Weight loss takes work. Hundreds of people every day work hard to watch their diet and perform the right amount of exercise in order to minimize weight gain and maximize weight loss. Some do it for maintenance and others do it for health, be it physical or mental. But some, frustrated with their lack of progress, will fall into the lie that so many infomercials promise: a pill can solve all their problems. They believe that popping a pill or relying on other methods of weight loss other than the proven albeit challenging method of life style change will solve their weight issues. Unfortunately, not only are they buying into a lie that will not work, but many times it will lead to death.



Prescriptions should be safe, but prescription diet pills have their own issues. These pills may suppress the user's appetite, but they do not substitute for a nutritionist that can literally teach anyone how to eat properly. Food is fuel, and thus when a person's appetite is suppressed, he just eats less but no necessarily right. He may choose still to snack on Doritos when he's hungry instead of carrots. Which one do you think will give him more fuel?

Ephedra and Phentermine Fenfluramine-phentamin (fen-phen) have grown in popularity for a number of reasons. Initially the overweight community saw them as their miracle cure, a way for them to literally see pounds melt off without lifting a finger. But then the side effects started kicking in, and users began dropping like flies from heart attacks, dizziness, headaches, and high blood pressure. Like any drug, this one had side effects, and sometimes the effects rendered the user completely incapacitated.

Laxatives and diuretics have been the age old cure for weight gain. If you can just get rid of that weight somehow you might feel better, right? Well just eliminating excess waste does not equate to weight loss. It just means you have less waste in you. These pill poppers end up feeling listless, tired, and downright weak. After all, they are not filling their bodies with the necessary fuel and yet they are ridding them of necessary liquids.

Diet sodas and products became a hit within the last 25 years. We can find "lite" anything these days. But many times the artificial sweeteners that make these products sweet without the calories can cause problems. Blindness, seizures, and brain damage reportedly have stemmed form the use of aspartame, a common sweetener.

Those who shun health altogether but simply want to maintain that model figure have fallen into the trap of believing that smoking is actually good for them. While puffing on a burning piece of ash does suppress the appetite, it causes far more damage than weight gain including asthma and even lung cancer not to mention all of the other types of cancer.

So consider the consequences of weight loss before moving beyond the obvious tried and true but still challenging method of exercise, diet, and overall life style change.