Here we are in the 21st century and there is a pill for everything. Headache – Pill, Heart burn – Pill, Blood Pressure – Pill , Muscle Pain – Pill , even Sex Drive – Pill . And fancy that there is even Pills for weight loss for Men over 50 … go figure that.
These differing pill popping methods all claim to help you or make it easier for you to lose weight, mostly in conjunction with other weight loss methods.
There even ones that claim to be the holy grail – take a pill, change nothing in food intake and activity increase and you WILL lose weight.
So let’s dive in, an educate our selves on Pills for Weight Loss.
Firstly a Public Health notice
We must start with a visit with your health care provider or doctor, It is high recommended that you start with a plan you and your doctor have put together especially as we are over 50.
Prescription weight loss
Mostly this involves your physician prescribing oral or injectable medicals that control or curb your appetites. Normal prescribed if you are experiencing high Body Mass Index numbers and often High Blood Pressure.
Here’s is some of the most common prescription weight loss drugs: orlistat, Belviq, Contrave, Saxenda, phentermine, and Qsymia
Diet Suppressants
When you want to lose weight it’s often tempting to looking anywhere for some extra help. More people are now looking to using diet suppressants to stop the craving early .
These Anorectic type drugs reduces appetite resulting in lover food consumption. Often these suppressants are part of a concoction of suppressant and metabolism enhancers
Natural Supplements
As we have all strive to lose weight, more and more people prefer to do it naturally …..seeing it’s a natural to put it on . Many of these supplements include diet suppressants, as well as metabolism enhancers . This include caffeine, Chitosan , Hooda, Ephedra eta.
The main concern is that many of these supplements are treated as herbal remedies and thus its buyer be aware as there is not a lot of science behind these. In fact the FDA treats them as foods rather than medications they do not have to show how safe and effective their products are.
One does need to be cautious especially when you read for example of findings on one of the popular natural supplements in the market today.
The FDA banned supplements with Ephedra after the herb was linked to serious side effects, including:
- Heart attack
- Arrhythmia
- Stroke
- Psychosis
- Seizures
- Death
Synthetic Supplements
As the name says these supplements are created in the lab. These are extracted/isolated vitamins and or minerals that produced in the lab and often are standardized for potency .
We must break these down into 2 distinct categories.
- Beneficial
- Potential Dangerous
Beneficial Synthetically Supplements
These are chemically identical to their natural or whole food counterpart. So the body already knows how to metabolize these. The standardization make these an attractive alternative with superior absorption rates.
Examples; Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) Vitamin B9, Lutein ( found in Kale and Spinach)
Potentially Dangerous Synthetically Supplements
These supplements are close to their natural pair but not identical and thus can be unrecognizable by the body and have reduced absorption rates .
Examples Vitamin B12 ( Cyanocobalamin) Yes in MOST energy drinks , Vitamin E Can even come from Petroleum products . Vitamin D
Caffeine
In the short term is can help by boosting the metabolic rate and this fat burning rate. BUT yes there is a BUT it is a double edge sword , with it being a diuretic plus one builds up tolerance .
And as we all know WATER, WATER, WATER is the basis of any dieting plan, so coffee actually works against Water.
Scientifically how ever there is no sound evidence that increase consumption results significant or permanent weight loss!!!!
The Pill Conclusion
Any one who has sat and watched TV after 12pm will be come bombard by the many claims that there is a simple way to lose wright and never exercise, eat as much as you like and all it will cost you is $29.95 plus shipping and handling, or you can have it free this month but next month hidden in the fine print is $69.95 per month auto bill to the credit care they ask to prove who you are!!!!
The bottom line is every one of us reacts differently to the any supplements we take, but we need to ensure we are not entrapped by the infomercial promises but rather coming from a place on clear judgment. Taking supplements that are beneficial to our personal well being. But also being Supplements and Pills for Weight Loss.
Great article, thanks for the informative read 🙂
My father has struggled with weight loss for YEARS and he is nearing 60. I feel like he has tried just about everything out there from diets, to shakes, to tablets, to prescriptions, to those fad TV commercial contraptions etc.
I will definitely be passing this post on to him for a read, I think it will help put everything into perspective for him.
One thing he definitely needs to learn more about is how terrible the amount of coffee he drinks each day is!!
Kiara
Yes as we age it seems to gets harder and harder . When i was in my 40s … it was relatively simple . The annoying thing is what worked then does not now
Good breakdown of diet pills and what they offer. Liked your conclusion. Are diet pills increasing?
Pills are always increasing as everyone one wants the easy