10 Best Pills For Your Weight Loss Journey | Weight Loss slideshows | Well Being center

Xenical

The prescription drug Xenical, which is the same thing as the generic drug orlistat or the over the counter diet aid Alli, is scientifically proven to help you lose weight. It won't help you lose a LOT of weight, but studies show that dieters who take the product lose 4 to 7 pounds (2 to 3 kilos) more weight over the course of a year than those who don't. Xenical is an honest-to-goodness fat blocker. It keeps the fat in food from being absorbed into your body. The problem is that the fat that isn't absorbed has to go somewhere, and fat floats, making stools hard to flush and stinky.

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Photo courtesy of James Heilman, MD by Wikimedia Commons : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xenical.JPG
www.webmd.com/diet/guide/weight-loss-prescription-weight-loss-medicine
http://skinnywithfiber.org/best-weight-loss-pills-2013-shed-those-pounds-and-get-slim/
http://listverse.com/2008/01/02/top-10-diet-pills/
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/dietpillssupplements/a/dietpills.htm

Hoodia

Nobody ever comes back from a safari through the bush country of Namibia with lots of pictures of fat local people. The N!xau people of Southwestern Africa are lean, muscular, and fit. One of the reasons they are so lean is that they chew hoodia. Another of the reasons they are so lean is that they have to forage for or hunt their food, and that takes a lot of work. No scientific study has ever validated hoodia as a clinical tool for weight loss. The research simply was never done before the products came out. Nonetheless, if you have a clear idea of how you need to diet, adding hoodia to your routine may help you stick to your diet long enough and faithfully to get results.

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Photo courtesy of Seth Mazow by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/sethmazow/2221764081/
Vermaak I, Hamman JH, Viljoen AM. Hoodia gordonii: an up-to-date review of a commercially important anti-obesity plant. Planta Med. 2011 Jul. 77(11):1149-60. doi: 10.1055/s-0030-1250643. Epub 2011 Jan 21. Review.

Green Coffee Bean Extract

If Dr. Oz says it works, it has to work, right? Green coffee bean extracts became an overnight sensation after endorsement on the Dr. Oz show. There actually is clinical evidence, in the form of a small-scale trial, that taking green coffee bean extract can help you lose weight IF you are dieting by reducing calories overall. The extract contains chemicals that keep your body from absorbing carbohydrates. If you aren't eating carbohydrates anyway, for example, you are on the Atkins diet, then the product won't do you a lot of good. The good news about green coffee bean extract is that the products on the market reliably contain what they claim on the label, and there are essentially no side effects when used as directed. You may read that they run up homocysteine levels, but this has been happening in people who have various B vitamin deficiencies.

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Photo courtesy of McKay Savage by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/8808055394/
Flanagan J, Bily A, Rolland Y, Roller M. Lipolytic Activity of Svetol®, a Decaffeinated Green Coffee Bean Extract. Phytother Res. 2013 Dec 12. doi: 10.1002/ptr.5085.

Stacker 2

Stacker 2 is a blend of herb-sourced caffeine, an herbal ingredient to help you stay regular, and an herb that relieves inflammation. It won't melt the fat away, but it will help you burn fat if you are both dieting and active--at least a little. This kind of product might make a difference of about 1 kilo (a couple of pounds) a month, and it really won't help if (1) you already drink a lot of coffee or tea, so you are already getting caffeine or (2) you take aspirin on a daily basis anyway. If you don't drink more than a cup of coffee a day and you don't take aspirin, however, it will help a little--as long as you diet.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Radcliff by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/chris_radcliff/126426966/
Greenberg JA, Axen KV, Schnoll R, Boozer CN. Coffee, tea and diabetes: the role of weight loss and caffeine. Int J Obes (Lond). 2005 Sep. 29(9):1121-9.

TrimSpa

TrimSpa was America's first widely marketed hoodia extract weight loss capsule. The product has been formulated to include other popular weight loss ingredients, including green tea extract, chromium, vanadium, glucomannan, and glucosamine, and since 2013, also theobromine, the energizing ingredient from chocolate. Will Trimspa help you lose weight? Well, it sometimes does, but it is more effective for people whose diets include at least some caffeine from coffee, tea, or soft drinks, because the green tea catechins are only helpful when taken with caffeine, and it may be more helpful for people who haven't been getting enough fruits and vegetables, who will have a stronger response to chromium and vanadium.

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Photo courtesy of Kurtis Garbutt by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/kjgarbutt/5586744390/
Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission reaches “New Year’s” resolutions with four major weight-control pill marketers (4 January 2007).

