The Real Deal Behind Diet Pills

Obesity often requires long-term treatment to promote and sustain weight loss. As in other chronic conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, use of prescription drugs may be appropriate for some people. While most side effects of prescription weight loss drugs are mild, serious complications have been reported.

More than 90% of the time, diet pill companies just slide by and fail to include clinically proven weight loss ingredients in the clinically proven amounts. It’s easy to see why so many people don’t trust the diet pill industry. But, now you can get the truth by reading our unbiased diet pill reviews, written by medical professionals!

Alli/Xenical®

The only diet pill approved by the FDA, Alli is the over the counter version of prescription weight loss drug Xenical®. Both types use the drug orlistat as the active ingredient of weight loss. Instead of relying on plant extracts, orlistat has been tested and approved by the FDA as a weight loss medication. Orlistat is designed to block dietary fat absorption in the small intestine. It binds to active enzyme gastrointestinal lipase, which breaks down dietary fat for absorption, and inhibits its function. This inhibition blocks the uptake of up to 30% ingested fat which is then excreted as waste. Blocking fat absorption also blocks certain essential nutrients uptake as well, so those who take orlistat should also take a multivitamin daily to ensure proper nutrition. Side effects of taking orlistat are more severe when the intake of dietary fats is high. Oily spotting, flatulence, urgent bowel movements and fatty or oily stools are the most common side effects.

Hydroxycut

Hydroxycut is one of the most heavily advertised diet pills, boasting quick weight loss without a lot of effort. Hydroxycut is a combination of ten ingredients, dominated by caffeine and hydroxy tea (200 and 414 mg respectively). Hydroxy tea is similar to
green tea and is used because of its supposed ability to increase metabolism and suppress appetite. Other ingredients in Hydroxycut include green tea extract, oolong and white tea as well as a plant extracts from Garcinia cambogia and Gymnema sylvestre. Green tea is said to have “thermogenic” properties in the body which equates to using more calories to generate heat. EGCG and caffeine in the green tea supposedly induce the body to burn more calories in daily expenditure. However, according to new research, the increasing thermogeneis is merely due to the caffeine content of green tea.