Why Are Weight Loss Supplements Ineffective?
Can weight loss supplements and diet pills really help you lose weight? Scientists believe they’re ineffective, misleading, and potentially dangerous.
If you’ve ever spent any time researching techniques for weight loss, then you’ve surely come across weight loss supplements. Otherwise known as diet pills, these are substances marketed as being effective at helping you lose weight.
Unfortunately, the marketing behind weight loss supplements is highly deceptive. They are often advertised as a miracle solution that will make you quickly drop pounds without requiring any extra effort.
In reality, weight loss pills do not work this way. They are often entirely useless and any weight loss is attributable to a placebo effect.
Making matters worse, the side effects from weight loss supplements are significant and dangerous.
All of this makes a great case to avoid using supplements marketed as weight loss solutions.
Reasons Weight Loss Supplements Might Not Work
We’ll analyze why weight loss supplements are ineffective below to encourage you to turn to a healthier alternative:
1. Exercise Is Required
To start, you should understand that exercise is required to see results from any weight loss supplement.
This is something that many diet pills are intentionally abstruse about. Just about anyone can take a simple pill, but committing to regular exercise is another story.
Because of this, more people are inclined to take a pill because it seems like a quick fix. In reality, it won’t do enough alone to make a significant difference in your weight.
For example, some diet pills contain chitosan. This is meant to prevent your body from absorbing carbs and fat.
While this may sound useful, neither carbs nor fat are responsible for your body weight. Instead, it’s the number of calories you consume versus how many you expend.
Carbs and fats are relevant to calories as each contains a different number of calories per gram. From here, you can say that fat contributes to weight gain because it has the most calories per gram, but it is not the fat itself that is the problem.
With this in mind, when a supplement is paired with exercise, there is a greater chance of losing weight because you’ll burn more calories; not because you take that supplement.
2. Study Findings Are Inconclusive
Next, it’s important to know that the limited number of study findings that do exist are inconclusive and relatively insignificant.
Extensive research has not been done on most diet pills. For something intending to alter your body composition, wouldn’t you want to know that it’s been thoroughly vetted?
Some diet supplements have been studied to some degree and the results have not been positive. No pill effectively causes weight loss alone.
However, some studies have indicated slight progress that favors effectiveness. It might be discovered that patients taking a pill lost a few pounds more on average compared to someone who is taking a placebo.
For something marketed to cause dramatic weight loss, a few pounds of lost weight is nothing and can easily be attributed to something else. It could be water weight, lack of eating, or several other factors that can cause a slight fluctuation.
This means that dietary supplements aren’t yet tested and the results that have been discovered aren’t good.
3. Potential Side Effects
Another problem with diet pills is the plethora of potential side effects you might experience while taking them.
Almost any medication or supplement you take comes with the risk of side effects. These are meant to be uncommon, but some pills cause complications at an alarming rate.
Side effects can range from relatively minor like lost sleep and irritability to more severe challenges like organ damage, high blood pressure, and an abnormal heart rate.
Each pill is a little different and it depends on the specific ingredients. As supplements are found to be unsafe, they are banned and removed from public sale.
Should you suffer from the side effects of a diet pill, speak with an attorney to see if you’re eligible for compensation. Otherwise, steer clear of them to avoid unnecessary risks.
4. Weight Loss Is Formulaic
Lastly, you must keep in mind that weight loss is formulaic and cannot be shortcutted.
We mentioned briefly earlier that weight loss is about spending more calories than you consume. This is known as a caloric deficit.
The only way to lose weight is by consistently operating in a caloric deficit. Any weight-loss method is using this logic in some way.
Think about a diet. Diets are designed to reduce portion sizes and have you consume lower calorie foods. This results in fewer calories eaten per day, which should eventually have you losing weight.
Where diets are ineffective is when you are still meeting your maintenance calories. This is the number of calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current weight. It varies based on your height, gender, activity level, and body composition.
This is the same reason why any weight loss technique is ineffective; you’re not collectively burning and consuming fewer calories than your maintenance level needs.
With this in mind, you have the secret to weight loss. By improving your diet and exercising regularly, you should naturally begin to consume fewer calories and this should have you in a deficit. Over time, this will add up and you’ll lose weight.
Diet pills cannot circumvent this formula. They may attempt to cheat by suppressing your hunger or burning fat, but neither is sustainable nor effective.
A Diet Pill Can’t Replace A Healthy Lifestyle
Diet pills are highly ineffective and particularly dubious. The way they are marketed is predatory toward the vulnerabilities of people looking to lose weight. This makes them susceptible to making an emotional purchase for something that promises the impossible.
You should understand why weight loss supplements aren’t effective. A few notable reasons include:
- Exercise is also required;
- Study findings are inconclusive;
- Many have potential side effects;
- And weight loss is a formula that cannot be beaten.
As enticing as a quick fix to weight loss diet pills may seem, it’s not something that can be solved overnight.
It requires a lifestyle change and a serious effort to change your body. It is possible if you have the right motivation, which does not include these ineffective weight loss supplements.