Akavar 20/50

Akavar 20/50 is a weight loss product made by Basic Research in Salt Lake City. Reprimanded by the US Federal Trade Commission for making claims that the product could induce "staggering" weight loss, the maker of this produce has more recently been claiming that it is good for "automatic calorie restriction." While you may in fact lose an additional pound or two if you take the product, it does not restrict calories you take in. The caffeine in the product--if you don't already drink coffee, tea, or caffeinated soft drinks--may help your body burn fat just a little less efficiently so your lose weight just a little faster. "Staggering" weight loss isn't a result of using this product, however.

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Photo courtesy of Bill Brooks by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/8011986@N02/2681415971/
FTC targets Utah weight-loss products, Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 17, 2004 by Jenifer K. Nii.

D4 Thermal Shock

Cellucor D4 Thermal Shock (R) Fat Burner High Energy Capsules are advertised as inducing "extreme fat loss." They contain a mixture of amla fruit, a traditional Ayurvedic herb, with caffeine and white willow bark, which contains a chemical very similar to aspirin. The caffeine in the product helps you body burn fat, but only for a couple of hours after you take it, and only if your body is burning fat rather than storing fat. That is, the caffeine in the product does not work if you are overeating. It only helps if you have successfully managed to consume fewer calories than your body needs. Amla and white willow bark may in fact relieve some aches and pains, and they may reduce inflammation in belly fat that traps water, but their effects are not guaranteed.

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Photo courtesy of Udo by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/optikfluffel/5375557828/
Rister R. Healing without Medication. Basic Health Publications, 2003.

Hydroxycut

Despite the hyperbole in its advertising, Hydroxycut actually does work for weight loss, and the benefits may be substantial. Using Hydroxycut may enable weight loss in the range of 5 to 10 kilos (11 to 22 pounds) over what can be achieved by diet and exercise alone. Don't count on an "enhanced sensory experience" and "super-thermogenesis," however. The ingredient that makes the formula work is green coffee bean extract, which contains chemicals that slow down the body's absorption of carbohydrates after meals. The pancreas does not have to release as much insulin to keep blood sugar levels down, and there is not as much "extra" insulin in circulation to help store fat. Basically, this product keeps you from putting pounds back on once you take them off--but that's a major plus. You still have to stick to your diet. This product just helps if you slip.

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Photo courtesy of Luis Jimenez by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/luisdjt/6988675911/
Flanagan J, Bily A, Rolland Y, Roller M. Lipolytic Activity of Svetol®, a Decaffeinated Green Coffee Bean Extract. Phytother Res. 2013 Dec 12. doi: 10.1002/ptr.5085. [Epub ahead of print]

Lipozene

Lipozene (a product sometimes marketed as Propolene outside of North America and the UK) is a simple formula featuring konjac, an herb that is more often used as a thickening agent, especially in sausages, to give food a fatty mouth feel without the actual fat. The complex carbohydrates in konjac slow down the movement of food through the digestive tract and help you feel full longer. They also keep fat and carbs from being absorbed into the bloodstream, and may lower cholesterol. Lipozene works best if you don't overeat. If you do, you may become gassy and bloated. But if you can stick to your diet, this product will help you feel less hunger.

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Photo by shutterstock.com
Reichert RG, Lyon MR, Kacinik V, Gahler RJ, Manjoo P, Purnama M, Wood S. Decreasing cardiovascular risk factors in obese individuals using a combination of PGX® meal replacements and PGX® granules in a 12-week clinical weight modification program. J Complement Integr Med. 2013 May 7.10. pii: /j/jcim.2013.10.issue-1/jcim-2012-0003/jcim-2013-0003.xml. doi: 10.1515/jcim-2013-0003. PMID: 23652638

Zantrex-3

Zantrex-3 High Energy Fat Burner offers a combination of yerba mate, caffeine, guarana, damiana, schizonepeta, black pepper, "Tibetan ginseng," green tea, "Thea sinensis" (tea) complex, Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng, also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine), maca root, and kola nut. The common denominator of all these ingredients is caffeine, and caffeine has a small, incremental effect on fat burning. To burn fat, however, your body must not be storing fat. You have to restrict calories enough that fat cells are breaking down stored fats into fatty acids to be burned by the muscles, which is to say, you have to be exercising, too, for caffeine to do you a lot of good. Moreover, the effect of caffeine only lasts about 2 hours after you take the product. You have to avoid eating, work out, and then take the product. Taking this product with a meal won't do you any good. Taking it just before or just after exercise, however, may help you burn another 1/2 pound to 1 pound of fat a month, if you stick to your diet and exercise program.