Are there safe weight loss pills

Your health care professional can assess your individual risk caused by your weight. If you are struggling with your weight, a healthy eating plan and regular physical activity may help you lose weight and keep it off over the long term.

If these lifestyle changes are not enough to help you lose weight or maintain your weight loss, your health care professional may prescribe medications as part of your weight-control program.

Obesity is a chronic disease that affects more than 4 in 10 adults in the United States, and nearly 1 in 10 Americans have severe obesity. Prescription medications to treat overweight and obesity work in different ways.

For example, some medications may help you feel less hungry or full sooner. Other medications may make it harder for your body to absorb fat from the foods you eat. Weight management medications are meant to help people who have health problems related to overweight or obesity. Health care professionals use BMI to help decide whether you might benefit from weight management medications.

Your health care professional may prescribe a medication to treat your overweight or obesity if you are an adult with. If you are overweight or have obesity, you might be able to lose weight with a lifestyle program that changes your behaviors and improves your eating and physical activity habits.

A lifestyle program may also address other things that cause you to gain weight, such as eating triggers and not getting enough sleep.

Most of the weight management medications approved by the U. Two prescription medications, orlistat Xenical 2 and liraglutide Saxenda , 3 are approved by the FDA for children ages 12 and older. Studies show that weight management medications work best when combined with a lifestyle program.

Ask your health care professional about lifestyle treatment programs for weight management that will work for you. When combined with changes to behavior, including healthy eating and increased physical activity, prescription medications help some people lose weight and maintain weight loss.

Losing weight also can improve some other health problems related to overweight and obesity, such as joint pain and sleep apnea. Most weight loss takes place within the first 6 months of starting the medication. Experts are concerned that, in some cases, the side effects of prescription medications that treat overweight and obesity may outweigh the benefits.

For this reason, never take a weight management medication only to improve the way you look. In the past, some weight management medications were linked to serious health problems, and they were removed from U. Possible side effects vary by medication and how it acts on your body. Most side effects are mild and most often improve if you continue to take the medication. Rarely, serious side effects can occur. Choosing a medication to treat overweight or obesity is a decision between you and your health care professional.

Important factors to consider include. How long you will need to take weight management medication depends on whether the drug helps you lose weight and keep it off and whether you experience serious side effects. If you have lost enough weight to improve your health and are not experiencing serious side effects, your health care professional may advise you to stay on the medication indefinitely.

Your health care professional may also. After all, what harm could there be in trying these self-proclaimed miracle cures? The truth is that people around the world waste billions of dollars on diet pills that do not work. This is not great news for people desperate for solutions, and there is more bad news. Giving new pills a try can be costly as well as dangerous to your health. Many poorly regulated or recently withdrawn diet pills are out there, and consuming them can have negative effects.

In the worst cases, they can be fatal. Hazardous diet pills must be taken seriously and should be avoided in all situations. The risks are not worth the benefits. This may feel like there is a sense of safety from pills made free of chemicals and synthetic molecules. Each year there are new self-proclaimed natural cures to obesity, and these pills often come with testimonials of their effectiveness. Always be cautious of testimonials because they can be edited to be misleading or made up.

Often, weight loss pills claiming to be natural still have substances in them that are not natural at all. Studies have shown that many of these natural weight-loss pills contain traces of prescription compounds and other man-made substances.

These potentially harmful substances are often not listed on the label of these products. The Food and Drug Administration FDA monitors natural supplements; however, the agency uses different guidelines for monitoring natural substances than monitoring prescription medications. Unfortunately, natural weight-loss pills do not need to meet standards as high as those for prescription medications.

In fact, many natural weight-loss substances are not examined by the FDA before they are sold. Purely natural substances may still have negative effects. For example, St. There is some evidence that it can treat depression. Even more startling is that studies suggest it may cause anxiety, panic attacks, increased aggressive behavior, and even memory loss.

Be wary of weight loss pills making extraordinary claims. Losing more than two pounds a week may not be healthy, and pills that claim you will lose 30 pounds in 30 days are not only unrealistic but also dangerous. People have made claims for apple cider vinegar and celery juice being miracle weight-loss cures; these claims have proven to be greatly exaggerated. Unfortunately, people hoping to drop pounds may quickly invest a lot of money in these false solutions.

The worst-case scenario of dangerous diet pills is that they can cause death. Other pills have been found to cause cancer. Hazardous diet pills include symptoms from anxiety and depression to high blood pressure to damage to heart valves. Therefore, every diet pill you choose to use must be deemed safe and bought from a reputable source.

Trying to control body weight through diet pills is complicated. Many intricate systems interact with tablets meant to lose weight. If taken incorrectly, there can be long-term metabolism problems. When the FDA first approved Belviq in , the results looked promising. The bar for the FDA to approve weight-loss drugs is high, and this one seemed to meet all the requirements. People did, in fact, lose weight using this drug, which targeted serotonin receptors in the brain that made a person feel full after eating.

This sounded like a win, and it may be tempting for people to try it even today. However, this drug must be avoided. Side effects include dizziness, lack of energy, nausea, constipation, and dry mouth.

Its effects on people with diabetes are especially adverse. Things started looking really bad for Belviq when it was suspected of causing tumor growth in animals. Over the years, it became linked to an increased risk of cancer, especially lung, pancreatic, and colorectal.

And it's possible that they could interfere with your other medications. Your pharmacist can walk you through a cryptic ingredient list and point out any red flags. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Women's Health. Primary Care. Mental Health. More Button Icon Circle with three vertical dots. It indicates a way to see more nav menu items inside the site menu by triggering the side menu to open and close.

Donavyn Coffey. Our stories are reviewed by medical professionals to ensure you get the most accurate and useful information about your health and wellness. For more information, visit our medical review board. There is minimal evidence that over-the-counter weight loss pills work. In fact, you should avoid over-the-counter weight loss pills since some contain harmful ingredients. Visit Insider's Health Reference library for more advice.

Donavyn Coffey is a contributor to Insider.