people who lost a lot of weight using diet pills

It appears that this is a touchy subject on mfp. I personally don't use diet pills and I am neutral to the idea.
I was wondering why people on mfp don't like the idea. I say this because from the treads that I have read where a person lost weight from using diet pills, I see that a lot of ppl are opposed to the idea or they don't really congratulate the person but instead they tell them that they should have lost weight without the pills for whatever reasons.
So what do you think? Or why does it really matter?

My experience seems to be exactly the opposite of what everyone here is claiming.

My physician has me on Phentermine for appetite suppression. I was given an EKG to be sure my heart was good, and I visit the physician's office every week to check my vital statistics.

From the first day, it succeeded, and I began losing weight. Before that, I did not exercise, I did not pay attention to what I ate, I did not know how many calories I consumed, etc. The tiniest bit of sugar in the morning would send me into an up-and-down cycle all day long.

Once I started the drug, the physician put me on 1200 calories and told me to track my calories on MFP. I started to see how my calories added up -- an extra slice of toast, a slice of cheese, a pat of butter, and my calories for the day were destroyed. To hit my goal, I needed to remove these things one at a time and work my way down. I was LEARNING about food choices. I was able to take the time to learn, and make mistakes along the way, because of the appetite suppressant. Because I was not hungry all the time, I was able to choose when to eat and what to eat. Because I was not hungry all the time, I had time to learn.

For the first month, I did not exercise. I continued everything in my life the same, except that with the drug, I was consuming around 1500 calories per day. I lost 15 pounds that month (5 fat, 5 muscle, 5 water).

At the beginning of the second month, the physician increased the dosage of the drug and told me to hit 1200 calories per day. He also reminded me to start being more physically active. I bought a Wii and started doing Wii Sports. It's not a major workout, but it was more exercise than I had been doing. MFP lists it as aerobic, but I could feel the burn in my bicpes and triceps -- because I had virtually no muscle at all. I have very low testosterone (a lifelong condition) so I have very little muscle mass. I lost another 15 pounds that month (10 fat, 5 muscle).

At the beginning of the third month, the physician and I reviewed the food changes I was making. First, I was eating more vegetables, in particular, a combination of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and celery. Second, I was eating more salmon for Omega 3 and 6 -- having grown up in Iowa, seafood had never been in my regular diet. Third, I barely ate fast food at all, and when I did, it was as a social event rather than a food choice (everyone in the office went out for lunch together). Fourth, I limited my fruit to 1 piece per day, which I split up over 3 meals to reduce sugar spikes.

The physician was pleased, and suggested again that I exercise more. So I started walking. At first, it was a struggle to go a half mile. Then a mile. Then 2. I have kept at it, and now I am walking 5k at 3.5mph. As I lose weight, I can walk farther and faster. The weight loss came first -- the exercise came second. I lost 11 pounds that month (10 fat, 1 muscle).

I am in my fourth month now, and I have continued to learn about food choices. I have added avocado to my diet, and this week I am adding nuts. I grew up in a meat-and-potatoes family that had pancakes and syrup for breakfast, so salmon, avocado, and nuts were foreign foods to me.

This morning, I was down 50 pounds from where I started.

Without the drug, I would not have started learning about food.
Without the drug, I would not have started working on the Wii.
Without the drug, I would not have started walking.

I am still learning about food choices. I am about to start my last month of the drug, and I am reducing my dosage. The drug helped me learn how to eat 1200 calories, but now I am going to learn about how to eat 1600 calories. Then I am going to learn how to eat 2000 calories. I need to learn what I can add to my diet that gives me more of what I need without just giving me more of the same things I am already eating.

Nearly all commentators here bash diet pills because they say that using the pills means the user does not learn about food choices and exercise. My experience is exactly the opposite. By suppressing my appetite, the pills gave me the room to learn about food choices. The pills gave me the room to learn about exercise. The pills gave me the jumpstart that I needed.

Will everyone be able to use the pills as a way to start learning? Surely not. But some of us DO learn from using them.