Hello All,

Frist of all I know diet pills are not the answer, But I took a diet Pill and lost 90 pounds in a year. My starting weight was 260 pounds. I exercised alot and ate smaller portions. The diet pill I was taking was Phentermine. But I went through my doctor. I am new here and would love to here from you.

Anske

Welcome to 3FC

While this forum does not advocate/endorse the use of diet pills, we have had a few members who used prescription diet pills under a doctors' supervision.

Here's one thread for example - Have you heard of Phentermine?

MichelleRae, one of our mods, has been using Meridia under her doctor's supervision - I'll see if I can get her to add her two cents.

Like MrsJim said, we're not the biggest fan of pills! All over the counter pills should be avoided. Some prescription pills are ok - I work with a man that has been trying to lose weight at least as long as I've known him - about 10 years. With Phentermine, he's lost about 50 pounds and has about another 75 to go. He has monthly appointments with a nutritionist, and is evaluated by his Dr on a regular basis. I prefer not to take them but that's just me.

Congrats on your weight loss!

Hi there!!

You are correct diet pills are not the answer but as my doctor told me "sometimes your body needs a little help" I've taken Meridia off and on for a year and a half now and it has helped immensley but the problem I run into is that the pill really does a lot of work for me and once I stop taking it my weight creeps back on. I'm currently off of the pill trying to lose weight all by myself and even though I have to push myself pretty hard I've finally decided to just do it and do it all by myself although I would love the help of a pill but for me it's time to go it alone lol.

Congratulations on your success!!

Thank you for your replys. I know that Diet Pills are not the answer but I am still proud of what i have done. The Phentermine just help me not want to eat all the time. I am now on my own and trying to loose weight. And I am glad to have a support group. I have joined many and no one will respond to me. So thank you for that. When I was on Phentermine I did it through my doctor. I went in every month to be checked. I wouldn't do it if my Doc said it was not ok. I didn't just take a pill I exercised 5 days a week on my Toney Little Gazelle. I worked my self to 5 miles a day. It was hard work. But now I am at a stand still and need a boost. Thanks

I'm new here so I don't really understand the 'diet pills are not the answer' atmosphere people here subscribe to. I personally don't subscribe to that idea at all, peopel have tried weight loss by willpower alone w/o changing biochemistry for 100 years and it has failed miserably. There is some good info on current prescription, developing and OTC pills at this website. However it is subscription so you can only get a basic idea.

http://www.obesity-news.com/otc.htm

Thanks for the link, Juche. Good site.

I think you make some good points and I personally don't "subscribe" to anyone's "atmosphere" ... I admire anyone who is trying to fight obesity whether by responsible use of medication or not. But I just wanted to note, that the idea that all or most people have failed miserably at weight loss by willpower alone just isn't, in my opinion, proven. Lots of people, in my opinion, including me, have lost weight and kept it off without the aid of medication.

I think one problem is that a lot of people are not following the right diet, so they find it more difficult to stick to. Then they think they have a problem and need help in the form of diet pills. This can happen if you try to diet too strictly, follow a very restrictive diet plan, etc. The most successful diet plan isn't even one you'll find in a diet book. Most people that lose weight and keep it off did so by doing their own thing. They cut back portion sizes, increase exercise, and the weight just comes off. Slow weight loss is OK, as long as it's healthy and safe. And exercise is a natural appetite suppressant

The vast majority of people I know that have been successful did not take any medication, either OTC or prescription. I only know two people that have taken phentermine to help them lose weight and they had bad results because they could not maintain their weight loss or didn't have the confidence to eat without it. One woman had to stop taking it due to health complications, but then she regained almost all of her weight because she had never had the chance to learn how to diet properly. She didn't have the same level of independence, or self control that comes from within because she didn't have to develop it. In my personal opinion, I think that if a diet drug is called for, it should be prescription only, and that it should be used as a jumpstart (if called for) but should not be used longer than a few weeks at most.

