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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This week Calorie Count unveiled Calorie Camp, a new healthy-living social networking site that allows users to connect with other members, share status updates, daily progress reports, and receive community support and feedback.
“Technology is playing an increasing role in weight loss and daily heath and wellness maintenance,” said Rachel Berman, RD, CSR, CD/N, Director of Nutrition for CalorieCount.com.
People use the internet for business, communication, e-commerce, education, entertainment and more recently, for weight loss and healthy lifestyle maintenance. With the number of diet and weight loss-related mobile applications increasing, people continue to look to technology to aid in their healthy living efforts.
“On CalorieCount.com, members utilize a variety of free tools,” said Berman. “Users can look up nutrient information of foods, keep track of what they’ve eaten throughout the day and log activity completed and calories burned.”
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How would you feel if you just spent your entire life savings on gastric bypass surgery only to realize that you were actually losing weight the old fashioned way, through diet and exercise?
The following story is a tale of will power and faith, as it is a classic example that what we believe, we can achieve.
Karren Knight, mother of two from Cheshire, England one day decided she was going to get a gastric band tied around her stomach, as no other method of weight loss seemed to work for her. Trying several diets and exercise programs in the past, Knight could not lose weight. At nearly 200 pounds overweight, Knight realized she had to do something, or the quality of her life was going to continue to get worse.
Determined and believing that having a gastric band fitted to restrict her appetite would be a success, Knight followed the doctor’s orders to eat very little and got some exercise. Even thought Knight expressed that it was no easy feat to take her mind off of food, she remained loyal to her recommended eating schedule.
After complaining to her sister about her desire to eat, think about, and be obsessed with food, Knight decided to do something enjoyable to keep her mind off of her hunger. She found a Zumba class that was offered just down the road from where she lived, figuring it would be an easy way to keep attending because it was nearby, not to mention very fun.
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Smoothie King is taking extra steps to help people stick to and meet their New Year fitness goals. Their new Am1 campaign has been designed to support customers in their fight to stay fit in the New Year and beyond.
IAm1 will initially be launched through a microsite. At the IAM1 site, users are encouraged to share their Smoothie King weight loss success stories. The company then will “Pay it Forward” and support a guest who has shared their weight loss struggle.
Smoothie King will be giving chances for those struggling to receive one month of personal training, new workout shoes, or retail products. All guests who submit a success or struggle story, along with an image, will receive a free Lean1 smoothie, Smoothie King’s new meal replacement smoothie that helps the body burn fat.
The IAm1 Campaign will also be supported on Facebook. Fans can share their healthly plans for 2012 and get a chance to win a year of free smoothies.
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No matter how heavy you are, if you have diabetes, losing weight will help you in your fight to control it. Experts say that losing even 10 or 15 pounds can bring about health benefits such as:
- Lowered blood sugar
- Reduced blood pressure
- Improved cholesterol levels
- Less stress on your hips, knees and ankles
But the issue isn’t losing the weight, it’s maintaining the weight loss in order to sustain the health benefits.
One diabetic expert, Richard Kahn, PhD, who was the chief scientific and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association for nearly 25 years, is denouncing some weight loss programs as being ineffective in reducing the incidence of Diabetes and helping the patient to keep the weight from coming back. He outlined his theories in his paper that was published in the January edition of Health Affairs. Kahn stated that even though patients in one study lost 4% to 6% of their body weight, they regained 40% by the time the study ended three years later. He goes on the say that “one of the issues that prevents people from keeping the weight off is cheap, widely available, delicious food that we eat again and again.”
Listening to Kahn, one would conclude that it may be hopeless to even attempt weight loss because, in the end, you will just gain it all back and have to start over.
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