Do you want to save time and lose weight fast? Then find out what is the best weight loss pill, so you will look better within a few days without any effort.
Sounds to good to be true? Well, it is true, but only to a certain extend and of course you will pay a price for saving time and effort. But first the good news about diet pills:
- no need for extra exercise
- easy to get over the counter or sent to you after an online purchase (you really don’t need to get out of your couch when you don’t want to)
- no need to change your (diet) habits
- no need for endless cooking new diet recipes
- you will lose weight.
Now for the not so good news:
- when the only change you make in your lifestyle is taking the extra pill, you will be dependent on the pill for the rest of your weight loss journey
- stop taking your pills with all other things equal, and you will gain weight
- some pills will only show results for a limited time, after that your weight won’t change an ounce
So what is the best weight loss pill for you?
Define "best". When you live a hectic lifestyle and just want to shed a few pounds really fast without going the extra mile (literary), weight loss pills are a temporary solution, when you can accept their "side effects", which is actually how you will lose your fat or water:
- laxative pills: what you eat will leave your system faster and your body has less time to absorb all the nutrients. Very dangerous if you don’t increase your water intake and you could loose out on your body not being able to extract sufficient nutrients to keep yourself healthy.
- appetite suppressant pills: a smarter approach: when you have less appetite, you will eat less hence gain less weight or lose the weight. Many times caffeine and ephedrine will be the active factor for this. However, FDA considers ephedra as dangerous and caffeine in the long run will increase the bodily production of cortisol which in turn will stimulate appetite more than the caffeine can reduce it. Hence a temporary solution.
- pills that block absorption of fat: the "I can indulge in fat food"-pil because 30% of the fat will not be absorbed. I have seen friends taking these pills and they do notice that their toilet bowl is quite greasy after eating the pill (not to go into more details…). Do know that certain fats are necessary to keep your body healthy. On top of that: people on a low carb high fat diet do lose weight as well, so it’s not really clear for which people these pills will work.
So when you need to take pills in order to lose some weight, the best pills in my opinion are the appetite suppressants.
A better approach to choosing a diet pill is to ask around in your close circle of friends and family. When anybody claims they have been loosing weight thanks to taking diet pills, investigate the following:
- has the person changed his or her lifestyle in any other way
- is the substance FDA approved and
- what reliable research has been done?
Define "reliable research". For starters, make sure that the pill isn’t recommenced by "Dr. Smith" who got his medical certificate online and is living offshore selling… the same product he is talking about.
Would the FDA be objective and reliable? Natural sweetener Stevia has had a huge FDA controversy: one can imagine that the old artificial sweeteners will try to keep their market safe by influencing FDA not to approve Stevia. Therefore check other countries what they have to say about any food supplement before you want to give it a try.
Would your doctor be objective and reliable? Take my high LDL cholesterol as an example: one doctor would tell me to start statins immediately, the other one would advice to change my diet to a low cholesterol diet, another one advised me to stop eating out… All these are certified medical people, and all of them give different advice.
Do find a doctor who listens to you, who knows that lifestyle and diet is important and on top of that: a doctor who looks overly healthy and walks the talk. Then ask your doctor for extra advice: it’s obvious you don’t want to take caffeine pills when you have heart palpitations. Lesser obvious interaction from supplements and prescription drugs could be revealed by your doctor.
What does the FDA have to say about diet supplements
According to the FDA, possibly safe are:
- chitosan,
- chromium,
- CLA (conjugated linoleic acid),
- green tea extract and
- guar gum.
For Hoodia – an appetite suppressant from a cactus-like succulent plant native to southern Africa -, that claims to decrease your appetite, the FDA has "insufficient information" (go figure: a supplement that is so widely sold, and the FDA hasn’t made a study yet).
From the above, the following 2 are likely to have some positive effect on weight loss:
- CLA, by helping to reduce body fat and build muscles
- green tea extract, by increasing your fat and calorie metabolism and decreasing your appetite. Green tea is also the drink of choice in the Japanese Okinawa diet, which I would simplify as "the Okinawa diet = the Asian paleo diet minus the rice".
The best weight loss diet
You must have seen "The Biggest Loser" where it shows week after week that with rigorous exercise, a doctor, personal trainer and dietitian: you will lose weight without pills, without surgery.
Important is know what you eat and why you eat it!
- when you are eating processed food, you do know what you are eating: a bunch of added ingredients to make something taste good and have a long shelf life. We strongly advice you eat fresh produce from sustainable agriculture.
- even when you are eating the best whole-grain food, the paleo people will tell you that eating cereals just isn’t good for you. So there you know what you eat, but you get conflicting information whether it is healthy or not. Here you need to listen to what your body is telling you.
- when you are eating for any other reason than hunger, then look deeper in yourself what you are hiding behind the food you eat.
Also know that the old logic: "losing weight is burning more than you take in", is only part of the truth. This statement only works when you don’t eat the daily overdose of sugar most people are eating every day. Sugar goes straight into your bloodstream and when not used, it will be immediately stored as extra fat.
The best weight loss pill therefore is the one that gives you results fast and temporary. When you are looking for a permanent weight loss, you do need to change your lifestyle and your diet. When the paleo diet is too rigid for your liking, just avoid eating anything with added sugars and see + comment in a reaction below how only that 1 change will impact on your weight.
Most important conclusion to make is that there is no miracle weight loss diet pill that will get you slimmer forever, without you changing your lifestyle nor changing your food intake. It is sad that people want to make you believe that lifelong dieting is something that can be found inside a pill.
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