Bob Harper, who has been inspiring America as a TV trainer and author from NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser since 2004, recently announced the launch of his newest endeavor, Bob Harper’s Smart Success. This line of weight loss products includes Bob Harper’s Smart Weight Loss Dietary Supplement, Bob Harper’s Smart Weight Loss Starter Ki,t and Bob Harper’s Smart 7-Day Cleanse.

The Smart Weight Loss Starter Kit includes a daytime formula, which contains naturally sourced caffeine to provide increased energy during the day, and an evening formula, which is caffeine-free.  The kit also includes a DVD of Harper offering diet and motivational tips and a 30-minute smart workout.  Additional products include Bob Harper’s Smart Weight Loss, a weight loss formula, and Bob Harper’s Smart 7-Day Cleanse,  a dietary formula made with Senna and meant to “gently flush the system of digestive waste.”

“I have helped motivate people for over 20 years by showing them how to enhance their lives by providing the tools and knowledge to make it happen through healthy diet and an active lifestyle,” said Harper in an email. “I wanted to give people another way to succeed at achieving their goal weight.”

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Holly Madison, former Playboy Bunny and ex-girlfriend to Hugh Hefner, walks up to a retail store counter, drops her drawers, and says she needs a pair of jeans in a smaller size. She’s promoting a diet pill called NV Rapid Weight Loss that claims you can drop a jeans size in two weeks.

Most of the ingredients have antioxidant properties such as mangosteen, pomegranate and bilberry. Antioxidants can help slow down the aging process. Other supplements included in NV like turmeric interact with blood thinners, while Goji interacts with blood pressure and diabetes medications. If you take any of these medications you are at risk of having a hypoglycemic episode, low blood pressure, and risk of bleeding that won’t stop. Cranberry is also included in NV but is most commonly used to help prevent urinary tract infections. Goji and pomegranate can lower blood pressure, which might be why they are included in the product. They may negate the increase in blood pressure that the caffeine could possibly cause.
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The diet pill aisle can be a pretty intimidating place especially for someone who has never taken them before. When diet and exercise have failed or you’ve plateaued for weeks, people look for other options to keep results moving. Here are some helpful tips for those venturing into the world of diet pills for the first time.

Know what your getting yourself into

Diet pills are loaded with caffeine and laxative-like ingredients, so between the two, you’ll be running to the bathroom all day. Diet pill packaging usually will tell you if their products contain caffeine and approximately how many cups of coffee you would need to drink to get the same effect. If you are a caffeine novice like myself jumping from none to the equivalent of 3 cups per day may make you feel jittery, agitated and possibly give you palpitations or increase your blood pressure.

Diet pills may interact with your medications or cause birth defects, which is especially important for women who are within childbearing age. Diet pills like Qnexa, which is looking for approval from the FDA sometime in 2012, will not be recommended for women within child bearing age for this exact reason. It may only help you for a limited amount of time. Diet pills like phentermine are only recommended to be used for up to 12 weeks. Studies have shown that results is not significant enough for someone to continue taking it after 12 weeks. In 2009, Hydroxycut received much criticism because of its effect on liver enzymes and one death was reported due to liver failure. It was recalled and has since been reformulated. Hydroxcut previously contained ephedra but the FDA asked that it be removed from their product when they discovered it caused heart problems and some deaths.

Don’t believe the hype

On most diet pill packaging you will see pictures of toned celebrities and models promoting the success of the product. Let’s be real here: diet pills alone are not going to produce amazing results, which is why they are technically called diet aids. Some products even throw some clinical trial information on the box to make it seem more enticing. Keep in mind that these trials usually only have a small amount of participants and this can skew the results to make their product look better than the placebo. Good luck trying to get a hold of the companies if you have questions. Most are not available by phone or even Internet.

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UPDATE [1/10/12]: The FDA announced this week that a major contraindication has been lifted from the weight loss drug Qnexa, broadening the potential market for the drug. Previously, the FDA was concerned that women of childbearing age who ingested one of the drug’s ingredients might have children with a higher rate of birth defects, but further research has shown the danger is only present for women who took the drug during pregnancy. Some experts expect the drug will be approved by the spring.

There is a new weight loss drug on the horizon. Qnexa, from parent company Vivus, Inc., consists of a combination of two prescription drugs – Phentermine and Topiramate. It has been effective in clinical studies at helping those who take it lose up to 15 percent of their body weight. There have also been indicators of increasing some cardiovascular actions. In addition, Qnexa also appears to improve sleep apnea, a condition in which those who suffer can stop breathing during their sleep cycles.

Phentermine is well known by dieters, but Topiramate has not been used in the weight loss field. It is prescribed as an anti-convulsant, but patients who have used it have reported weight loss as a side effect. It is also prescribed under the name Topamax for migraine use. Combining the two medications together has shown to increase the weight loss results of either drug when it was taken singly. Multiple levels of each drug have been combined in field testing, and the company feels that they have found the “magic” levels.

Qnexa works as an appetite suppressant, allowing a patient to eat markedly less and still feel full. It’s been hailed as the most effective weight loss medication since Fen-Phen.
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With Lipitor becoming generic, Pfizer pharmaceuticals has decided to venture into the realm of weight loss medicine. Currently the only approved weight loss drugs that are available by prescription are Xenical and stimulants like phentermine, Adderall or Ritalin. Utilizing a different pathway, Pfizer hopes to control a patient’s appetite as opposed to stimulating the body’s functions to possibly control the market once more.

The new drug currently called OAP-189 is an appetite suppressant and mimics the body’s hormones that signal when someone feels full. Like adopotide, this currently is a drug injected into the subcutaneous fat in the skin. More research will need to be conducted to see if an oral option could still provide the same results. The most common side effect right now appears to be nausea and the researchers are hoping that by purifying the compound it will more closely mimic the body’s natural hormones that control hunger thereby minimizing side effects.

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