Diet Pills, Fat Burners and Weight Loss Supplements

Why do people turn to diet pills, fat burners and weight loss supplements, when the best advice tells us that you should eat healthily and exercise to lose weight?

The truth is that most people are trying to lose weight fast, and these weight loss products often claim to contain the latest, newly discovered wonder ingredient that is the answer to every dieter’s prayers. Not only this, but the advertising often claims impressive results for fast weight loss, with before and after pictures to die for.

It's easy to get seduced by the advertising, the pictures and the claims, but it's really important to be sure you understand more about diet pills, fat burners and weight loss supplements if you're going to consider using them.

Appetite suppressants, metabolism boosters and diuretics are the 3 main types of weight loss products on the market. The first two do what they say, giving signals to the brain to either discourage eating or boost the rate at which the body burns calories; the final method is aimed at removing excess fluids from the body efficiently.

Some weight loss products may combine a number of ingredients that have different effects, so boosting their suggested overall effectiveness.

Weight loss patches are claimed to be more effective in transporting their active ingredients within the body than pills or supplements.

Diet Pills, Fat Burners and Weight Loss Supplements are Drugs

You should consider diet pills, fat burners and weight loss supplements as drugs in the same way that the tablet you take for a headache is a drug — they all contain chemical substances.

All drugs can be dangerous if taken incorrectly or in excess of prescribed doses. You should always take the time to read all the information about the product as to its correct usage, and make sure you follow the guidelines faithfully. If it contains lots of ingredients you haven't heard of before, the internet is a good way to quickly find out what they are, and how they work.

All drugs that have been approved by government food and drug agencies have undergone rigorous clinical trials, often lasting years. Approval doesn’t mean they don't have side effects, but most of these will have been identified before the drug goes on general sale, and if any side effects are severe this will have been taken into account. If the product is still released then it is likely that however unpleasant the side effects may be, they are outweighed by the benefits.

Diet pills, fat burners and weight loss supplements are no different and you should expect there to be information about possible side effects. One diet  pill manufacturer advises users to take a spare set of clothing to work, in case of unforeseen accidents!

Many people don’t realize that discontinuing use of a drug can also have side effects. At its simplest level, if you have been using an additional substance to help with fast weight loss, stop using it and you may reverse the process. You may not automatically put all the weight straight back, but you may slowly begin to gain weight again.

At a more complex level the weight loss products could contain substances that are addictive so withdrawal symptoms are experienced. Common side effects of coming off diet pills can include mood swings, insomnia, nausea, and stomach pains.

What Testing Evidence Do the Manufacturers Offer?

When a diet pill, fat burner or weight loss supplement product has been tested, the manufacturer is likely to be eager to tell you all about this, but it's still important to check it out further rather than relying on the sales literature alone. For example, individual ingredients within the product may have been tested, and their positive contribution to weight loss may be recognized, but has this exact formula been tested? If so, how extensive were the tests, and what were the results?

If all results were extremely positive it's worth being cautious rather than over enthusiastic. It's not to the benefit of manufacturers and sellers of the weight loss products to give center stage to side effects that might discourage a prospective purchaser.

A little time spent browsing on the internet might give a different story, offering both good and bad experiences of using the product. Yet here again caution is necessary — the best information is from sites that don’t have a vested interest in the product’s success or failure.

And beware of the small print. Somewhere you are bound to find that the results claimed can't be guaranteed. What this usually means is that one person was lucky enough to achieve such amazing results, but you're unlikely to do the same. And you don't know what that person's situation was, what else they might have been doing, or not doing, as well as using the product.

How Should You Use Diet Pills, Fat Burners and Weight Loss Supplements?

Like all drugs you should always stick to the recommendations for use.

Sometimes this can be difficult with weight loss products, for example if told to use before a high fat meal, how do you know your meal will be high fat if you didn't prepare it (or should you just take one anyway?). And if you're given a recommended usage but then there is also a maximum daily usage stated, this could encourage you to believe that it's okay to ignore the other guidance in an effort to see results faster.

You may think that increasing your intake of a weight loss supplement will increase its effect but this is unlikely in practice. In fact it's more likely that you will see no improvement in effectiveness but a higher possibility of unpleasant side effects.

How 'Natural' are Natural Weight Loss Products?

All the above comments also apply to diet pills, fat burners and weight loss supplements described as natural: derived from herbal substances or similar. Natural does not automatically equate with safe: there are several herbs and plant derived substances that are very effective killers if taken in excess.

Others aren't recommended for people with certain heart conditions or pregnant women for example. Just because a weight loss product claims to be derived from natural substances you shouldn't drop your guard.

The effects of many natural substances on their own are known, but in combination they may not be so well researched. The more recently an ingredient has been promoted for fast weight loss, the more likely it is that its use in combination with many other substances can’t yet have been analyzed so you should proceed with appropriate caution.

Should You Use Diet Pills, Fat Burners and Weight Loss Supplements?

In conclusion, all diet pills, fat burners and weight loss supplements will contain substances, chemical, natural or both, that have individually been shown to have a contribution to make to weight loss. Whether they still deliver in the combination offered by a particular product, and whether the average user can expect anywhere near the fast weight loss results claimed in the advertising is open to question.

Always look at the full picture — the cost, how the product will fit into your lifestyle, the side effects and so on before deciding to use one of these weight loss products.

There are a small number of diet pills that do stand up to examination and could be worth considering if you want to include this element in your weight loss system. You should ALWAYS seek advice from your GP to make sure you make a wise decision in this area.

But remember that health professionals strongly advise against fast weight loss. They still recommend sensible eating and exercise as the foundations of any weight loss program. Maybe a pair of good shoes for walking would be a better investment?