In the world of weight loss, you can count on diet pills to always be around, not just now but in the future as well. Perhaps it’s the promise of results without effort, or the result of people trying so many other diets that they just give up and will try anything. Regardless of why people still turn to diet pills, it’s important to know what they are exactly, and how they effect your body to make it lose weight.
Overview
For decades now, people have been turning to weight loss solutions in pill form. There’s been numerous cases of people being hospitalized, and even dying from using products that are sold over-the-counter, without a prescription, even though they contain powerful ingredients meant to radically the body’s natural state of being.
Brieg History of Diet Pills
Using medicine to induce weight loss has been around nearly as long as modern man. History shows us that even the early Greeks were attempting it thousands of years ago. As technology and western medicine advanced through the ages, better and more effective methods came along, and now you can buy powerful drugs that effect the body’s natural cycles without the need for a prescription.
The Attraction to Diet Pills
It’s not hard to figure out why people are drawn to taking weight loss pills. It’s the ultimate promise of getting the body that you really want, without doing all of the things people typically associate with a healthy body, like eating right or exercising regularly. The lure of instant gratification is a strong one, and after many failed attempts at summoning the willpower needed to lose weight in a healthy, natural manner, many turn to diet pills as a last resort.
But it’s also not just a strong desire that leads people to take diet pills. It’s also because of the clever marketing and advertising that is used by the makers of these drugs and medications. They know exactly which chord to strike to get people to follow along with their pitch. They know what words to say, what pictures to show, how to connect with their target market, how to make the label on the bottle very appealing. More time goes into marketing and packaging than researching and developing the product, in most cases.
So the combination of a rabid audience and clever promoters makes diet pills almost irresistible. Even people that know of their dangers will eventually justify taking them. They may say that they’ll only take them for a little while, and then stop taking them once they get their results, and simply maintain the results after they get them. What usually ends up happening though, is a total relapse to their former fat body, causing them to get back on the drugs again.
Product Review Recaps
Hoodia Gordonii Recap
What a strange product this is. Even with very little scientific evidence to support its effectiveness, it nonetheless attracted its fair share of media attention. Its origin story says that it was used by tribal bushmen to suppress appetite, but why would they ever need to do that when they are living a natural lifestyle filled with healthy foods.
This one doesn’t get our recommendation, and still leaves us scratching our heads as to why it got so much press. It just goes to show that just about anything can have its 15 minutes of fame in the weight loss industry.
See our full review of Hoodia Gordonii
Fat Burners Recap
When it comes to weight loss pills, fat burners are one of the major categories and are one of the more popular, and controversial diet aids on the market. Buy attempting to burn fat without doing tried and true methods like aerobics, these products raise your heart rate in artificial ways, usually through caffeine and other stimulants.
Nothing is off limits in the world of fat burners. If they stumble upon a drug or an herb that causes the reaction they want, they will bottle it up and sell it to the masses as the next revolution in diet pills.
See our full review of Fat Burners
Alli Recap
Alli made big waves in the industry when they went mainstream and started getting onto the shelves at places like Wal-Mart. Word quickly got around that this was a wonder drug that would allow you to eat whatever you wanted, but the fat just wouldn’t stick in the body.
Little by little people found out that the fat came out the other end in the form of oily stools. Still some users continue to use it, and curious shoppers continue to try it all in the name of losing weight. Have some self respect and don’t use something that basically gives you diarrhea daily just to lose the pounds.
See our full review of Alli
Apidexin Recap
This is an example of a powerful weight loss pill that comes with a hefty cost. It is not recommended for the casual dieter, and should only be used by those that have tried everything they can do to lose weight, but have been unsuccessful until now.
It uses a mix of ingredients that really packs a punch, and the feedback that has come in has been overwhelmingly positive, with many users saying that they finally found a solution that worked.
See our full review of Apidexin
Fruta Planta Recap
Harnessing the exotic mysticism that comes from all things Asian, Fruta Planta claims to use Chinese herbs to help your weight loss battle. This product falls into the overall weight loss category, and promises not only to help you metabolize foods more quickly, but also to return your stomach to a smaller size.
This will happen naturally when you start eating smaller portions, and Fruta Planta is alleged to help you eat less as well as help you break down the foods you do eat. Find out more as we go in-depth as to whether or not it works.
See our full review of Fruta Planta
Hydroxycut Recap
Making our list of reviewed products is the rather popular, or at least heavily advertised diet pill Hydroxycut. It’s infamous for it’s television commercials showing wonderfully fit people showing their before pictures and claiming that it was Hydroxycut that caused the transformation.
