First let me say that I’m totally a diet and exercise guy for weight loss. I’ve never taken any of these supplements and don’t plan to. Still though, I’ve got to admit I’m curious, especially now that I’m a lot heavier than I was this summer. I think that if I weren’t so worried about long term liver/kidney damage (I do enough of that with the bottle 
I would be a sucker for these things.
Are they basicly stimulents? I know that some are ‘fat blockers’ whatever that means. I’m more wary about these than I am of some of the performance supplements, but I’m not sure that those are any better for you either so I avoid them too.
Anybody ‘in the know’ on these various miracle pills?
Just went over this for a pharmacology unit in school…
There are three mechanisms a weight loss drug can work -
- stimulant
- block absorption
- fool with serotonin levels in the brain to make you feel fuller
Stimulants - often caffeine. Raise HR and BP, burning more calories at rest and making person more likely to move around and burn more calories anyway.
Drugs that block absorption - can block absorption of some fats in the intestines. Side effects are gas and oily stools.
Feeling fuller - alters serotonin somehow
Does that satisfy some of your curiosity?
Just went over this for a pharmacology unit in school…
There are three mechanisms a weight loss drug can work -
- stimulant
- block absorption
- fool with serotonin levels in the brain to make you feel fuller
Stimulants - often caffeine. Raise HR and BP, burning more calories at rest and making person more likely to move around and burn more calories anyway.
Drugs that block absorption - can block absorption of some fats in the intestines. Side effects are gas and oily stools.
Feeling fuller - alters serotonin somehow
Does that satisfy some of your curiosity?
Absorption blockers such as Alli, can also cause diatery issues with essential fatty acids, and fat soluble vitamins. They will get blocked by the drug also.
This is bad, but I take those when I have to be at the hospital for clinical at school at 6:00 AM and stay there until 7:00 PM. I don’t drink coffee, and Red Bull doesn’t work the way they claim on tv (wings my ass!), plus its too expensive to drink for twelve hours straight. So a diet pill in the morning keeps me going at least until lunch. A bunch of folks in my classes smoke cigarettes to stay awake, so I guess its not that bad.
Don’t do drugs kids! (unless it comes in bottles of 6, 12, or 24)