In my opinion, you are right about the prescription point, Suzanne ... and the jumpstart nature of the thing. Also, in my opinion, this kind of intervention should be used mostly in the case where obesity has become an imminent life-threatening event, otherwise there might be time to wait, take it a step at a time with lifestyle changes (e.g., diet and exercise).

In my opinion, it just takes a long time to achieve major weight loss and maintenance of the loss. So anyone thinking of medication and not being in danger of dying immediately (sorry to sound gloomy but IMO dying is sometimes a result of severe obesity as I have reason to know) could maybe, with the guidance of a medical professional, afford to take a slower approach to working their chosen program, because in the long run, in my opinion, it IS possible to lose weight by lifestyle changes and frankly willpower (won'tpower in my case). It just takes time, failing and coming back and doing it again and again and again and again and ...

I'm certainly not trying to create an argument here or anything, but I do want to add another perspective. So please just take this as someone else's opinion as shaped by her experience, nothing more.

Our society seems to focus on the "failure" stories, and the sad end result is that many people give up trying to lose weight before they ever even begin. Or they go to extreme lengths to lose the weight and end up -- many times -- putting their health at risk.

Because you are 100% right, Juche. "Willpower alone" is not enough.

IMO, PATIENCE is key. Too many people want the weight off NOW, and aren't fully prepared for the length of the process. The media bombards us with TV shows showing glamorous women who weigh 110 lbs, and then a commercial comes on promising us X pounds lost in just "a few short weeks" if we buy their (usually overpriced and often highly-processed) product.

Losing weight is one of the hardest things I have ever done. It takes much more than willpower. If willpower alone could get us anywhere, I don't think ANYONE would be overweight (or in debt to their credit card company for that matter).

"Willpower" implies that we have power. And we do. But not 24/7. By our very nature, humans have times of weakness. And if your (or my) times of weakness tend to be when food is in the equation, then we're going to cave in eventually. People with food issues can't avoid food for life like a recovering alcoholic. We can't say "I'm 3 months food-free." Food is always there, and the human will is simply not always strong enough to say "no" when we know we should.

Losing weight takes extreme patience and stamina for the long-haul, hard-core planning of meals and exercise, and (for me at least) some pretty significant soul-searching and mental/psychological shifts regarding one's relationship with food. It means controlling your environment in regard to food. It takes supreme determination in the face of a society that is designed to make you fail -- walk down any food aisle in any grocery store (LOL, other than the produce aisle) and ask yourself how many products on those shelves are packed with sugar, seven-syllable additives, and contain basically nothing more than highly-processed ingredients? And how many actually contain (marginal) amounts of what your body wants and needs? Willpower alone will not get you in your car on a snowy Saturday morning to sweat yourself silly at the gym. It just won't. Believe me. What will? Determination, belief in yourself, HABIT, and just plain persistence. When Nike picked "Just Do It!" as their slogan, they weren't kidding.

I haven't failed miserably . And there are tons of ladies and gents on 3FC who have had magnificent success! This week I've noticed more threads announcing "So-and-So Made it to ONEderland!" than I've ever seen before. Just cruise through some of the threads and look at some tickers...you'll be AMAZED by the amount of weight people have lost through better food choices and exercise.

IMO, UNLESS someone has a medical condition that effects their ability to properly metabolize certain nutrients and/or that limits their ability to utilize stored energy (fat) and/or has some other actual MEDICAL weight-loss limiting disorder, then they can lose weight. I believe that if an otherwise healthy person can GAIN the weight naturally, then they can lose the weight naturally. It's simple math. Calories in, calories out. But "simple math" DOESN'T mean it's a simple process. It is a tough and trying road. But it CAN be done; people all over the country do it every single day -- and the majority of us do it by eating less, by choosing better foods, and by exercising.

Just the opinion of someone who HASN'T "failed miserably," but who still wishes every single day that willpower was enough.

