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Everyone has a problem to solve and a goal to achieve. People are suffering from different issues. For some, these issues are caused by weight gain. Weight gain rises due to the increase in so much energy with less of it used, leading to accumulation and increased fat deposits.
There are many causes of weight gain, some of which are genetics (obesity), junk foods, addiction with excess food consumption, and some medical conditions.
An example of a disease that can cause weight gain is Hypothyroidism. It is a medical condition that makes the thyroid gland to produce less thyroid hormone. This causes an imbalance in metabolism, as the thyroid hormone helps to regulate body metabolism.
Deficiency in the thyroid hormone causes the metabolism to slow down, leading to weight gain. Individuals with this specific problem usually seek for solutions that can help them cut their weight.
Some of these solutions are healthy eating, exercise, and weight loss pills, among others. Some of the reasons why people work tirelessly to lose body weight are to maintain a healthy lifestyle, boost body energy, minimize joint pains, and improve their mental health.
Weight loss pills are medicinal agents that help to lose weight. These pills alter weight regulation in the body by reducing the absorption of nutrients, decreasing appetite, and increasing the rate at which the body burns fat.
The reason for the production of weight loss aids is to help obese people lose excess weight. Obesity treatment aims at reducing weight, maintaining it, and preventing future weight gains.
Do Weight Loss Pills Work?
Many people have been wondering and asking questions about the effectiveness of weight loss pills. Are they efficient to the extent that the results achieved when they are used to bring satisfaction, or we will just be wasting our time and money by buying some?
If it’s true they work, how effective are they. Can we count on them? Are they sufficient and enough for weight loss, or will there still need to engage oneself in other extra activities so as to lose the desired excess weight?
Everyone wishes these pills were magical so that we can eat as much as we want and live as we want, skip the gym and sleep instead of exercising.
After gaining excess weight, we just take a pill and a glass of water to solve the problem. Very few people love going the extra mile to do any strenuous exercise to keep fit.
Well, this is a healthy lifestyle, but it comes at a cost. You have to stay committed. Honestly, it is not easy, and it is tiring. However much you love to exercise; at some points, you just feel lazy.
How we wish scientists innovated a pill that helps to cut weight loss in just a day! Although nothing comes easy. Magical pills are non-existent.
Scientists have done their best to find some solution to weight gain, at least. So many weight loss pills have been invented. They might not be as magical as we wish they were, but at least they help in weight management to some extent.
Weight loss pills and supplements are claimed to help in weight loss or, at least, combined with other methods, they make it easier for the body weight to reduce.
Effective Weight Loss Pills
The Food and Drug Administration has approved some of these drugs for long-term body weight loss. This is after research and considerations about their effectiveness and safety.
Phentermine and Topiramate
With its brand name as Qsymia, it helps people cut the most weight compared to any other medications mentioned. The Lancet published in 2011 that almost half the people who consumed 15 mg of phentermine and 92 mg of topiramate daily, for 56 weeks, lost more than 10 % of their weight. Its side effects are insomnia, constipation, and distorted taste.
Lorcaserin
Popularly known as Belviq, which helps affected people to lose about 5% of their weight. Studies showed that this was true for those who consumed one 10 mg tablet twice daily, continuously for 12 weeks.
However, it is advised that the person should cease using the pills if no effects are seen. Its shortcomings are headaches, constipation, vomiting, and nausea.
Physicians usually prescribe prescription weight loss pills. That’s when they are available. Most of these pills inhibit the absorption of fat into the body. They also suppress a person’s appetite.
Prescription weight-loss medicines might help to cut weight. They, however, have side effects, which include diarrhea and stomach pains.
Naltrexone-bupropion
Naltrexone-bupropion is sold as Contrave. These are naltrexone and bupropion, which have been proved by researchers to help cut more weight when taken together.
Liraglutide
Liraglutide, sold as Saxenda, helps obese people to cut weight by about 5% to 10 % according to a review that was published in 2017, named, Obesity Science & Practice. However, some of its shortcomings are vomiting and nausea.
Over The Counter Weight Loss pills
Alli
Alli is the only over the counter weight loss product approved by the FDA. It inhibits fat breakdown in the body. The results are thus, absorption of lesser calories from the fat. It is usually prescribed as Xenical and is an over-the-counter drug.
Studies show that it can help cut up to 6 pounds of weight. However, it causes so many digestive problems. To prevent the side effects of this pill, it should be taken with low-fat meals.
Xenical and Alli were created to be used in the context of a weight loss plan based on reduced fat and calorie intake combined with a regular exercise program.
All adults 18 years of age and older who have a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher can use Alli. Xenical can be used by adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher (obese) and obese people with a BMI of 27-29 who have other risk factors such as diabetes or hypertension.
Forskolin
Forskolin stimulates the burning of fat by increasing levels of cAMP in cells. One study showed that it helped decreased body fat levels and boost muscle mass. More research is still needed as the benefits of this drug and its side effects are not clearly known.
Pyruvate
When sugar is broken down in the body, pyruvate is produced. Pyruvate is also a supplement drug. It is used to boost metabolism and break fat, thus helping in weight loss.
Results about its effectiveness are merely conclusive since studies supporting its benefits concerning weight are not firm. Pyruvate is believed to assist in reducing body weight. Some of its shortcomings are bloating and gas.
Hydroxycut
It has various ingredients that are believed to have an effect on weight loss. It constitutes of some plant extracts and caffeine. It helps to reduce up to 21 lbs of weight in around three months.
Although more research is needed as no long-term effectiveness has been approved. However, it might cause irritability, nausea, anxiety, and diarrhea for those who are allergic to caffeine.
