by Karen Lirio

My initial reaction to this question is to rant and rave about how if Diet Pills worked there would be no obesity etc etc, but let’s put things into perspective. What exactly are Diet Pills?

One major form of Diet Pill is the appetite suppressant. These can be obtained through a doctor's prescription or simply purchased over the counter. Appetite suppressants support weight loss by tricking the body into believing that it is not hungry, or tricking it into believing that it is full. They do this by increasing serotonin or catecholamine, which are brain chemicals that affect mood and appetite.

Another type of Diet Pill is the fat absorption inhibitor. These are available via prescription only and work by blocking up to 30% of dietary fat from being absorbed. They do this by preventing your body from breaking down and absorbing fat eaten with your meals. This unabsorbed fat is then eliminated by the bowel. Effectiveness and safety of fat absorption inhibitors has not been approved for periods of more than two years.

In fact, currently, most approved Diet Pills are for short-term use only of a few weeks to months. Not only do their effects tend to wear off after a few weeks but they can also have some unpleasant side effects, including increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, sweating, constipation, insomnia, excessive thirst, lightheadedness, drowsiness, stuffy nose, headache, anxiety and a dry mouth.

In addition, some side effects of fat absorption inhibitors include abdominal cramping, passing gas, leakage of oily stools, increased number of bowel movements and the inability to control bowel movements; while appetite suppressants can cause drowsiness and/or lightheadedness.

Because Diet Pills are not recommended for long-term use it is important for people on them to learn new eating habits and to develop good exercise habits, which they then need to continue post pills if they wish to continue losing weight and/or keep the weight off. Ironically, people wishing to use fat absorption inhibitors need to swap to a low-fat diet (less than 30% of calories from fat) before starting treatment to reduce the unwanted side affects!

The bottom line is that even the use of Diet Pills needs to be combined with physical activity and improved diet to lose and maintain weight loss long term, so why not simply do these two life altering things and leave the pills for individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above (with no obesity-related conditions) or 27 and above (with obesity-related conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure).