Drugs for weight loss part 1

Over the last 2 decades, obesity has become endemic in North America and is a major public health issue. It is estimated that more than half of American adults and 10-15% of children are obese. At least a quarter million Americans die each year from obesity related complications. The obesity epidemic is rising exponentially and it is predicted that obesity-related health problems will soon take over tobacco as the nation’s number one leading cause of preventable deaths. It has finally been realized that drastic changes are required to control the obesity epidemic. A newer breed of doctors, known as weight loss experts, has now been brought into the arena of obesity management. And of course when doctors get involved, drugs follow.

One thing that has been acknowledged is that drugs may not be the answer in controlling the obesity epidemic and a change in life style is mandatory. Therefore, along with these weight loss physicians, there has been an explosion of nutritionists, exercise gyms, herbal therapists, psychologists, spiritualists, yogis and a whole host of other experts- all who have been burdened with solving Americas number one health problem. The majority of these so called experts are in the business to make money and Quack therapy is very prevalent in the obesity business.

As Americans continue to increase their waist lines, there has been a resurgence by the pharmaceutical companies to search for the ideal weight loss drug. Many new medications are currently being investigated and a few may be available in the next decade for use. However, there are some problems with drug use in the control of obesity. For the past decade, physicians have been reluctant to use weight loss drugs. This has mostly been due to the side effects and the legal hassles which follow when prescribing these drugs. Today, physicians have only a few drugs to choose from in the battle against the bulge. The FDA has approved two weight loss medications for long-term use—typically a year or more. A few other newer agents have been approved for short term use but this may not be enough to produce the weight loss required.

Despite these concerns, the new breed of weight loss physicians are taking a second look at these drugs in combating the obesity epidemic. It is believed that more that 25% of Americans are now eligible for short term drug treatment for weight loss.

What is the Fast Food diet?

There have been hundreds of diets developed for people wanting to lose weight. While the majority of these diets are restrictive and only allow you to eat breadcrumbs, vegetable and nothing exciting, we now have a diet that allows you to eat your favorite fast food and lose weight.

The fast food diet was written by a doctor who had the common sense to understand that no matter what people say about fast foods, they do taste great. Fast foods are available everywhere, are relatively cheap, fries are crispy and crunchy and the milkshakes beat any home made beverage. It is hard to find any individual who does not like fast foods. Therefore, Dr S Sinatra (no relation to Frank or Nancy) decided to develop his fast food diet that can help people lose weight.

The great thing about Dr Sinatra is that he does appreciate the difficulty with all other weight loss diets and understands what people want to eat. In his book, he does mention that he would prefer everyone eat wholesome healthy grains, vegetables and fruits, but this is unrealistic. So why not adopt a different philosophical approach to weight loss- I agree 100 percent.

So how does the Fast Food Diet work?

When you go to a fast food store, you can order a grilled chicken sandwich, baked potato, fruit salad and a junior burger. You are not allowed to order French fries, no soda beverages and no super sizing. DR Sinatra claims that the fast food diet is healthy because most stores have changed their ingredients and have low fat.

When you order a green salad, order vinaigrette instead of ranch. This will save you calories. Use minimal salad dressing or better still do not order any dressing. Instead of a coke or a Pepsi, get a lemon drink or green tea.

Body for life Diet

Everyone wants a nice looking body that will last forever. Unfortunately, for the majority of people, having a slim trim body past the age of 30 is a real struggle. However, never fear- another diet plan has been devised to help you maintain your youthful sexy body.

Body for life Diet was developed by Bill Phillips. This diet plan is quite rigorous, involves intense exercise and a healthy approach to diet. The aim of the diet plan is to help you like dieting and exercise. If you adopt the body for life diet plan for just 12 weeks, you are set for life. Sounds unreal but read on.

The body for life diet plan is not for everyone. It involves intense exercise with weight training, aerobics and a varied exercise 6 days a week. Some days you lift weights and other days you do aerobics.

The diet involves eating six small meals for 6 days. All the foods you eat are nutritious, healthy and include the typical vegetables, seafood, and rice. On the 7th day, you take off and can go on a eating and/or drinking binge.

The body for life diet book is all glamour and pumping iron. There are tons of photos of people who all look like Mr and Ms Universe contestants. Everyone has the perfect abs, well-chiseled bodies, glistening skin, pumped up muscles and nice tans.

Hydroxycut update

Hydroxycut is a nutritional supplement which has been hyped up to help people lose weight. The product has been around for some years is sold in many health food stores and widely available online. The makers of Hydroxycut, Iovate Health Science claim that Hydroxycut acts like a thermogenic chemical. It can burn fat, increases metabolism and decreases hunger pangs. The primary ingredients in Hydroxycut include garcinia cambogia, gymnema sylvestre, chromium polynicotinate, caffeine, green tea.

No one really knows which ingredient in Hydroxycut is the most important chemical. The vendors of Hydroxycut claim that the supplement can help obese patients lose weight very fast than they would with either diet or exercise. The vendors provide some dubious figures and claim that one can close 15 pounds in just 8 weeks.

Hydroxycut is available in many formulations. Some of these include:

- Pure Hydroxycut
- Caffeine free Hydroxycut for individuals who
are not able to take caffeine
- Hydroxycut 24- this 24 hour weight loss product
releases Hydroxycut in the morning and caffeine
at night (there is no proof that this occurs)
- Hydroxycut for competitive and athletic females

Patient testimonials on cyberspace indicate that the product does not help one lose weight. There are a few patients who claim that they have lost weight but the majority of testimonials are very negative. Many testimonials claim that the company does not give refunds, expects you to buy many supplies and customer service is non-existent. Unfortunately, what is worse is that some unscrupulous doctors have also been promoting this product. Most of these doctors are paid money to talk great about the product and make up fictitious numbers.

As far as randomized clinical studies are concerned, there are none. The only reports of weight loss are those made by vendors of this product.

Weight loss pills & Scams Part 2

The spiking of herbal products and dietary supplements with prescription drugs is nothing new. Many food spices from India and China have been known to be diluted with flour and colored with dye. Just recently there was the melamine scare from China. A number of health supplements have been spiked with anabolic steroids. The health food supplement industry has gone out of control. Every single day there is a new store on cyberspace and the majority of people who run this business have no morals. All they want is your money.

The other problem with these dietary supplements is that many products are fakes and contain numerous contaminants. Other drugs that have been found inside dietary supplement include blood thinners, Phenytoin (anti seizure drug) and even banned prescription drugs.

There is no harm in losing weight but one has to be aware of the health food supplement industry. While you may lose 20 pounds of your waist, but there is a chance you may also end up losing your brain or have a heart attack (many babies in China lost their kidneys from melamine spiked in real milk).

For the individuals who rely on health food supplements to augment weight loss, read about what you buy, check out the product, understand ingredients on the label, and avoid stores which hype up their products with wild claims. As a health care professional I have encountered many “Fictitious” claims made by the vendors of weight loss nutrients and supplements. The market for weight loss is huge and every one wants to make money.

One can never tell which herbal store is selling legit or harmful products. Many people have turned to cyberspace to buy their health or weight loss supplements. In fact this is where the problem starts. Cyberspace is an illusion with a lot of mysterious people lurking behind. These individuals are con men, criminals, charlatans and will give you false hopes with evil intentions. In fact cyberspace is the last place one should ever buy health based items. There are thousands of people who have disappointing stories about their cyberspace experience and weight loss supplements. So be a wise consumer. Times are tough and protect your hard earned money.

Rather than relying on health food supplements or weight loss pills, start the process of losing weight at home. Save your hard earned money to buy something for you or your family- do not just throw it away. Start by walking a little and eat less. Sure, this is not romantic or exciting, but rest assured this method is safe, cheap and will get you the desired results if you persist and remain motivated.

The Morning Banana Diet Part 2

As to how one loses weight with bananas is not known but there are many speculations. One is that bananas block the appetite center in the brain and others say it fills the stomach so you do not feel hungry.

And what do the diet experts in America think about the Japanese Banana diet? Nonsense. There is nothing special about eating bananas. Monkeys have been eating bananas since man evolved and there are no slim monkeys anywhere. And what is so special about not eating after 8 pm? Well, the diet experts claim this is pure nonsense.

So does this diet work? Well, in Japan and everyone else- a few people had some choice words for K Mori- lying b.t.h.

Bananas are a popular fruit all over the world; man has been eating bananas for centuries, and no one has ever made such BS claims before. So going back to K Mori- later interviews posted that said that she may have been hallucinations or was delirious when she made those claims. Most likely reason for her delirium is that perhaps she ate banana skin which is known to contain a wide variety of neuroactive substances. These substances make you say and do crazy things and that is all there is to this banana diet.

For Hitoshe Watanabe and K Mori I want to add that we in America still love the Japanese and love your cars. Now that our car industry is in the dumps, please, let us look after the diet business and you just keep on making good cars- Deal!.

For those still wanting to lose weight, start walking, eat less, join an exercise program, do something.

The only two things that came out of the banana diet is that the obsession to lose weight is global and Japan also has a fair share on monkeys- who fall for idiot diet plans.

The Mediterranean Diet and Weight Loss

Everyone goes Oh and Aha when they first hear of the Mediterranean diet. The diet always appears exotic and presents visions of beautiful slim women on the beaches of Europe. Everyone seems to think if you eat this diet, you will soon like Brigit Bardot. But is this all true? Is this Mediterranean diet the panacea to weight loss?

The Mediterranean diet has been around for many decades. The individuals living around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea had no idea that they were eating a diet that was so healthy. Then one day, some American went to Europe and glanced at all the beautiful slim trim individuals on the beach and the first thought that came to his mind was food. Not the weather, sun, or water, but yes Food. And that is how this diet came about.

Since those days, many North Americans have traveled to Europe and brought back their own versions of the Mediterranean diet. Not to be left out, the Italians, Greeks, Spanish, Turkish, Israelis and everyone else has also jumped on the bandwagon, claiming they have the original Mediterranean diet.

For starters, there is no such thing as a special or original Mediterranean diet. If you were to visit five different counties in Italy alone, you will get 30 different versions of this diet and 20 times as many ingredients. Each locality has its on version of the diet.

Why all the fuss about the Mediterranean diet? Well, it is a widely known medical fact that this diet promotes healthy eating and good nutrition. In the medical literature, there are some who claim that the incidence of heart disease and atherosclerosis is reduced when one eats the Mediterranean diet.

Grape Fruit Diet

The fad to lose weight began some 30-40 years ago. One day, someone in California woke up and thought the nation was getting fat and developed a diet fad. Since that time, thousands of weight loss diets have come and gone. The most common reason why diets have become popular is that the available drugs for weight loss are not safe.

One of the longest surviving diets from the 1970s is the grape fruit diet. The diet has been so long in existence that no one really claims to be the inventor anymore. The effectiveness of the diet is typically spread by word of mouth. The premise of the grape fruit diet is that there is something in this fruit that can help you burn fat and cause weight loss.

In cyberspace, the advocates of this diet claim that one can lose a lot of weight in just a few days by eating grape fruit. Some claim that you can lose 10 pounds in weight in just 12 days. For those who want to lose more weight, there is a waiting period of 2 days before you can restart the cycle again. The role of exercise in the grape fruit diet is a puzzle. Some say exercise, others say do not exercise. Either way you lose weight. Not bad!

The grapefruit diet plan goes as follows:

Breakfast: eggs, bacon, black coffee, grapefruit juice, or half a grapefruit

Lunch: Salad, unlimited lean meat and more grapefruit juice or half a grapefruit

Dinner is more greens, unlimited meat or fish and grapefruit

What is the best non-prescription medication for weight loss?

Everyday, there are hundreds of ads all over the place about the wonder drug, Alli. Each and every ad mentions that one can readily lose anywhere from weight in 2-4 months. Can this be true? Is this the magic bullet for weight loss?

Just what is Alli? Alli is an over the counter drug, approved by the FDA to help individuals decrease body weight. The drug is a generic version of Xenical. Unlike Xenical, Alli is only available at half the strength but otherwise it is the same drug. If you combine 2 pills of Alli, then you have xenical.

However, just like Xenical, Alli also has comparable side effects, which include excess passage of gas, abdominal cramps, the occasional inability to control bowel motion, and generation of oily and frothy stools. The most common complain though, is soiling of the underpants. The reason for this is that the oily stools just leak out of the rectum. While this is not dangerous, it really is not great for one’s social life.

Shangri la diet Part 2

So does this work?

Yes, says Dr Roberts. He lost 35 pounds in 3 months. Unfortunately, neither Dr. Phil nor Oprah ever invited him over because in the whole wide world, this is the only testimonial to the diet.

And what do the food experts say about this? Associating flavor and taste to the appetite center is nothing new but no one has ever shown that eating crap makes you lose weight. If you were to go to the Orient, people eat all sorts of things that we would call crap- snakes, grasshoppers, beetles, rats, cats, dogs, insects, drink urine- and how come they do not have appetite suppression?