Whether or not you buy into the hype in the ads, it’s interesting to note that Hydroxycut has a jaded history and seems to be teetering on the brink of being banned by the FDA. It contains drugs that everyone knows can have very severe side effects, yet still people continue to use and try it.
See our full review of Hydroxycut
QuickSlim Recap
With a name like QuickSlim you should be able to get slim quick, right? Marketers these days just aren’t trying as hard as they used to. Especially when you have an overpriced and ineffective product like QuickSlim, you should put more effort into packaging and branding so that people will believe it can work for them.
There’s nothing that Quick Slim brings to the table that you can’t find in other, higher-quality products on the market. Continue on with your search for the perfect diet pill.
See our full review of QuickSlim
Quick Trim Recap
Not to be confused with Quick Slim, this is a product that comes with a hefty price tag, and shaky reviews. Some users report lots of harsh side effect, and no matter how you cut it, it’s not very healthy to reduce your daily intake to supplements and protein shakes. You’ll eventually crash and burn, making this a dangerous and doubly expensive product.
See our full review of Quick Trim
Cenalex Recap
Cenalex is not really a product per se, but a well-oiled cash-pulling machine that is geared mostly at charging people money. This is an example of a sales process that should be banned and outlawed by the federal government. Companies should not be able to manufacture indigestible products, which undergo no testing, trials, or any sort of research process.
It’s clear to even a casual observer that the makers of Cenalex have no real interest in whether or not their product works, and are just in business to ship out as many bottles as they can to unsuspecting consumers.
See our full review of Cenalex
Fat Magnet Recap
Like the name suggests, Fat Magnet tablets are designed to draw the fat from foods from your body so they don’t get digested. The theory is that it will take the fat and flush it through your digestive system, so that your body doesn’t absorb it. These types of pills will attract some of the more desperate dieters, willing to believe anything and put their bodies in jeopardy.
This is the sort of slippery slope that leads many people to keep eating fatty, unhealthy foods, but pop a pill like this and think everything’s fine because the fat won’t stick. This is one step short of bulimia.
See our full review of Fat Magnet
Biotin Recap
At first look Biotin may seem like a winner, since it is based on naturally occurring substances, and basically a B vitamin. What many of these drug companies will do is use Biotin in combination with other ingredients, both natural and unnatural, to aid the body in metabolizing foods.
But judging by the mixed feedback from those that have tried Biotin as a weight loss solution, it’s hard to say with any certainty that it produces the desired results. But since it is more natural than some of the other stuff you’ll find in the market, it’s a good place to start out, since reports on negative side effects have been minimal.
See our full review of Biotin
Fenphedra Recap
Fenphedra is like caffeine on steroids, and that is what they rely on mostly to get you to eat less, and metabolize foods more quickly. There isn’t a lot of information provided by the manufacture, and they are big on their claims. Anytime a product comes highly touted, but has scant factual evidence to back up those claims, is reason enough to take it off your list of possibilities.
This is a perfect example of the kind of weight loss product that you should completely disregard. From their website to their packaging, to their ingredients, to the claims, everything about Fenphedra screams that it’s a product that is destined to get news headlines about how dangerous it is to take.
See our full review of Fenphedra
African Mango Recap
Since it’s got the word mango in it, it’s got to be healthy, right? Since it is supposedly only found in Africa, and contains mostly extracts from this wonder fruit, African Mango has been a choice for those that want to avoid harsh, man-made or synthetic substances.
Even though feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, it’s important to keep a level head when it comes to trying new products. Don’t get your expectations too high, just to have them come crashing down if it doesn’t work for you. But we are tentatively recommending it for those that have decided to try a weight loss pill.
See our full review of African Mango
Lipovox Recap
Using all natural ingredients is a plus in our book, and Lipovox actually aims at both helping you lose weight, and also giving you healthier looking skin. This makes it a unique product in the industry, and makes it worth a try if you’re on the hunt for something to supplement your healthy eating and exercise.
It’s important to note that just because a product claims to use natural ingredients, it doesn’t mean you won’t have side effects or an adverse reaction to the pills. It simply means that they haven’t created the ingredients in a lab out of medications.
See our full review of Lipovox
Lipozene Recap
If you want the perfect example of the most dangerous type of diet pill to get involved with, it would be Lipozene. From the way they target people that are desperate for a weight loss cure, to the way that their product contains a simple bulking agent, nothing about it makes it worthy of a purchase.
But still they claim that millions of people have bought it and used it. They are saying that over 5 million people have ordered their 2 bottle offer. This only shows that they’ve gotten something right with their advertising and sales page.
