I have always been stricktly anti-diet pills but am kind of wavering on the subject now. I’ve lost 40 pounds since last December without the help of any diet aids. I’ve just been eating better and exercising.
I have another 20 pounds to lose and I just can’t seem to get it off, I’ve been stuck on a plateau for a while now and it’s getting frustrating. So I was contemplating getting some help from a weight loss aid.
So, I’d like to know if anyone has tried them, have they worked, and which kind did you try.
I’ve always been petite but after the birth of my son there’s been some poundage I would like to shed, but I just couldn’t, despite eating better, riding my exercise bike, avoiding sweets, and walking. I finally tried Hydroxycut but I didn’t watch my diet while I was taking them, so it was futile and a waste of money on my part :rolleyes:
Recently I started taking Metabolife (“Metabocrack” to some people), and it has lessened my appetite, and I’ve lost 6 pounds since losing the initial weight I had gained after my child was born. I still need a way to go to be where I want to be (back to pre-pregnancy weight), but this time I am back to my original exercising and watching what I eat, so it’s helped me a bit.
I don’t advise you taking them if you are easily made jittery by stimulants like coffee and the other herbal things in it. I myself can drink 43875643 cups of coffee and not feel a thing, but I have heard lots of stories where people have gotten rapid heartbeats, nervous, etc. I can take the Metabolife and fall asleep, while others climb walls.
There are warnings on the label that you ought to read before trying them, and as always, ask your doctor first.
I took diet pills once from the traveling diet doctor and I lost 30 lbs. But at the time I also stopped drinking sodas, stopped eating properly and took laxitives. It was anything but healthy and I’ve gained about 12 of that 30 lbs back.
I’m desperate to lose weight again so now I’m eyeing this new “Body Makeover” thing I see on tv all the time. I don’t want to go back to diet pills. They make me feel…‘weird’. There’s no other way to explain it. Just weird.
As [b[LolaBaby** said, the thing to remember about most diet pills – at least the herbal-based ones – is that they’re mostly based on ma huang, guarana, or a number of any caffeine-like herbs. You do shed water weight very easily on them. They also dull your appetite and give you the “boost” that compels you to run amok (at least they did to me).
Ma huang has been cited in a number of studies as being dangerous taken in large doses – people have actually died from it, in that it can greatly elevate your heart rate. I got terrible jitters taking a Metabolife-like supplement, not to mention palpatations. That alone scared me enough to stop taking them and learning to lose my excess weight in a safer manner.
I’m not sure how medical diet drugs like Meridia work. I do know, though, that the requirements to be prescribed them are stringent – you must be medically obese, for example.
Years ago, I took ephedrine in combination with caffeine for about 6 months when trying to lose weight and look good. I took the pills, I lifted weights like a madman, I did the stairs, and I ate practically nothing but fruits and vegetables, plain rice, and plain noodles. I also took workout supplements. The good news is, it worked; I did lose weight, and I did look better.
The bad news is, it seriously screwed up my sleep cycle, which greatly reduced my mental acuity. I also got very short-tempered, and I started having very violent thoughts that I realized were highly inappropriate and just not like myself. So, I went off the pills before I wound up hurting someone. These days, I don’t put anything in my body that will affect my ability to think clearly. I wouldn’t touch the stuff again if you paid me; there’s no telling if my taking those pills has done any permanent damage to my heart or brain.
I have a friend who is now in nursing care - at age 33 - from taking diet pills. Long story short - she was on epidrine for two months and had a heart attack standing in a hotel lobby, went into cardiac arrest, was revived but sustained enough brain damage to render her basically functionless. They could find absolutely no possible cause for it other than the ephidrine.
She was also a physician herself, and knew the possible hazards, but to her, losing the five pounds she wanted to lose was worth the risk.
My only thoughts on the matter is to make absolute sure you follow up with a physician before taking any medications of the sort. Herbal ‘suppliments’ can be just as - if not more dangerous than prescribed medications. Be careful.
I’m taking phentermine right now. It’s a prescription medication that is chemically related to amphetamines. It’s supposed to dull your appetite. It worked for the first two weeks for me, then seemed to wear off. I lost about 10 pounds in that time, and I’ve kept it off so far (it’s only been 4 weeks). One of my friends has had much more success with taking it, she lost about 30 pounds on it. I seem to have a higher tolerance for those sort of things, though, pain medications have no effect on me, and caffeine in massive doses doesn’t effect me either. I also was not overweight enough to take phentermine - it’s only for people who are obese, and I really only needed to drop 10 pounds or so. But if you get a crooked doctor, you can get whatever you want. If you have a high enough BMI to qualify for a phentermine prescription, it’s worth a try.
