Have you ever taken 'diet aid' pills?

HellieCopter

Gold Member
After WI the other day, I went into the chemist. I wanted to talk about Alli. I know I'm not eligible for it, and it's got mixed results...but I just wanted to talk about it with someone vaguely 'medical'. I wasn't really considering taking it but I was curious.

Anyway, after a long discussion with the pharmacist, he established alli wouldn't be suitable for me anyway (I knew that!) mainly because I am already on a low-fat diet. But (and this is the point I'm getting round to!) what he did recommend was another diet pill.
I was really surprised that a pharmacist would recommend a diet pill - he was more like a salesman! This tablet is a 'starch neutraliser' that is a concentrated extract of something in a white kidney bean, called Phase 2, and is natural and safe. Basically it's supposed to stop your body from producing the enzyme that digests carbs....stopping you from absorbing up to two thirds of the starch your body gets from the carbs you eat. He said he'd taken it himself (hmm?). I was very sceptical but I was in a low place, having gained last week. So I shelled out £15 for 90 of the suckers.

I have never taken any kind of diet tablet before. I have taken multivitamins and stuff, and once I took HRI water tablets when I was seriously bloated in the hot weather. Anyway...

I am currently taking one tablet 10 mins before a meal that's got carbs in it. I haven't changed my SW diet in any other way. If you're interested, I'll report results in my diary. To be honest I am not expecting it to do anything! But I will still take them....seeing as I've spent the money on them. Not noticed any side effects from them at all.

But aside from telling you what I'm taking, I just wanted to open up a discussion about diet pills/aids and the things you've tried to lose weight....
 
Thank you for sharing this with us Hellie, I would be interested to see your results, and I hope they work for you.

I honestly don't think that I would be tempted to try them, but if it helps you and any of the other dieter's on here, then good luck to you all.

The only 'diet' aid tablet that I have taken have been Aqua Ban really and usually only for a couple of days at a time.

Good luck to you. X
 
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Hey Hellie,

Good luck with them, if im honest anything that claims to be a 'fat' blocker or 'carb' blocker is pretty much nonsense. They are sold on the basis that the pill 'binds' to the fat/starch/carb and passes it through your body without you absorbing it as calories.

Sounds great doesnt it?!

In all fairness if they worked why isn't everyone taking them super slim?

Im training for my personal training qualification at the moment and im doing nutrition as part of it and from a scientific and medical stance they are no good and mostly physcological. Serval studies have taken place with placebo's for these types of pills and the people who lost weight were the ones who changed their eating habits and upped their activity level.

Sorry to put a negative spin on things hun, hey they may make a difference to you as everyone's body is different :)

In the past i have taken thermogenics which are terrible for you. They speed up your heart rate and some contain epherdrine or an ECA stack (ephedra, caffine, asprin) and they are really bad. I used to hammer these with protein shakes and little else. It was a bad time for me and i constantly had a bad gut and felt like i was on speed 24/7. I stopped when someone in work collapsed and their heart stopped after being on similar thermo's and i was physically worn down with them.

There is also a herbal alternative which contains White Willow which imitates the same reaction the ECA stack does. It gives you a bad tummy and you feel like you have had amphetaime due to the amount of caffine in them.

I understand so much more now after studying nutrition and i can honestly say i will never touch a diet pill again for the rest of my life!
 
I don't mind a negative spin at all! It's good to hear opinions and knowledge from anyone with more experience than me.
As I said, I'm pretty sceptical about it. This one doesn't claim to bind to the starch per se. Reading around the web, it claims to inhibit the production of the starch digesting enzyme in your body.
A lot of the sites I've seen are trying to sell the product and I've found little of what I consider valid research.
Phase 2® Starch Blocker, 600mg (90 capsules) That's one of the better ones. Not the brand I'm taking though.

If it doesn't work, it's done me no harm (I don't think!!)

Thermogenics sound seriously scary!
 
If it doesn't work, it's done me no harm (I don't think!!)

Thermogenics sound seriously scary!

Thermo's are, and very easy to get reliant on.

Just a little tip, try and pop to your local health food shop and pick up some milk thistle. With a lot of diet pills they contain all sorts of bulking agents that are are not very good for your liver. Milk Thistle will help cleanse your liver and avoid the bulking agent from not being broken down in the digestion process.
 
I haven't taken anything but have often contemplated it when passing the "health food" stall in the local town. I'm a bit of a scardy cat though, never smoked, don't drink, never touched anything remotely drug related, ever!! I daren't as I don't know what will happen to my body.
Anyway, a very good friend of mine took herbal appetitite supressants for a long time, she swore by them. She got them from the t'internet. Being a fuddy duddy, I never approved but they worked for her.

See how you get on for the course of them Hellie, the results will be interesting chick. xxx
 
After WI the other day, I went into the chemist. I wanted to talk about Alli. I know I'm not eligible for it, and it's got mixed results...but I just wanted to talk about it with someone vaguely 'medical'. I wasn't really considering taking it but I was curious.

