Do diet pills work?

What are diet pills?

Pills which allegedly help you get slim without any effort

Let's weigh it up

From a diet pill site - some advice when deciding to take a diet pill:
1. You MUST also exercise.
2. You MUST also eat a balanced diet.
3. You MUST drink more water than usual (diet pills often contain diuretics which will dehydrate the body).
4. You should consider starting with a smaller dose (1/2 a pill) to allow your body to adapt to the pill.

Let's look at these instructions

1. Exercise - well if you're going to exercise you'll get fitter, increase muscle and burn fat more effectively.
This is the case whether or not you take a diet pill.

2. Balanced diet - heck, if we could eat a balanced diet all the time we would lose weight - this has to be the tricky part of dieting anyway.
If you could do this you would be dieting in our opinion.

3. Water - you should be drinking more water anyway. This helps you stay hydrated, and avoid you eating as thirst is often mistaken for hunger.
So you'd benefit from this and possible it'd help you lose weight anyway.

4. Chemicals - if you put chemicals in your body you can damage it.

If your body needs to adapt to the pills it suggest that they're not very nice and could have side effects

In summary -

1. Exercise

2. diet

3. water

This will help you lose weight - so why take pills?

Pills can have side effects.
You won't get them off your GP - only two drugs are available - The only medicines in the UK specifically licensed for the treatment of obesity are called orlistat and sibutramine [1]

Orlistat works by reducing the absorption of the fat you eat. Sibutramine increases the feeling of fullness when you eat by boosting levels of the chemical, serotonin, which is naturally made in your body.

Both these drugs have been clinically proven to help people lose weight. They are only prescribed if you are obese or your weight is causing you health problems. You will also have to show that you have seriously attempted to lose weight by diet, exercise etc.

If you feel you have really tried to diet and exercise - AND stuck to it, and it hasn't worked - then visit your doctor.

By building up a diet record and exercise diary of what you've actually been eating and doing activity wise then you'll have information to show the doctor about what steps you've been taking.
If you do not lose weight following a diet and exercise regime you should contact your GP for advice and help.

There are many tablets available over the counter at health shops and online - but we do not recommend you try these. Consult your doctor as any medicine or tablets you currently take could be affected by taking other pills.

We recommend a healthy balanced diet and exercise as the best way of losing weight. Pills are not the answer and the more outrageous the claims the less likely they are to succeed.