I wanna get me some o’ them Judy Garland-caliber diet pills . . . But I went into GNC and looked around. All I could find were hippie tree-huggin’ stuff that actually said “THESE DO NOT WORK” in small print. So I asked the person who worked there for the REAL stuff, and he pointed me toward a sinister-looking black bottle. I read the small print on the back. I am not making this up; it actually said, “DO NOT TAKE THIS IF YOU OR ANY OF YOUR FAMILY HAVE ANY MEDICAL CONDITION.” OK, that takes a lot in . . . It added, “THIS MEDICATION MAY CAUSE BEHAVIORAL CHANGES, INCLUDING . . LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.” I found out the people at GNC do not like it when you laugh at their products.
I have a friend who’s on the anti-depressent Effexor, and he said it completely killed his appetite . . . Maybe I should get me some 'o THAT.
Before I had my weight loss surgery, I took diet pills. But they were prescribed by my Doctor. They worked well as long as I was on them but I could only stay on them for 3 months at a time. I tend to shy away from herbals and such, so I guess what I am saying is if you want to use pills, go to a doctor so he can watch you and look for harmful side effect.
By the way, I was on (forgive the spelling) Phenteramine. Which is half of the old Phen-Phens that were pulled from the market.
I took the over-the-counter appetite suppressant Dexatrim and Dexatrim-like knockoffs for a few months while also controlling my diet and exercising. It had some good effect, but not a lot. If I had to quantify it, I would say it made me 10% less hungry. It worked best at squelching late night hunger pangs. But then, having a fruit snack at night might have done the same thing.
I did not notice any side effects from the caffeine-free formulation I used.
Dexatrim has since then changed to an herbal formulation, so my words pertain to the old formulation.
Is phenteramine still FDA-approved? Fen-phen (sic) was obviously taken off the market, for good reason (it plays with your serotonin system…not worth it to lose a few pounds. Oh, and can damage the heart.) Be very sure that anything you’re taking (or considering taking) has been adequately tested. Diet drugs, especially prescription ones, don’t have a great track record when it comes to safety.
Fenfluramine (the fen in fen-phen) and dexfenfluramine (Redux)were withdrawn from the market by the FDA. Phentermine is still sold, sometimes in combination with an SSRI like Prozac, but it isn’t as effective either alone or with an SSRI as it was with fenfluramine.
I cannot emphasize enough that any diet pills with ephedrine (or pseudo-ephedrine) can be DANGEROUS. Let’s just say I am a defense lawyer…let’s just say I recently had a case where a very fit man is now a vegetable after taking ephedrine. Ma Huang is ephidrine, just from an herbal source.
Eve, re: Effexor…for some, it kills appetite. For most, though, it has the opposite effect (myself included). Oh, and it raises blood pressure. I stopped taking it for that very reason.
I just went to GNC and wrote down some supposed appetite suppressents: L-Carnitine, Linoleic Acid, and something suspicious called Xenadrine . . . Ever heard of them?
Try Weight Watchers it really does work I lost almost 30 pounds(29.2 to be exact) in 14 weeks. The first week or so it was very hard, but I learned to eat properly and no longer feel mentally and psycally like shit.
WW teaches you how to make better food choices and eat primarily a high fiber low fat diet and to loose weight slowly so you can keep it off. also there is a lot of group support and you can do it on line as well.
(Steps off soap box, bows and profusely apologizes for preaching.) sorry folks I just can’t believe this really works and most of the time I’m not hungry. I also still drink, just a half pint of vodka w/club soda instead of a pint with cranberry juice.
Try Weight Watchers it really does work I lost almost 30 pounds(29.2 to be exact) in 14 weeks. The first week or so it was very hard, but I learned to eat properly and no longer feel mentally and psycally like shit.
WW teaches you how to make better food choices and eat primarily a high fiber low fat diet and to loose weight slowly so you can keep it off. also there is a lot of group support and you can do it on line as well.
(Steps off soap box, bows and profusely apologizes for preaching.) sorry folks I just can’t believe this really works and most of the time I’m not hungry. I also still drink, just a half pint of vodka w/club soda instead of a pint with cranberry juice.
I was on Phentermine, and like many others, found that it didn’t work very well. It messed me up. It was like I was on coke for the 1st few hours–this made me highly productive for mindless activities such as cleaning. But Mentally–moosh!! Even after the effects settled down, I still couldn’t focus and my mood swings were out of control. Anytime I told the doctor about any sideffects he added another pill, changes doses,etc. I have another friend who ate the stuff like candy and got addicted. She spent a ton of money on line ordering the stuff cause her doc wouldn’t prescribe it anymore since she was 10 lbs UNDERweight.
My humble advise is, if you have ANY tendency toward addiction, mood swings, or other health problems as previously mentioned–pass! And ditto the sentiments about herbals.
I have heard good things about Xenadrine, but read some of these articles, everything from it sucks to works great, I would make my own opinion based on what you feel, try it, if it seems to have bad side effects, stop.
Personally I don’t like taking appetite supressors, I have to eat my 3500-4000 calories because I train hard, and eating that much is still hard for me without them. (was eating about 1500-1800 calories before I started training) Everybody is a bit different with thier goals though.
