Showing posts with label diet pills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet pills. Show all posts

Weight loss is so flipping complicated. Even if you manage to struggle through the myriad of conflicting advice and principles and find a programme that works, being able to tell if it works or not is also difficult. Sure, you can weight yourself but doesn’t muscle weigh more than fat anyway? What do you do?! Here are a few weight loss facts which can help you to lose weight without losing your sanity in the process.


 


1. Muscle weighs more than fat: As we’ve already mentioned this one we might as well use it to get things started! When you exercise to lose weight or take care of your wellbeing – which is a very good idea, by the way – you may not see your results reflected on the scales. This is because exercising causes you to build muscle and, as we’ve covered just now, muscle weighs more than fat. Therefore, you could technically lose no “weight” or even put on a few pounds, but all the while you’re still getting leaner, sexier and more toned.


 


2. Starving yourself slows down your metabolism: I guess it’s pretty logical to assume that not eating can help you lose weight – if, you know, you have no idea about wellness or biology. Cutting down your calorie intake to just 500 a day seems like a good, albeit depressing, way to lose weight fast, but you’re actually slowing your metabolism down. Your body will go into panic mode, and hold onto to fat and calories as a means of sustaining itself.


 


3. A healthy amount of weight loss is two pounds per week: Normally, when you first go for a weigh in you see a huge drop, which really encourages you to persevere. The problems come after your second weigh in, as you don’t see another drop of, say, five pounds, and so you think your plan is not working anymore. However, this is simply not the case. Most doctors will tell you to aim for a weekly loss of one or two pounds, as this is a healthy and – most importantly – sustainable way to lose weight.


 


4. Diet pills can be deadly: While loading up on diet pills can indeed cause weight loss, the question remains; is it worth risking your life over? Many diet pills have, over the years, been pulled off the market because they have been discovered to cause heart attacks. I know you want to lose weight quickly, but choosing healthy foods and exercising for your weight loss regimen will get you there in the end – don’t put your life at risk.


 


5. You can speed up your metabolism: Not only are there ways to increase your metabolism, it’s actually surprisingly a straightforward thing to do. All you need to do is exercise more and eat certain foods as part of your weight loss plan. The main players here are spicy red peppers and green tea, both of which have been proven to increase metabolism levels and aid in weight loss. If you’re not a fan of green tea, you can still benefit from the metabolism-boosting goodness by taking it in pill form.


 


6. Water curbs your appetite: More often than not, when you feel hungry you’re actually just dehydrated. As water contains no calories and is monumentally beneficial to your wellness, instead of rushing to the snack cabinet next time you feel hungry, stop to drink at least eight ounces of water. At best, this will help you to feel full and avoid eating until you next really need to and, failing that, the water will at least fill you up enough to prevent you from overindulging.

When it comes to losing weight, you may be finding that a low fat diet combined with fitness is not working for you as quickly as you would like it to, and your mind starts to turn towards diet pills. But how much do you really know about these diet pills, and could they be damaging for your wellness and wellbeing?


 


Drug companies have recently had to re-think the way that they make diet pills, as one of their main ingredients – ephedra – was removed from the market. They have been under pressure to come up with another natural supplement to help boost weight loss, and one of the things that they have come up with is a way to help weight loss by reducing the levels of cortisol in the body and balancing the blood sugar.


 


Cortisol is a hormone that is released by the adrenal glands during times of extreme stress. Many people in today’s fast-paced world find them releasing a great deal of this hormone! It is an important hormone for health, but too much of it can be bad for you. High levels of cortisol increase your appetite, and especially for carbohydrates and sugar (which go straight to your waist and set up camp there). It also contributes to bone loss, short term memory loss and can be damaging to your immune system.


 


A new generation of diet pills is now becoming available which help you to reduce these cortisol levels (something that you can also do by reducing your stress, exercising and getting plenty of sleep). These pills use the extract of magnolia bark, which is often used in Chinese medicine for a variety of purposes, including weight loss. The pills also contain other important vitamins to help you relax, and to balance your blood sugar.

You may want to lose weight, but diet pills seem like a scary step, don’t they? Some pills contain high levels of caffeine, which can affect your wellbeing with some pretty heavy side effects. However, while this type of diet pill is not ideal, most of them will only contain a certain amount of caffeine which – as you will know from your morning cuppa – is not necessarily a bad thing on its own. Caffeine only becomes a wellness problem when you consume more that your body can effectively process. So, with that out-of-the-way, let’s take a further look at diet pills.


