Should You Consider 
Diet Pills? 

Wouldn’t it be great if a pill could melt the pounds away while we slept, motivate us to exercise and help us feel satisfied with eating less all without any side effects?

While we wait for this perfect pill, there are a lot of drug therapies for obesity that may be an option for people who are having a very hard time reaching even a small level of weight loss through traditional dieting methods. If you’re considering diet drugs, keep in mind that diet pills are one tool for weight loss and if you think you can burn your workout clothes and put away your healthy foods, think again: diet pills work in conjunction with a diet program that includes eating well, exercising safely, and changing your lifestyle habits that caused the extra weight in the first place.

Diet medications work in one of these three ways:

• Reducing what you eat

• Increasing how much energy you expend

• Or by interfering with the way food is absorbed by the body so that weight loss occurs.

  For example, appetite suppressants help people eat less because they can delay the feeling of hunger or make you feel full faster when you eat. Meridia (Sibutramine) is a prescription drug that is used for longer term appetite control and is prescribed under a physician’s care. Typically diet drugs are considered when exercise and diet alone aren’t producing enough results in people who have serious health risks that are increased by being overweight.

  Xenical (Orlistat) is another diet drug that acts in a different way: it reduces the absorption of fat in the diet so that the total calories eaten don’t get to the body for metabolism and this can cause weight loss. Taking Orlistat and eating a high fat diet can increase the uncomfortable side effects with this drug, so a typical “low carbohydrate” diet while taking Xenical is probably not the best combination. Ideally, the diet should be around 30% of calories as fat for best results, but not higher.

While there are many diet drugs including Sibutramine, Orlistat, and Phentermine that are commonly prescribed, there are health risks and side effects for every drug and your own health condition must be considered – do the risks outweigh the benefits?

Whether or not you add drug therapy to your diet program, eating well and improving lifestyle choices are a must for weight loss results – there’s no getting around it. The good news is that there are no harmful side effects to a healthy eating plan and appropriate exercise program and you can get started right away! 

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