such as stroke or spinal-cord injury," McGough said. "We use the stimulation units for a limited period of time, until the patient gains the ability to do resistive exercise without the EMS. But there are no applications I know of for EMS to reduce adipose tissue."

McGough found a volunteer tester in Ben Biskovich, a student in physical therapy. Because he had very little body fat, we could indeed see his abdominal muscles contract from the electronic pulses. In the alternating mode the contraction of his left oblique muscles was stronger than on the right, noticeably turning him inwards a little. He wondered if he'd be sore, but I checked the next day and he wasn't at all.

Could such contractions produce ab muscles of one's dreams? Not likely. McGough said studies have shown that for healthy muscle, adding electrical stimulation to a resistive exercise program does not enhance strengthening more than such exercise alone.

Unlike exercise, which activates smaller, slow-twitch muscles first, then larger fast-twitch muscles, EMS recruits fast-twitch muscles right away, therefore not using the whole muscle and perhaps not the deeper muscle fibers, McGough said. The ab belt might offer some anaerobic work, but since we use our abdominal muscles all day, what they need more is aerobic or endurance training.

Plus, "Once you stop using the belt," McGough said, "the fast-twitch fibers are the first to atrophy — unless you started an exercise routine."

So these belts probably can't get rid of belly fat, and might not even be able to affect the muscles below the fat.

Since they're considered medical devices, EMS machines are supposed to be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration before being legally marketed. The FDA did give clearance to one "designed to exercise the abdominal muscles," the Slendertone Flex. In March, the FDA sent warning letters to 13 manufacturers marketing unapproved belts.

But it's important to understand that FDA approval comes when manufacturers show the product is safe not whether it's effective.

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission filed false-advertising complaints against three marketers, including Fast Abs.

Consumers might save a lot of time relating to ab belts and many other infomercial products by remembering one thing: Much of the time, the people demonstrating products did not get their bodies to look that way by using those products. THEY'RE MODELS!

Maybe I could come up with a device to suppress the wishful-thinking muscle and stimulate the common-sense muscles.

But wait! There's more . . .

Molly Martin is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. She can be reached at 206-464-8243, mmartin@seattletimes.com or P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.