When we talk about dieting, we can't ignore the hundreds of ads for miracle capsules that promise to make you lose hundreds of kilos and get your perfect body. Under this advertising hype and fad experiences, some people promoting these products may fool others.
In this article, we'll learn how slimming drugs work inside the body, how to pick the right pill for you, its side effects on your health, and which ones are safe to use.
Here are the key guidelines related to slimming drugs:
- When can we say a weight loss drug is effective? It’s when you lose 10% of your weight in six months.
- Slimming drugs become less effective if you rely entirely on them without following a diet.
- People with chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes may face serious health risks if they take slimming drugs incorrectly.
- Slimming drugs vary in the market in their active ingredient, effects, and side effects for each.
Here are the most popular types of slimming drugs:
First: Drugs that control appetite and boost feeling full
These slimming drugs work by directly affecting two important hormones in your body, serotonin and norepinephrine. By acting on them in a certain way, you feel full all the time. Don't take any appetite suppressants without medical supervision because they can have serious risks and side effects.
Side effects:
- Chronic diarrhea because these drugs contain an herb called senna as a main ingredient. Senna makes the stomach digest food fast and clear out all nutrients, causing chronic diarrhea and dehydration by forcing the body to expel all fluids. Using it long term also weakens the stomach's efficiency.
- Sudden and sharp high blood pressure.
- Severe depression that can even lead to suicidal thoughts.
Second: Drugs that block the body from absorbing fats
These types of weight loss drugs force the body to expel fats from food as waste, meaning your body doesn't absorb these fats and reduces fat absorption from food by 30%. But they only have a very limited benefit, maybe about 5% effectiveness alongside dieting.
Relying on them completely doesn't lead to any results like Orlistat does.
These types prevent your body from benefiting from any vitamins because they also make the body get rid of vitamins and can cause depression.
Third: Drugs and pills for weight loss and fat burning
This type is the most common in the Arab world. Some are herbal like green tea pills, green coffee pills, and garcinia plant.
But these products are almost ineffective and also negatively affect the digestive system, nervous system, and mental state. There are chemically composed fat burners too, like ephedrine, Lipo6, African mango, and others.
Fourth: Taking diabetes drugs to burn fat
Actually, a lot of people take diabetes drugs to lose weight. The main reason they take them is because these drugs reduce the amount of glucose sugar the liver produces and stimulate muscles to consume large amounts of glucose and burn a lot of calories.
These types are the most dangerous weight loss drugs I advise everyone to avoid because they can make you prone to diabetes by disturbing the insulin hormone in the body and causing it to go off its normal level. They also cause imbalance, general weakness, sleep problems, stomach issues, and increased heart rate like with Sydophage and Metformin.
Now, how do you find the right and effective medicine to lose weight:
There is no magic pill that will make you lose weight overnight, but you can rely on nutritional supplements and vitamins that suit you and will be determined by a nutrition expert and consultant.
