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Diet Pills and all that that implies

KristenG80
KristenG80 Posts: 19 Member
edited December 2 in Debate Club
One topic I find wildly varying, and passionate, answers on is Diet Pills. I mostly mean the 9 million OTC kinds. From WalMart shelves full of Raspberry Ketones to Kardashian's telling us to "Flush the fat FAST" by "turning up the heat".

What do you all think of Diet Pills, as a whole? Has anyone actually had good experiences, or bad?

Years and years ago, I got on the very first Hydroxycut and Stacker bandwagons. Damn near killed me. Nowadays we see medical professionals like the physicians from The Doctors and Dr. Oz plugging some new groundbreaking (so they call them ALL) miracle fat cure..........I wonder, have we gone from just flashy promises by shady companies hiring pseudo-celebrities to actual medical professionals plugging false hope with a pretty label, for ratings and sensationalism?

Share your thoughts on all the Diet Pill trends here, I'd love to hear them. :)
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Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    No.... Just no.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    I don't consider myself lazy, but I fell for those green tea pills.
    I was on the side on the interstate almost dialing 911 once with a racing heartbeat.
    I was so stupid.
  • KristenG80
    KristenG80 Posts: 19 Member
    My honest opinion, diet pills are for lazy people who want a magic pill or potion which will melt off their fat with no effort from themselves.

    I've used phentermine, garcinia etc etc in the past and this was my mindset.

    I really have to agree with you. It seems like that's become the order to fill, though. The diet pill industry has become an out-of-control monster because people want to swallow a pill and look like _______ (fill in celebrity here).

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    I've heard a doctor complain that everybody who comes through her office expects to be prescribed some kind of pill, and thinks they haven't been treated unless they get one. Maybe with some tests to go with it. She said it's a shame she can't doll out placebos because a lot of what people complain about should not be treated with pills, but good luck getting them to agree. (Apparently sugar pills are a huge ethical no no.)

    I wonder if that mindset - better living through chemistry, a pill for every complaint - spills over into dieting?
  • KristenG80
    KristenG80 Posts: 19 Member
    I've heard a doctor complain that everybody who comes through her office expects to be prescribed some kind of pill, and thinks they haven't been treated unless they get one. Maybe with some tests to go with it. She said it's a shame she can't doll out placebos because a lot of what people complain about should not be treated with pills, but good luck getting them to agree. (Apparently sugar pills are a huge ethical no no.)

    I wonder if that mindset - better living through chemistry, a pill for every complaint - spills over into dieting?


    Personally, I think it absolutely does. I think people now see a pill for everything else in their life, or on TV, or in friends lives, and think it can be done for weight loss too. "Science is doing amazing things for Timmy over there, why can't it make me lose 100lbs in a week?!" ;)
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Jruzer wrote: »
    I've heard a doctor complain that everybody who comes through her office expects to be prescribed some kind of pill, and thinks they haven't been treated unless they get one. Maybe with some tests to go with it. She said it's a shame she can't doll out placebos because a lot of what people complain about should not be treated with pills, but good luck getting them to agree. (Apparently sugar pills are a huge ethical no no.)

    I wonder if that mindset - better living through chemistry, a pill for every complaint - spills over into dieting?

    My mother - God rest her soul - was a living example of this:

    Me: I've got a bit of a cold.
    Mom: What are you taking for it?
    Me: I'm not taking anything. It's just a cold.
    Mom: Well have you been to the doctor?

    It was worse when the children were sick, so I actually stopped telling her when that happened.

    The only time i go to the doctor is if i'm at deaths door, and never been for a simple cold that the doctor cant fix anyway.
  • Shobhituva
    Shobhituva Posts: 20 Member
    KristenG80 wrote: »
    One topic I find wildly varying, and passionate, answers on is Diet Pills. I mostly mean the 9 million OTC kinds. From WalMart shelves full of Raspberry Ketones to Kardashian's telling us to "Flush the fat FAST" by "turning up the heat".

    What do you all think of Diet Pills, as a whole? Has anyone actually had good experiences, or bad?

    Years and years ago, I got on the very first Hydroxycut and Stacker bandwagons. Damn near killed me. Nowadays we see medical professionals like the physicians from The Doctors and Dr. Oz plugging some new groundbreaking (so they call them ALL) miracle fat cure..........I wonder, have we gone from just flashy promises by shady companies hiring pseudo-celebrities to actual medical professionals plugging false hope with a pretty label, for ratings and sensationalism?

    Share your thoughts on all the Diet Pill trends here, I'd love to hear them. :)

    I would never ever recommend any one to use diet pills or any kind of allopathic medicine to loose weight. People have to understand the fact that diet pills may reduce their weight, as they claim, but they also comes with many kind of other health issues. I have heard so many times on public forums or consumer health forums about the side effects of consuming these diet pills.. What a yoga or exercise will do, diet pills can never. Adopt a healthy living life style, follow healthy living blogs like mynahcare to gather information on how to live healthy every day, include yoga or exercise in your routine and there you go - fit and fine body, without extra kilos and healthy mind.

    That's what I think...
  • Shobhituva
    Shobhituva Posts: 20 Member
    I hope people who are using diet pills would understand my point...
  • LokiGrrl
    LokiGrrl Posts: 156 Member
    If they're not amphetamines, they're likely worthless. Unfortunately, those require prescriptions, or risking prison time.

