Amen, Kaplods. Amen.

I personally have never taken gimmicky pills. I've never known anyone who took them for weightloss, lost all the weight and kept it off after. So, didn't seem like a good bet.

my sisters friend used to take them....needless to say the weight never stayed off for long. I don't take it. It is slow but its healthier. I have PCOS and insulin resistance so its even slower for me, but I know I need to do it. The thought of maybe having a kid down the road. Or getting tiny and showing other people in my house that yes I can do it.....that it isnt impossible keeps me going. try drinking more water and upping the exercise.

What Kaplods said, 100%.

I absolutely agree with Kaplods aswell! I think just eating healthier and cutting meal sizes down is really the way to go. It is for me anyway, it can be hard going but the results are better in the end. You also have more of a chance at keeping the weight off. Good luck xxx

Another great post Kaplods. So true!! I have lost hundreds of lbs and put them all right back on and then some because I didn't change my attitude about it. I needed it to be quick or I would throw in the towel. Making simple changes on a daily basis all add up and you will get to your goal. Patience is a virtue....and I have finally figured that out!

I, too, agree with kaplods that it's something that isn't good and needs to change. However, if I'm following a healthy plan and sticking to it, I don't see the problem using something to help out.

I'm not sure if this makes sense, but if I'm using something (even if it's just a mild tea mix like the Crystal Light peach/green tea metabolism booster) it helps me focus. It becomes something like the structure of a bigger routine of eating healthy. I get a similar effect from carrying around my glass water bottle — if I'm drinking out of it every day, it reminds me that I'm following a plan.

I wouldn't use the scary products that make you feel like you're going to have a heart attack, but the drink mixes or even Alli (I tried it and experienced no side effects at all. I only remembered to take it once in a while, though, so I stopped buying it) I think are fine if you feel like it helps you, even if it's just emotionally. You wouldn't rely on a fancy running shoe to make you become a runner, but if you feel like they help you and you're running either way, why not?

I don't see a problem with using safe products to assist in weight loss, even if it's a psychological assist. My husband uses a green tea supplement and he swears by it. I suspect it's psychological, though I do drink quite a bit of green tea hoping it might help somewhat. And I eat as much spicy food as I can, not only because I love it, but because of it's possible metabolic boost), the problem is with "needing" rapid weight loss (regardless of the method to acheive it).

It's a dangerous myth, but it's a common one, and if you believe that you "need" to start a weight loss plan with a big jump start and that you need steady, rapid weight loss to stay motivated, it becomes true.

I don't care if you're using all natural whole-food diet to accomplish the rapid weight loss, if you only are motivated by rapid weight loss, you may be dooming yourself to failure, because no matter WHAT your weight loss method, it is going to slow down eventually. Even starvation diets (as in no food at all), slow down eventually.

I would argue that virtually everyone who goes off a diet, does so because the effort is perceived to be greater than the payoff. One starts to see slow weight loss as failed weight loss. A small loss or a no-loss week begins to seems "as bad" as gaining. And if it feels "as bad" as gaining, it makes quitting very tempting.

It's the classic, traditional weight loss cycle. "Everyone does it."

And that's the real problem. We're "taught" to do weight loss in a way that is not sustainable. We're "taught" to see small and slow weight loss as demotivating, as failure. When I was a WW member, I would often receive consolation rather than congratulations from the weight recorder if I lost less than 3 lbs. I know I weighed more than 300 lbs, but damn it, 2 lbs was still a good weight loss, but I didn't see it, because I was taught to expect 5 lbs.

We see it here on 3FC every day - someone concerned that they're failing because they "only" lost 12 lbs in three weeks and they once lost faster (or they saw someone lose faster on The Biggest Loser).

The myth of fast weight loss being "necessary" for motivation is killing people who are giving up when they can't get what they believe they "need."

If I had seen slow weight loss as acceptable - and if the people around me would have seen it as acceptable and taught me to see it as acceptable, I probably would have succeeded on my first diet in kindergarten.

But even in kindergarten, I saw how dieting "was done" by my mother, my grandmother and their friends, by the people on tv, and at 8 years old, I saw it in the women I met at Weight Watcher's meetings...

I heard thousands of women say in my lifetime "slow weight loss is demotivating." It was virtually never stated as an opinion, or a mindset, it was stated as a universal fact that everyone accepted as true.

It took me 4 decades to learn that it isn't fact, it's an opinion that has become self-fulfilling prophecy to the point that most diets fail. Most diets fail, it is my sincere belief, because people are seeing failure where there is phenomenal success.

Every time someone writes or says "I ONLY lost 3 lbs this week" I feel like my head is going to explode. You almost never hear "I lost an incredible 3 lbs this week," even though a loss of 3 lbs (even for someone over 300 lbs) IS incredible - most people who want to lose weight don't do it, especially no consistently, so why is it seen as "only."

Look at popular magazines, they're getting crazier and crazier "Lose 30 lbs in 10 days... the cover advertises, and the story features one person who was able to lose that, but their starting weight might be 500 lbs, but the advertisement on the cover doesn't say "Lose 30 lbs in 10 days - if you're 19 and weigh 500 lbs and have never been on a diet before." It just reads "lose 30 lbs in 10 days," as if anyone COULD do it, if they just tried hard enough.

I know, it's a peeve of mine, so I'm getting on a soapbox here, it just really eats at me, because I think almost everyone who attempted weight loss, could succeed the FIRST time, if we weren't taught to have such insane expectations for weight loss.

If slow weight loss was seen as every bit as legitimate and wonderful as fast weight loss, there'd be no reason for anyone, ever to give up.

This should be a bumper sticker, or a t-shirt. Or something.

Well, everyone is different.

I haven't been one of those who are fortunate to be able to lose weight quickly or easily. For me, losing weight is super duper hard. I have only found two ways where I really did lose weight, and both of them were very hard for me. One was unhealthy (eating 1000 cals or less per day, while working and going to school full time), and the other was cutting out certain types of carbs, similar to a zone-type diet.

For me, a jump start to weight loss would be really emotionally uplifting for me. I know I can't lose weight long term like that, but being able to see that I can lose weight, when at times, it seems almost impossible, would be helpful to me. But, that is just me. I am also in a bit of a weightloss funk right now, as I have put on like 8 lbs in a month, so, I am a bit unhappy about that. sigh.

BUT, I will keep on focusing on writing out my food and watching my calories, etc. Tomorrow, I will cook dinner in i don't know how long. I have not been eating enough protein, so that is my first goal---more protein and fruits and veggies!

Neither have I. Losing weight is hard, but it won't get any easier as you get older or gain more. This I *know* as I have lived it. Also, if you continue to do these crash diets or quick fixes you are screwing up your metabolism. Middle aged with a whacked up metabolism is NOT where you want to be down the road.

Just being upfront honest with you. You need to decide to do what works for you though in the long run.