Kate, I agree with all your points! When I mention "willpower" (or "won'tpower"), I really mean all the things you list ... I guess I mean the power of my will to continue to do all the things I need to do to succeed, like eating right and exercising, over and over and over again and doing it over again and again when the willpower fails. I don't mean some magical state where I am able to resist all temptation to overeat or to eat the wrong food or whatever. If I resist 70 percent of the time, I'm doing good.

That said, I'd have to add that I did find it quite easy to lose the original weight; I'm not sure why that was, but it was a breeze because I didn't cut cals to the point of suffering and I enjoyed every step of the journey as the weight just dropped off.

It's at the lower weights that I found myself having problems and wishing for "willpower" of the magical variety. The real "willpower" is about commitment, patience and developing a habit of try-try-again when backsliding happens ... which it invariably does, as you say.

Fair enough. I have no problem with your personal view and don't want to start an argument either. But in my personal view, obesity is a like mental illness, say depression. If people try hard enough then a small percentage can overcome depression by mental effort alone. But it is better to focus on medical and pharmacological cures that work for 80-90% of people that don't require so much effort.

Another problem I see with the mental effort solution is that people have alot going on in their lives. They have families, careers, financial issues, hobbies, sexual relationships, etc. The last thing they need is to make weight control another major factor in life. In her book 'making a case for yourself' Susan Estrich says to lose weight and keep it off (maybe 30 pounds, which is only 100,000 calories at the end of the day) you have to make it a full time job, no different than being a full time mother or employee. But someone who is a mother and employee already doesn't need the extra stress and workload of being a full time dieter. It is better to just take a pill and get it over with so you can devote your life to the more important things in life like family, friends, philantrophy, hobbies, education, etc.

But at the end of the day everyone makes their own decisions. Before antipsychotics hit the market therapy alone was making little headway in turning extreme schizophrenics into functional members of society. There was therapy galore, but not until we changed the biochemistry of mental illness via medication so that we gave schizophrenics a biochemistry that more closely matched that of 'normal' members of society did we start seeing major improvements. The number of people hospitalized for schizophrenia dropped around 80% from what I remember after antipsychotics hit the market. The beneficial effects of therapy were minor compared to medication and I feel dieting is the same way. Mental effort will work for a minority over the long run, but only if they make it a central focus in life and only a small percentage will be able to do that. I'd prefer a solution that frees up mental energy to devote to other life goals (career, family) and that has a much higher success rate.

Even several of the methods of lifestyle changes that are promoted to lose weight are just natural drugs.

here is a short list of lifestyle/dietary changes that are becoming popular because studies show they help with weight loss.

Eat a high fiber breakfast
eat a high fiber diet in general
get adequate sleep
eat alot of dairy

However fiber just makes you feel full and stabalizes blood glucose levels, no different than some diabetes or diet medications. Adequate sleep promotes healthy levels of ghrelin and leptin. Dairy supposedly just inhibits calcitrol levels. IMO, trying to get adequate sleep to lose weight vs taking a ghrelin blocker (when they invent one) to lose weight are no different, the end result is the same. But people get to that result via different methods.

So my view is that people are already trying to do what drugs do. They are engaging in lifestyle changes (high fiber diet, eating dairy, getting enough sleep) that do the same thing to their body that diet drugs do. They change the internal biochemistry to make their bodies a little thinner.

I myself have lost 50 pounds and have little problem keeping it off these last two years with just lifestyle changes (better diet, high fiber breakfast, more protein, more sleep, more exercise). But everything beyond 50 pounds requies far too much effort to be worth it if I had to use mental effort alone. I'd rather just take some pills and devote my time and energy to school and family rather than trying to control my appetite.

Hi Juche,

First off, congrats on your 50 lb weight loss! AND congrats on 2 years as a maintainer! Those are both fantastic achievements.