    Trufax. I took them in high school back in the day, when you could still get the amphetamine ones over the counter, not to lose weight, just for the energy and focus (snorted nasty *kitten* bathtub crank for the same reason, ugh). Doc says I was self-medicating. Now I take prescribed amphetamines for ADD, but they didn't even help me lose weight until I learned about macros and started eating low carb at a deficit.

    My mom at one point took the unfortunately named AYDS diet candies in the 70s/80s, which I believe also had amphetamines.
  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
    How many billions of dollars do folks waste on these?
  • CipherZero
    CipherZero Posts: 1,418 Member
    A small number of 'medications' make any measurable difference in losing weight: EC stacks and DNP. And both, done wrong, will kill you.

    Now that I think about it, corpses keep losing weight...
  • xmichaelyx
    xmichaelyx Posts: 883 Member
    Diet pills that actually work are illegal in the US. Everything available here is a placebo. Save your money.
    CipherZero wrote: »
    A small number of 'medications' make any measurable difference in losing weight: EC stacks and DNP. And both, done wrong, will kill you.

    EC stack doesn't kill you if it's done wrong; it kills you if you have a pre-existing heart condition (which people may have and not realize it). 99% of people will have no problem with it, which is why it's still available just about everywhere outside of the US.
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    It seems to me that they're pretty much worthless for most people.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    ill have to be honest about this one. 2 months ago I developed a binge eating pattern as a result of being unemployed and thus unmotivated and depressed. I tried to continue exercising and obsessed over 'clean eating', until my mother came for a visit and saw what a wreck I was. The situation climaxed when we went to a takeaway place to grab something quick to eat. Seeing all the available food overwhelmed me so much that I burst out in tears - I wanted all that food and I hated it because I thought it was gross and I hated myself for wanting it and stressing over it. To give you some background, at the time I had a fairly athletic body and weighed 60 kg with a height of 170 cm, which is considered healthy. It was nonetheless too much for me and my life revolved around trying to shed 3 kilos to go back to my ideal weight. Now my mother was a med student and while she hadn't been a doctor for long, she is well aware of what is dangerous. Her solution to my binge eating cycle was to buy me sibutramine pills (which in the country I currently live in are available over the counter without prescription). The 'speedy' effect that everyone talks about lasted for only one day and didn't bother me that much. Afterwards, my binge eating and obsession over food slowly subsided and I was able to focus on other things and slowly started losing weight. I had regained motivation to have a weekly exercise schedule and re-joined FitnessPal. I have been on this pill for about a month and the results are noticeable. I still eat 3 times a day and I indulge in sweets and fats, however I do it all in moderation. I know these pills do not work for everybody. While on the diet pills, I have still maintained discipline and perseverance and tried to make sure I am eating mind fully. What sibutramine did to me is help me get in touch with my body and get back on the weight loss track. I would, however not take any other diet pill and instead take fish oil supplements, which also help the body feel more satiated after less food. I have read a myriad of reviews about certain diet pills and was not convinced I their effectiveness simply based on the contents of the pill. Sibutramine however, helped me a LOT and helped me regain control of my life.

    Sibutramine, that's reductil, right? I think that's been banned here in Australia for quite a few years.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,030 Member
    Diet pills are usually nothing more than some caffeine and other ingredients that "apparently" have an effect on appetite.
    The con here is that YOU are in control of how much you eat even with an appetite suppressant. Wait what? Because once you stop using it, what you put in your mouth and how much you eat will be your own decision. That is unless of course you're willing to be on a drug the rest of your life. And even then, people will build a tolerance to it.
    Changing habits is what people need to do, not pop a pill an hope it changes it for them.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png
  • owensy12
    owensy12 Posts: 88 Member
    Total waste of time.
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
    EC works quite well and is pretty mild in terms of side-effect profile if you are in good health and use it responsibly. Yohimbine can help with stubborn fat, but I find the sides to be unbearable. Someone else mentioned DNP, which is in a whole other category (that category being 'borderline suicidal' IMO... if you are taking a pesticide that interferes with the fundamental mechanisms of cellular respiration out of vanity, you really need to reexamine your life ). In all cases but the last, the actual impact is fairly small for most people on this board. If you're trying to go from 12% body fat to 8% then EC can be quite helpful. If you're going from 40% to 25%, it's not needed IMO.
  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
    Folks in Independence mo used to do a lot of diet things. Today many are still very skinny, mostly because they have zero teeth.

    What kind of diet pills you willing to put in your system?
  • luluinca
    luluinca Posts: 2,899 Member
    When I was in my 20's, about 40 years ago, there were weight loss clinics women (mostly young ones) would go to and they would basically peddle speed. I was a 22 year old college student, working part time as a waitress in a dinner house to pay the bills, and quite a few of the 25 to 35 year old waitresses went to one of these "clinics".

    One of my best friends there had a heart attack in the parking lot after work one night and died.....she was 26 and her death was attributed to amphetamines. Luckily for me I never tried them.
  • babypunkprincess
    babypunkprincess Posts: 109 Member
    I'm 28 and in my early 20 's i was obsessed with diet pills, i was anorexic and all that fun stuff. Now losing weight the healthy way is much better and diet pills are just *kitten*
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