After 25+ years of smoking 2 packs a day I finally kicked the habit using nictotine patches. That was 3 years and 40 pounds ago. My metabolism seems to have slowed to a crawl.
So my question is, are there any effective diet drugs or supplements other than Ephedrin?
My excerise consists of 3 one hour raquet ball sessions weekly. Other than that I don’t get a bunch of exercise. My eating habits, while not perfect, are not extreme. I have fast food every now and then but I rarely snack and when I do it’s either the very low fat microwave popcorn or a few pretzels. I drink only diet soda, if I drink any at all, and my caffeine intake is one 16 oz cup daily and that’s it.
I’m wondering if there are any particular diet drugs I can go research and then talk to my doctor about. I’ve looked around but found nothing that really stands out other than amphetamines.
Thanks
Despite what someone might like to sell you, there are no known miracle pills. Even ephedra’s not all that hot. Plain and simple, there’s no substitute for hard work and discipline. It’s tough as hell, but you’ll feel good once you get there.
You might want to poke around at SupplementWatch and see if you find anything interesting there.
btw, congratulations on giving up smoking. That’s as hard as weight loss.
Well, there are some effective weight-loss drugs, provided you don’t mind a substantially increased risk of… well, death.
There are lots of things you can take that will make you lose weight but just about all of them have really really nasty side effects regarding your heart.
If you want something easy to impliment try walking or riding a bike to work.
Um, of course there are no safe and effective diet drugs. If there were, then people would use them and they wouldn’t be fat. That’s the meaning of effective.
A safe and effective diet drug would be front page news. Every person in the country would know what it was. Every doctor would prescribe it. You wouldn’t need to ask if one existed.
But people continue to be fat. Ergo, there are no safe and effective diet drugs.
About a year ago, the radio show “Sound Medicine” mentioned a British diet drug that guaranteed weight loss when used as directed. The instructions called for walking for 15 minutes before taking the pill. Immediately after taking the pill, there’s another 15 minutes of walking. It worked splendidly, but the pill didn’t have much to do with it.
If there were effective diet drugs it would be big news.
Instead, the only ones touted are touted by people who make money off of them.
Did you see last night’s “48 Hours Investigates” about Roberta Flack’s fruity European doctor? He gives her hundreds of herbal injections over several months at many thousands of dollars.
And yet, she still has to work out twice a day and diet!
Then she tells the “investigative reporter” (chat host is more like it) that she doesn’t care if it’s the treatment or the diet and excercise that did it.
And did what? Lost 35 lbs over 4 months. Not exactly a record. She’s still a tubby gal, even in her stage girdle.
To determine why you have gained 40 pounds you have to figure out if it’s a) you exercise less now, or b) you eat more now. My guess is you probably eat more now. If you eat more now is it because you have a bigger appetite or because it’s something to do instead of smoking.
If you eat more because you seriously are more hungry they do have appetite suppresent pills that are effective (they basically make you feel fuller before you eat so you don’t eat as much.)
These however won’t work if you snack a lot between meals or if you eat even if you aren’t hungry.
Clinician’s Choice makes one called Weight Guardian but it is only sold through doctors and health clubs. All natural, no side-effects.
Just an FYI: Weight Guardian is essentially a chromium supplement, which you can get from taking a multi-vitamin every day. (It’s also quite a bit less expensive)
Well, a chromium supplement can help a bit- and you need more than most standard multi-vits have. But it is no miracle pill.
Adding fiber helps. There is also that “fat-binding” “sea-fiber Chitosan” that might work in theory, but in practice seems to not work significantly better than a normal fiber supplement. Try taking some of those fiber pills just before eating with something to drink. Again, no “miracle” but it does really help. Extra fiber helps your bowels move better, and you lose wieght that way- but don’t take non-fiber laxatives to do this! They can be habit forming. The fiber supplement/laxatives are safe & effective as long as you get enough fluids. Fiber also makes you feel full, so you eat less. And of course- most of use don’t get enough fiber in our diets anyway.
OK, and if these don’t work- maybe try chewing a few pieces of nicotine gum once in a while. After all it is the tobacco that is the nasty cancer causing stuff. This would be a last resort, and only for ex-smokers that gained a bunch of weight afterwards.
Are there effective ways to lose weight? Heck yes- sensible diet and excercise.
If you are otherwise healthy, ask your doctor about trying a variation of the Atkins diet. Cutting out all carbs is not for everyone, but for many people it has helped them lose quite a bit of weight when combined with excercise. However, as with any diet, if you don’t do some sort of lifelong maintenance program, you will just gain the weight back.
Eat right and add 3 1-hour walks per week to your raquetball schedule and see if it helps.
Be wary of the Chitosan stuff that is supposed to bind fat. I tried it for a few days, and ended up with some extremely painful problems. This was probably due to the fact that I’m not really good about drinking water, but I’d stay far away from those products.
Leap- as with any fiber supplement- you MUST drink enough water (or tea, or juice, etc). If you follow this simple rule, they are safe & somewhat effective.
No offense to you, Hampshire, but the phrase “all natural” makes me cringe. Especially when used as a catch-all phrase implying “safe”.
Hemlock is also “all natural”.
As a matter of fact, a lot of the all natural items sold in health stores are not particularly beneficial, and quite of few of them can do serious harm to some people.
I think there are currently some studies going on with various drugs that will inhibit appetite (sorry, can’t remember the site) but as most people have pointed out, if there were such a drug, it would be front page of most international newspapers.
I found that nothing works quite as well as cocaine. It’s a guaranteed
and tested weight loss method.
Hell, I lost 18 pounds in two weeks and have been noticing a steady decline almost every time I get on the scale. It does have its downsides though. It is rather expensive and also very illegal but, just like anything else you have to weigh the good against the bad.
I bet that no other diet plan has “euphoria” as a side effect!