And you bring up some really interesting points. I have Bipolar II and I've been on meds for about 8 years now, and you're right that mental work is generally not the solution for depressive or other mood disorders. My life without my meds would be unbearable and I know (from years of attempting it) that all the determination, persistence, soul-searching, etc. in the world is never going to cause my brain chemistry to shift over to "normal" mode no matter HOW hard I try.

And I also see your point about people having such busy lives these days that maybe taking a simple weight loss pill would make everything easier and less stressful. It is definitely a valid point because so many of us are over-worked, over-booked, and over-stressed. And I am afraid that's what is so appealing about these pills. I say I am "afraid" because -- OBVIOUSLY -- I am not a big fan of diet pills. But like you said, everyone makes their own decisions, and in the end, it is up to the individual to determine which path is right for them. I choose not to go down that path, but that doesn't mean I judge those who do -- because they know what is best for them and I, quite obviously, do not .

As for me, I choose to make exercise and good nutrition a central focus in my life and (although I never thought of it this way until you mentioned it) I also choose to make it a full-time job. Mostly because it's my full-time body. So I guess now I can say that in addition to my 3 part-time jobs, 21 credit hours at school, and adding 3 - 5 "prison puppies" to my 5-pet household every weekend , I also have a full-time job of exercise and good nutrition. But for me, any amount of effort is worth it to keep my body healthy (and boy, does that "full-time job" pay well! Great benefits, too.)

So given the choice between taking a pill to lose the weight and working for it, I choose to work (despite my chaotic schedule). Because for me, it's about SO much more than "just" losing the weight. It's about being healthy, having energy to spare, and being strong inside and out. If there was a pill that I could take that ensured weight loss PLUS had the added side-effects of good cardiovascular health, better sleep, a finely-tuned digestive system , higher energy, a great sense of personal pride, fewer sick days, increased self-confidence, a naturally elevated mood, toned muscles, increased stamina on the ski slope, clearer skin, and a greater appreciation for the body I call home, then I'd certainly take it. But for now I'll stick with good old-fashioned exercise and healthy food. Because the side-effects are actually the best part!

But again, as you said, that is only one individual's decision.

Thanks for your thoughts, Juche. It's a perspective I hadn't thought of before, and I appreciate you taking the time to post. Whatever method people choose, I wish them success and hope that -- no matter what -- they stay healthy.

Also not wanting to argue, but in my personal opinion, obesity is not a mental illness in the vast majority of cases. IMO, it's more often than not simply a result of eating too much of the wrong kinds of food and moving too little. There are instances where that's not the case and it's totally cool when medical science can step in with medication that might help alleviate whatever is causing the problem. But IS there an 80-90 percent success rate in people taking weight loss medication? (Unless you mean 80-90 percent success rate for people taking depression medication ...) ...

Dunno. I think applying some focus and mental energy on the project of me not weighing 247 pounds was well worth it.

But again, I'm not necessarily anti-medication or anti-anything or anyone ... whatever people chose to do is up to them and more power to 'em.

I just don't think it's mutually exclusive to lose weight by diet and exercise and at the same time to have a life, family, career, whatever. I think success in the weight loss arena would tend to lead to success in other arenas of life as well.

I think I just don't get the need for medication in most instances of needing to lose weight in the absence of a specific medical condition that precludes it.

Agreed 100% Amarantha. I forgot to mention that (very important) point in my post. To my knowledge, Prader-Willy Syndrome is the only disorder which can lead to obesity that can be even remotely considered as a "mental illness." Which it isn't. It's a developmental disorder in which the brain never fully developed the structures necessary to regulate hunger. Over the years, I've taught several students with Prader-Willy -- and interestingly, not ONE of them was overweight, much less obese. A fact which in and of itself can go a long way toward proving that managing obesity is about managing your environment. If these kids who didn't even know what "being full" FELT like can maintain a healthy weight...well, you get my point I think.

I was obese (with a BMI of 34.0+) for nearly a decade. I didn't have a disease; I ate far too much of all the wrong foods and NEVER (intentionally ) exercised. End of story.