There are two diet pills on the market that are FDA approved for long term use.
It's ever so tempting to take a pill to lose weight. Exercise and counting calories is a lot more work, after all. There's the potential to lose 5-10 percent of body mass while taking a pill.
Before running out and getting a prescription, it's worth looking at the side effects of these drugs.
Meridia was approved in 1997 and has the following side effects:
* Insomnia
* Increased blood pressure.
* Constipation.
There's the drug Orlistat, which is also FDA-approved. The package insert advises women to wear panty liners while using the drug because oily stools are so common and frequent.
Lovely.
According to the British Medical Journal, there are three new diet pills in Europe that lower cholesterol and reduce your changes of getting type 2 diabetes. Even nicotine cravings are reduced while taking the drug.
Sounds more promising, doesn't it? Let's take a closer look at the other side effects.
Rimonabant was approved by the European Drug Agency in June 2006. The FDA didn't approve it last summer and for good reason.
Rimonabant is the first diet pill that keeps the patient from getting the munchies. Knowing that marijuna stimulates the appetite, scientists wondered what would happen if those cannabinoid receptors were blocked. It worked. Desire for food decreased when people took the drug.
But Lancet did a study of 4000 people who took the drug. Those that took the drug were 2.5 more times to quit taking the drug because of:
*Depressive disorders.
*Anxiety.
*Suicidal thoughts.
Not exactly a recipe for weight loss. The FDA didn't approve the drug because of the increased tendency for suicidal thoughts.
So once again we find that we can't escape the basic truth of weight loss: eat less calories than you burn. We can try to spin it any way we want but ultimately dieting is all about the calories.
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