See our full review of Lipozene
The Aversion to Eating Right and Exercising
It’s harder to understand why people are so against eating healthy foods and getting regular exercise. Our natural state should be to eat nourishing, life-giving foods that don’t make us fat, but many people have some sort of food addiction, whether it be a sugar addiction, a love of fatty or fried foods, cravings for fast food and junk food, or a love of foods that are high in carbs, like breads and pastries.
The body is also meant to get a thorough workout. If we were still living in nature, we’d get plenty of exercise every day, in the form of walking, chasing after food, climbing trees, and running from danger. However, in our modern world we don’t have to do any of those things, and the very thought of getting the body moving drives some people to panic.
When did we lose our desire for healthy living? Why is it so hard to force ourselves to eat nutritious foods and get up off the sofa and get moving? It has happened slowly, as more and more things became convenient, and more and more foods became loaded with unhealthy ingredients and preservatives.
Types of Diet Pills
Depending on what your goal is you can get diet pills that are specifically tailored to your needs. If you want to burn fat, you can pop a pill that will help you burn it. If you want the fat to pass through your body without being absorbed, there’s a pill for that. If you want a pill that will make you eat less that you normally would, there’s a pill for that too.
Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss
There are basically two camps you can reside on when it comes to taking pills to get a better body. You can either choose to lose the fat from your body, or you can try for overall weight loss. Basically, if you’re concerned with what the scale shows, you’ll go for overall weight loss. You might find yourself taking appetite suppressants so that you don’t take in as much food, basically starving yourself and seeing a rapid change in how much your body weighs.
If you’re more into what the mirror is showing you, you’ll find yourself leaning towards products that either promise to burn the fat from your problem areas or make it so your body doesn’t absorb the fat in the first place. This way you can continue to eat the foods that you like, without the consequences of having a fat body that come with things like pizza, burgers, and fatty foods.
Health Concerns
The biggest thing you should worry about when you enter the realm of diet pills is what they are doing to your body in addition to causing you to lose weight or fat. Many will come with explicit side effects, but people will happily disregard them if they want to lose weight bad enough. Even the products that do not expressly tell you that they are adversely effecting the body, will still have some harsh side effects that you might not expect.
Basically, the body is meant to be able to function without any tinkering on our part. By ingesting these chemicals and herbal concoctions, you are introducing your body to substances that it doesn’t know how to process. Even the all-natural products come in such high doses and strong concentrations that your body can have trouble digesting them, or they will cause it to react in ways that are unusual to your experience.
Our Evaluation Process
Think of us as a giant strainer that sifts through all of the junk out there to find the nuggets of gold for you so you don’t have to. We spend hours going over all of the information that’s available on these products, and use our own proprietary method to determine which products walk the walk, and which are just full of hot air.
When it comes to diet pills, it’s pretty clear that we’re not a fan of them, but we understand that you have a the final say in whether or not you will try them or not. It’s important to understand that while we do our very best to analyze and evaluate products based on their effectiveness, we can’t account for the different life situation that you bring to the table.
We therefore make broad recommendations for the general user. This means that there is no guarantee that a product we green light will work as advertised for you. It also means that you may find success with a product that we put the brakes on. Think of us as a starting point and always do your own research and evaluation, taking into consideration your own personal history, successful attempts at dieting, and unsuccessful ones too.
Go With Your Gut
Sometimes your brain will want something so badly that it tells your body to shut up. With diet pills this is especially true. You have to listen to that inner voice when you consider taking these meds in order to lose weight. Deep down you know they’re harmful to you, but your mind will rationalize it in countless different ways.
“I’ll just go on it for a little while.” “Just until I see some results.” “Just until the wedding/date/job promotion.” The rationalizations will continue until you justify it to yourself to get started. Once you get on these pills they can be hard to get off of, because they are pretty much uppers, they stimulate your body and you might get addicted to that feeling and find it hard to give it up.
Things to Avoid
In general, all weight loss pills can be safely avoided. But if you’re bent on taking them try to pick the more mild ones, and stay clear of anything too extreme. You should also combine taking the pills with a proper diet and a nice, mild exercise routine three times per week. Don’t rely entirely on a bottle of pills to take you where you want to go. Use them to help you see results more quickly than if you just dieted and exercised without them. This can help inspire you and get you motivated enough to stick with the program.
Also, avoid taking larger doses than what is instructed. You will only do even more harm to yourself, and you will likely not see results any more quickly than if you take regular doses.
So Do Any Diet Pills Actually Work?
Almost all of them will cause some sort of effect that makes your body lose weight, so technically speaking most of them “work”. However, the term diet piil insinuates that taking these drugs is the equivalent of going on a diet. In that respect, they do not work because they do not provide the safe, healthy results that eating a proper diet gives you. Also, since many of these diet pills cause damage to your body in some way, not only do they not work, but they should be avoided entirely by everyone on the planet.