The nutritionist and food experts claim that this Shangri la diet is misleading, not practical and full of s…t. No one has ever shown that eating sugar water causes weight loss. Just look at what Coca Cola- it packs calories. In addition, with Coca Cola, people eat more hamburgers, pizzas, French fries, and processed foods. In fact, one study showed that if you fed rats with sugar water or olive oil; it did absolutely nothing- diddlysquat. Damn, the rats just ate more and got fat.

When Dr. Roberts was told that the problem is that people eat pizza and burgers. He says to make the pizza taste like crap, add some cinnamon (wonder where he got his PhD from!). The nutritionists say, more crap. Eating cinnamon has never been shown to decrease weight- please stop your nonsense, Dr Roberts.

So what about the Shangri la diet? Well, Shangri La is meant to be a place of beauty, serenity, paradise and something like heaven. The Shangri La diet is a bunch of nonsense or as we say in America- BS

You: On A diet - Part 2

And what to do the food experts say about this You: on A diet plan. Well this is not a magic bullet to weight loss. There are no rules or diets for everyone. The experts claim that eating the same foods everyday is not only boring but no one can sustain such a diet for more than 2 weeks. Sure, the book recommends exercise and a change in life style, but a person has to eat some decent food!

For fans and students of Dr Oz who understand all about biochemistry, obesity, and metabolism, the book is a great Christmas present to replace the firewood.

For those thinking about a diet program; this book is worthwhile reading at night if you do not have TV. However, for the majority of individuals who really want to lose weight, the diet plan and book are CRAP. It really is not worth spending $ 20 for a book that is dry, dull, and impossible to read after the 2nd page.

All of you who want to lose weight, please do not buy a diet book. Start walking and eat less. There are so many diet books out there; the whole thing has gotten out of hand. Every book makes outrageous claims and this one is no different.

Finally, recently in the news, there has been word that Oprah has ballooned or should we say gotten fat. Hell, we do not need news for that, it is obvious on TV that Oprah is big (and I am sure she is not pregnant- or is she?).

Well, many months ago Dr Oz had personally given Oprah a signed copy of his diet book. Nine months later Oprah is in the news about her weight. When Oprah was asked about her weight, she said the diet plan did not work and she has to lose weight.
She never mentioned what diet plan that she was following. Well, since DR Oz is her favorite MD, does not one think she would have peeked inside the book? Apparently not.

If Dr Oz’s You: On A diet plan had worked, do you not think for one second Oprah would be slim or may be a little less fat?

Well Oprah does have a new trainer and a new diet book, of course, Dr Oz was not included in her new diet plan. Most likely the You: on A diet book is probably in the fireplace.

You: On A diet - Part 1

These days every physician and health care professional wants to go on TV and talk about their latest book on diets. Some go on the Dr Phil Show and some go on the Oprah Show. No matter what specialty the doctor has trained in, they always have advice on how to lose weight. There are some doctors who have never seen a live patient and yet they talk about diet.

Writing and selling diet books by doctors is now a favorite past time in America. One of the reasons why doctors write diet books is that they love to talk big, and plus it brings in money. When doctors write, people think they are right! So now, we have the latest You: On a Diet- the owner’s manual for waist management!

This diet book is written by Oprah's favorite doctor, Dr Mehmet Oz and his partner Dr Michael Roizen. The book talks a lot about waist sizes and how if one was to reduce waist size of the body, weight would decrease (really Dr Oz?). With this diet plan, you do not count calories, just your waist size.

The You: On A Diet book contain the usual details about obesity, waist size and health problems -nothing new there. The You: on A Diet plan starts with a 2 week crash course on exercise and eating healthy. The book says one cannot eat sugars, saturated fats, and all that sweet stuff (are you listening Oprah). While the book says one cannot eat sweet foods it does not dwell much into what one can eat. These doctors claim that by limiting the diet choice, this will lead to appetite suppression. The fewer choices you have, the less you will indulge.

The You: on A diet plan says you got to walk 30 minutes a day and eat 2 meals a day. There are a lot of pictures and how to perform exercise illustrations. Oprah had Dr Oz over on her Show and the book sold really well (am not sure if Oprah read the book-see later). The book explains everything about obesity and at the Oprah show, the word wonderful and super was used many times.