by You see them on TV commercials, in adds and in your local pharmacy store. They all have different names. Some go by names such as Fat Burners, appetite supressants, diet pills, slim pills, Keto pills, metabolism boosters, cortisol reducers.
We have pills who claims to burn your fat and the ones who lowers your appetite, reduces your cortisol. some of them helps speed up the metabolism. Many includes a mix of them all with several “fat burning ingredients.
It’s a huge jungle out there and the market for it seems to grow bigger every year. According to weight loss and weight management diet market report, published by Allied Market Research. The global market is expected to make 422,8 billion dollars by 2020. Every day Americans alone spend about 2 billion dollars on weight loss pills.
“Ok, we get it. there are lots of them. But do they work”?
If you’re only looking for a short answer, then yes, they can work at some degree. It all depends on your level of expectations. They are not magic pills and they will not work all that good by them selves. You’ll first need a proper training and dietplan. When those two are in check, then adding a supplement can give you that extra little “fat burning boost”.
We all want to lose weight and many of us are prepared to pay big bucks for the quickest way possible.
But are these products going to do anything for you other than making your wallet thinner?
I’ll go over more on their working capabilities, list the most used and valuable ones. We will see what the difference between them is and find out if they are safe to use.
By the end of this article you will hopefully have more knowledge of diet pills and can then consider for yourself if they are worth using.
Lets move on…
What do weight loss pills do?
To get a better understanding in what they do and how they work we can divide these weight loss pills in to three different types:
1. Prescription pills that you can get from your doctor.
2. Over the counter(OTC) pills
3. Herbal supplements that you buy in online stores and pharmacy stores.
Prescription pills
These are usually for people who have a BMI of 25 to 30 or higher, and suffering from weight related health problems such as high blood pressure. cholesterol or type 2 diabetes.
You are considered overweight with a BMI of 25-30 and obese with a BMI of 30 or greater.
If you fall in to this category you can consult with your doctor and he will if he think’s it’s necessary prescribe you a weight loss medication that will help lose weight.
The five prescription medications that are approved by the US Food and Drug administration(FDA) are:
Orlistat (Xenical, Alli)
Lorcaserin (Belviq)
Phentermine-topiramate (Qsymia)
Naltrexone-bupropion (Contrave)
And liraglutide (Saxenda)
The way they work is by either making you feel less hungry, help your body burn more fat or minimize your bodys fat absorption from food.
You can expect a weight loss of 5% to 10% on your current body weight in one year if you also follow a strict diet and exercise plan. Although results may vary because everyone is different.
This means if you weigh 300 pounds you’ll lose 15 to 30 pounds that year. But most of the weight loss will occur during the first 6 month.
That’s a good start for people with health issues and may help get their blood pressure and cholesterol down for a step in the right direction.
Over The Counter Pills(OTC)
OTC diet pills are non-prescription medications. They are not FDA approved and have not been tested for side effects. There for it is hard know if At the moment there is only one that is approved by FDA which is Orlistat(Alli) but in a lower dose form.
It is best to consult with a doctor before using any OTC weight loss drugs. Just in case there is anything unnatural in it or something that can cause an allergy.
By the way, if pills are not an alternative for you then you should check out an article that i’ve written about a more natural way of losing weight that can be very helpful.
Most of these pills are appetite suppressants that are used by people to lower their calorie intake. When you take these pills you’re fooling your body into thinking that it’s not hungry, you feel fuller and any food cravings you might have will start to decrease.
This can work pretty well when you’re struggling with controlling your appetite. But it only works as long as you keep taking them.
It is not great for long term use in my opinion and should only be taken while the diet is adjusted so you get control over your eating habits and don’t fall back in to old behaviors and start to gain weight again.
There are also pills that claims to speed up your metabolism with ingredients like coffeine, guarana, synephrine.
And the kind that slows down your bodys fat production and contains green tea, hydrocitric acid and flax seed.
Herbal supplements
Herbs… what can be more safe and natural?
To tell you the truth. This can be deceiving.
Herbal supplements have not been studied and tested and are considered as foods and not as medications, so the companies don’t need to get approval before releasing their products on the market.
Always check the labels and try to find out as much as you can about it, and make sure you ask your doctor before you decide to buy.
Even if the companies advertise these supplements as “natural”, there is no guarantee, if not tested that some ingredients can have a negative effect on your body.
weight-loss pills and side effects.
Are weight loss pills safe?
Most of these products are harmless but it doesn’t mean there’s isn’t a risk when taking over-the-counter diet supplements and you can’t always be sure about the ingredients that a product contains. As mention earlier the FDA does not test all weight loss products for safety, so there’s no guarantee that each ingredient in every supplement is safe.
They do their best to test many products , but cannot in any way test them all. that would be impossible.
Sometimes a bad one will slip thru and there is no way for you as a costumer to know if that is the case. I’m not trying to scare anyone and the chance seems very small that something could happen to a healthy person.
The safest way is speaking with a doctor, health care provider if you are unsure.
Side effects from banned diet pills that’s been reported by FDA:
Diarrhea
High blood pressure
Kidney problems
Liver damage
Increased heart rate
Trouble sleeping
5 things you should not do with weight loss supps.
- Do not take a larger dose of what is recommended.
- Do not take a supplement that is not recommended for your weight.
- Do not mix with laxatives or other form of
- Do not mix with alcohol and drugs.
- Do not mix with other weight loss stimulants.
It can be to very dangerous to abuse one or more of these things.
The results can start with your blood pressure raised to harmful levels and if you’re unlucky end with a heart attack or stroke.
Should you buy weight loss supplements?
The debate goes on if these kind of products really are useful. Still the market for them continue to grow every year. In my honest opinion they could have their place as long as people are aware of the small risks and do not go overboard with the consumption.
One should know that the effect of these pills will give quite modest results and only with the help of a proper training and diet plan can they work at their full potential.
It’s a matter of sorting out the good from the bad and doing a little bit of investigating, reading trusted user reviews before you buy.
I have made a list of 10 popular diet supplements today that might help you lose those unwanted pounds.
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