Raspberry Ketones
Raspberry Ketones increases fat breakdown in the body. It also increases the adiponectin hormone, which helps to cut weight. It is extracted from raspberries.
It has not yet been proved that it’s effective in humans, but massive doses administered to rats worked to reduce weight. Consuming it might cause someone’s burps to smell like raspberries.
Garcinia Cambogia Extract
The Garcinia Cambogia Extract inhibits an enzyme that produces fat in the body. This causes an increase in serotonin levels, hence limiting the potential of cravings.
It has features like that of a pumpkin, with green fruit, and usually small in size. Scientific reviews have shown that consuming it helps to reduce body weight by around 2 pounds, after so many weeks. However, it has side effects like causing mild digestive issues.
Conjugated linoleic acid
Conjugated linoleic acid has been used as a weight-loss supplement for quite long. It is a type of fatty acid and is found in dairy products and beef. It is one of the best weight-loss drugs. It helps to reduce a person’s appetite.
It also increases fat breakdown., and it boosts the body’s metabolism. It is found in butter and cheese and is considered as a healthy fat. Reviews show that it cuts up to 0.2 pounds of weight each week.
It can, however, cause inflammation, digestive problems, and insulin resistance.
Green coffee bean extract
Green coffee bean extracts are the same beans used to make coffee by roasting. It is an extract that contains a high content of chlorogenic acids ( AGC ) accounting for up to 50% of most extracts.
Chlorogenic acid is a polyphenol that is found in coffee and among other diversity of foods like vegetables, fruits, spices, and olive oil. It is an antioxidant that also slows down the release of glucose into the bloodstream following food intake.
There is no clear understanding of exactly how the green coffee extract might work. Although there is some evidence about its effects on an enzyme (hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase), decreasing glucose production and blood glucose concentrations which may influence the use of fats in the body as energy, rather than glucose.
Glucomannan
Glucomannan makes a person feel full when consumed, therefore making the person eat fewer calories. It is extracted from the roots of elephant yams. Using glucomannan together with a healthy diet helps to cut about 3.6-4.5 of weight in around five weeks.
It is advisable to take this medication 30 minutes before any meal. Consuming it can, however, cause soft stools and bloating.
Meratrim
Meratrim alters the metabolism of fat cells, and it inhibits the multiplication of fat cells. According to one study done, consuming it can help cut about 11 pounds of weight in 8 weeks.
Caffeine
Caffeine boosts the body’s metabolism, increasing the rate at which fat is burnt. It is a product found in beverages such as green tea and coffee. It is proved that it can help in cutting a modest amount of weight.
Its side effects are insomnia, anxiety, nausea, and irritability, among others. It is also an addictive product.
Green tea extract
Green tea extract is a concentrated, single-capsule product that contains the same amount of active ingredients found naturally in your average cup of green tea.
It is rich in catechins, but also contains an adequate amount of caffeine. It has been shown that these catechins along with caffeine can support weight loss because it regulates the hormones involved in the process of thermogenesis.
Thermogenesis means that the body uses energy or “calories” to produce heat. This is a physical process; the corresponding energy or calorie product is what’s known as a calorie or Kcal. Now, that’s a good thing.
Green tea extract increases norepinephrine’s activity. Norepinephrine is a hormone that helps in burning fat, hence reducing weight. Many studies support this opinion.
Weight Loss Pills Side Effects
The effect that the weight loss supplements and pills have on the body is minimal. There’s not much significant difference that they’ll bring to your body. They work but in minimum percentages. Apart from this, there are side effects that weight loss pills are associated with.
Some of the common side effects that weight loss pills causes are: change in bowel movements and stomach upsets, among others. Due to this shaky information and possible side effects, it is advised that before deciding to use a particular weight loss pill or supplement, someone should first seek a doctor’s or professional healthcare’s advice.
Conclusion
When it comes to losing weight, there is no magic. The only sure way of cutting weight is healthy eating and having meals that have fewer calories. Engaging oneself in physical activities is also very important.
Weight loss pills can help in cutting excess weight, but not much research has been done to fully support these claims. Prescription weight-loss drugs are the only ones that have been researched on to some satisfactory extent.
In 2016, a study revealed that if an affected person assumed effective and appropriate changes in his lifestyle, then there are high chances of prescription weight loss pills working on him. Thus, considerable weight loss in a year.
Effective weight loss is when your weight has been reduced to the extent that your risk of getting diseases like diabetes and heart attack are minimal. It should be noted that the weight loss result in a practical setting might be lesser than a research setting.
The side effects that come with these pills could also cause considerable reactions to your body, affecting how your body reacts to the weight loss pills.
These weight loss pills aren’t, however, the perfect solution for weight loss. As much as they are used, someone must practice healthy eating and regular exercise. This should be the patient’s life routine, even after treatment.
People might have high expectations when taking weight loss pills, but it should not be forgotten that weight loss pills don’t usually work as users would hope they do.
They may help someone to lose about 3% to 9% of the weight, but this is only achievable when someone practices a healthy weight loss lifestyle. There is nothing miraculous that weight loss pills will do to your body.
The best piece of advice for anyone who wants to lose their body weight is to eat less, and healthy food. Regular exercise is also important. It is reasonable for someone to expect that weight loss pills may be beneficial to a given condition, but there won’t be any magical thing that they will do to help cut so much weight as desired.
Also, these weight loss pills and supplements don’t work for everyone, and their benefits might be modest. Researchers don’t know much about the full benefits of over-the-counter weight loss products.
Sources
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-weight-loss-pills-reviewed
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20046409
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320646
https://www.insider.com/do-diet-pills-work
https://healthengine.com.au/info/weight-loss-drugs
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-causes-of-weight-gain
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/truth-about-weight-loss-pills