 


When it comes to diet pills, it’s not a case of “seen one, seen ‘em all”. Some diet pills are worse than others and should be avoided like the plague, as they contain artificial ingredients that your body cannot process. Some diet pills, on the other hand, are filled and created using only natural ingredients that have been shown to help the body in certain processes. If you’re looking to lose weight, it is natural pills like these that you should plump for – although you may have to read a few labels first in order to determine which one is right for you.


 


If you do find yourself reading the labels of the entire supplement aisle, make sure you pick up on a few savvy points; do you have any allergies to any of these items? Will any of these items interact negatively with other medications you are taking? You should always talk to your doctor before you start taking any new supplement, but this becomes especially important if you don’t know how diet pills will interact with your current conditions/medications. You are an individual, with unique needs, and as such you need to equip yourself with information to ensure that you make the right choice for you.


 


Speaking of information, it’s not just how the pills will affect your medications that you need to read up on. Diet pill websites can easily make large promises about how effective their pills are, but when you read the fine print most of them will tell you that you need to also adopt a diet change and exercise. These kinds of companies at least have a realistic expectation of weight loss, which makes them more credible. However, if a website makes promises that sound too good to be true, that’s probably the case.

Qsymia – pronounced kyoo-SIM-ee-uh – is a prescription weight loss pill which is now for sale from certified pharmacies, as it was approved by the FDA in July.

 

However, this isn’t to say that anyone who is sick of going on a diet can pop the new pill, but Qsymia is for people whose wellbeing is at risk from their weight. According to Sue Decotiis, MD, of New York’s Manhattan Medical Weight Loss Physician which is a practice specializing in obesity treatment, ‘We’re not talking about the person who just needs to lose 10 pounds. We are talking about the patient who is obese or very overweight with related health problems.’ Diet and activity alone can bring about dramatic weight loss for anyone, but when you’re obese your body burns less and less fuel, your appetite is greater and exercise hurts more. Decotiis says obese people ‘get de-motivated quickly because they have no success’.

 

The wellbeing benefits of Qsymia have been tested in clinical trials led by Michelle Look, MD, of San Diego Sports Medicine and Family Health Centre. ‘We found that over the entire 52 weeks of the first trial, patients lost from 11% to 14% of their body weight,’ says Look. ‘But the most dramatic effect we saw was in patients who were pre-diabetic and were prevented from converting to diabetes — and in patients who had diabetes who not only had lower blood sugar but whom we could take off several of their diabetes medications.’

 

However, Decotiis warns that ‘Doctors prescribe weight loss drugs knowing full well that any drug can have side effects or complications. But that is why it is put in the hands of a prescribing doctor, who will follow the patient carefully, monitoring for side effects and educating the patient.’ Unfortunately, Qsymia is not without some serious side effects, and it can cause birth defects if taken during pregnancy. Women of childbearing age cannot get a Qsymia prescription unless they can confirm with their doctor that they are using 100% effective birth control. Other possible side effects include increased heart rate, suicidal thoughts or actions, and serious eye problems.


The Qsymia Enquiry

Weight gain is becoming endemic in this country, as well as the wellbeing problems that come with it, because dieting and exercising is increasingly more difficult to do. Your weight gain may be because of your lifestyle, or, simply put, too many calories and not enough exercise. With the 21st century demands of work, family, social commitments and the need to actually take some time for ourselves and relax and unwind, you often have no time left for exercise or diet planning.

 

This may lead to another cause of weight gain: stress. It’s clear to see that stress is not good for your wellbeing, but it can also trigger a biochemical process that forces your body into survival mode, causing it to store more fuel and slow your metabolism, and you also reach for the biscuit tin to cope with the stress. You can also be stressed and devoid of spare time if you’ve given birth and have a new baby to look after, and so post-pregnancy weight loss can be incredibly difficult to achieve. Hormonal changes can also affect your weight, as well as medical conditions such as hypothyroidism and many medications such as steroid-based treatments.

 

A dietary supplement of good quality diet pills can be the support network you need in that moment of weakness when you just can’t say ‘no’. The results vary from person to person, and a diet pill is not a silver bullet but, when used in conjunction with a calorie controlled diet plan, a diet pill can offer you real benefits. A diet pill can bind fat, block calories, suppress your appetite or activate your metabolism, so if you fall off the diet horse once in a while, a diet pill is there to take the reins, so to speak. Your liver, cholesterol and blood flow can also benefit from diet pills, and you’ll be less likely to suffer heart disease, diabetes or any number of other obesity-related illnesses.

 

You need to find a diet pill that comes with natural ingredients that you are familiar with and comfortable consuming, additional health benefits, clinical evidence of effectiveness and a money back guarantee. Also, do some research and make sure you are comfortable with any reported side effects. It’s always a good idea to consult your physician before beginning any strenuous weight loss programme.


Diagnosing Diet Pills