Do Weight Loss Pills Really Work?

I have been hit with this question quite a few times over email by people who have read articles from this website. Most of them are looking for an easy solution for weight loss, and they are trying to find a way to lose weight without really making a difference in their life.

The problem is that when you are looking to get rid of fat, you also want to get rid of the habits that make you fat, or you will get fat again and again. Permanent weight loss is what should be the goal, even if you only want to look good this summer. I know a lot of weight loss pills that work, but I also know that they need to be properly used with a sensible eating plan and an exercise regime.

Thermogenics

The basic diet pills are thermogenics which improve your metabolic rate and make you lose weight. The problem is that if you keep eating 3000kcal which is for example 250kcal above of what you need daily, and use the thermogenic weight loss supplements to boost your metabolic rate to 3500kcal per day and create a 500kcal deficit with your current diet, you will be still overeating 250kcal per day once you discontinue the use of the supplement. So if it takes you one month to get in to shape with that strategy, it will take you two months to get back in to the bad shape you were before.

Thermogenics also help you get rid of water weight, which will create an illusion of more fat lost since most of us only look at the scale, and don't get our bodyfat measured. In a way, you could say that thermogenic weight loss pills work, but would I recommend them for someone as a first step towards a leaner physique? No!

Fat Blockers

There are quite a lot of other types of supplements out there, like fat blockers and carb blockers for example. These both have more carryover for long term benefits than the thermogenics and combining them with a good diet will get great results. Fat blockers for example have long term benefits as they prevent you from eating high fat foods - when you eat a high fat food while you are eating a fat blocker, you will get heavy diarrhea as the unabsorbed fat is coming out the other end. So once you learn to avoid the high fat - high calorie - foods you can stop using the fat blockers, and you will still be able to maintain your weight.

Carb Blockers

For carb blockers the mechanism of action is somewhat different, but they will also help you have more permanent results. When you block some of the carbohydrates from being absorbed, your body doesn't experience such a high spike in the blood sugar, and insulin levels. High blood sugar and high insulin will both create insulin resistance, and when you avoid these high spikes you will improve your insulin sensitivity in the muscle tissue. This means that once you increase your caloric intake, your elevated insulin sensitivity will help transport the blood glucose to the muscle instead of the fat - you can basically eat more and not gain fat.

As a conclusion I would like to wrap up this article by saying that there are many ways that you can improve the rate of your fat loss, but for permanent results there is only diet and exercise that will work. You need to eat healthy foods for the most part for the rest of your life, if you want to stay lean and healthy for the rest of your life.