There once was a time when diet pills were considered a distant cousin to street drugs! Do diet pills work? Until recently, that was a very hard question to answer. Diet pills, their exorbitant claims, and their ingredients remain an unregulated industry that is making a boat load of money off of unsuspecting people who are truly desperate to lose weight.
How do diet pills work?
Since it is such a broad list, I will narrow the answer to this question down to just one diet pill on today’s market. It is the only diet pill that has been approved for over-the-counter sales, but can only be purchased at half strength.
Now, I’m not going to pick on this product. I chose to use it as the ambassador of diet pills due to its landmark approval by the FDA. I think that’s fair.
So back to the answer, diet pills “work” by suppressing, hindering, fooling or downright trying to stop the body’s digestion and/or molecular breakdown of the food we eat. The diet pill I am using as my example attempts to block the body’s ability to absorb fat. This has lead to sometimes uncontrollable gastrointestinal side effects since this unabsorbed fat tends to be “loose” and passes through the body rather quickly. It is also worth mentioning that this pill must be used with a weight loss program that includes exercise and healthy eating!
Do diet pills work?
No matter how well the FDA approved diet pill is marketed, their claims to weight loss amount to as little as 3 lbs. a year above what can be lost through healthy eating and exercise. So, if it helps you to lose only 1 lb. you have to say it works.
If you are trying to lose a significant amount of weight and you are trying to do it by only taking a diet pill then I have to say that the diet pill “WILL NOT “work and your attempt to lose weight in this manner will be expensive and FAIL!
Even if you chose to take a diet pill as a supplement to a weight loss program you still have to ask yourself if the cost of the diet pills for one year is going to justify the 3 lbs. you lose!