Anyway, after a long discussion with the pharmacist, he established alli wouldn't be suitable for me anyway (I knew that!) mainly because I am already on a low-fat diet. But (and this is the point I'm getting round to!) what he did recommend was another diet pill.
I was really surprised that a pharmacist would recommend a diet pill - he was more like a salesman! This tablet is a 'starch neutraliser' that is a concentrated extract of something in a white kidney bean, called Phase 2, and is natural and safe. Basically it's supposed to stop your body from producing the enzyme that digests carbs....stopping you from absorbing up to two thirds of the starch your body gets from the carbs you eat. He said he'd taken it himself (hmm?). I was very sceptical but I was in a low place, having gained last week. So I shelled out £15 for 90 of the suckers.

I have never taken any kind of diet tablet before. I have taken multivitamins and stuff, and once I took HRI water tablets when I was seriously bloated in the hot weather. Anyway...

I am currently taking one tablet 10 mins before a meal that's got carbs in it. I haven't changed my SW diet in any other way. If you're interested, I'll report results in my diary. To be honest I am not expecting it to do anything! But I will still take them....seeing as I've spent the money on them. Not noticed any side effects from them at all.

But aside from telling you what I'm taking, I just wanted to open up a discussion about diet pills/aids and the things you've tried to lose weight....

Never considered taking anything like that & don't think I ever would.

My thoughts are that if it was a quick fix with no complications then they would be prescribed to everyone who is overweight, could potentially save the NHS millions!

Sorry to be so negitive. I just think they could potentially do more harm than good.
 
Great share there hun!

I've been tempted before...especially when I gained the weight. Having never been as heavy as I got, I was in denial and hated the fact I might need help. So in Boots there were times I looked at them but never bought them. They start at a fiver up to the more expensive pills, and like GCH said, if they worked (especially the cheaper ones), supermodels would be out of business ;)

But I did try that stupid maple syrup diet once, the one where you get a can of this mix and use it to make up a drink (you don't eat for 2meals). It was awful. It's water, maple syrup mix, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. It worked cause it was so nasty you didn't WANT to eat after it. But it was dangerous and after the first day, feeling tired and faint I thought 'wtf am I doing?'. I was annoyed at self for thinking of putting body through such a stupid and dangerous crash diet and that's when I found SW.

Now, back to pills...

if it's not going to harm you, there is no harm in trying. I know you're not daft so I know you'll stop if you get any weird side effects etc. I hope they do help honey, but there is a chance the only lbs you lose are the £££ variety. Not wanting to rain on your parade or anything, I just think you're already on one of the best plans you can be ;)

Keep us posted and hope they prove me wrong :D

xxx
 
I took Xenical and hated it...didnt work anyway, especially with being on the SW diet too.
I would not consider taking another diet pill as I'm not convinced that they work. Ive even tried slimming patches that were supposed to surpress my appetite. All they successfully did was bring me out in blisters!!!
I would be interested to know how you get on though Hun.
xx
 
I've never tried any sort of diet pill but im aware as a nurse that the diet pills that claim to bind find do in fact this but what they dont tell you is these tablets cause extreme belly ache, flatulence, anal leakage...yes drops of fat leak out from your bottom :eek: and when you go to the toilet to move your bowls most of it its fat and grease which isnt being utilized in your body! not something i'd like to go through rather do it the old fashion way! :)
 
i know! I've heard it before from a friend who tried it that she used to wake up in the morning with grease all over the sheets and Pjs cos you cant control it! yuk needless to say she stopped taking them after that! :jelous:
 
Tee hee where do i start

Diethylpropion - made me moody, paranoid, spotty, dry mouth (lost a lot of weight but i couldn't cope with other stuff)
Phentermine - as per diethylpropion
Alli - Had all the known side effects (not pleasant)(even when following sw diet at same time)
Thermapro - These worked with no bad effects but were banned in the uk
Nowslim - Worked for week 1, didn't work after that (gave me sore heads)
Holland and Barrat's own brand - Didn't work
Adios - Didn't work one bit
Chinese Herbal - Didn't work for me
Pink Patches - made me feel relaxed all the time but didn't lose

As some of you know, i have shelled out an absolute fortune over the last 10 years ish and nothing has really worked. I was the person who would always try all the new ones out. After all of the above i'm the heaviest that i have ever been in my life. Sooooo i have vowed never to let another slimming pill pass my lips. I'm going with sw 100% now.

But hellie, i'm still interested to see how you get on with the carb blockers hun so let us know xxx
 
I've taken Reductil and Alli (Orlistat). My answers are going to be quite TMI, just warning you.

I was prescribed Orlistat years ago when i was very very big (over 20 stone).

Orlistat is seriously horrible. For want of a better description, they make you pass oil out of your bottom. You leak involuntarily and the smell is really bad. That starts to happen almost immediately. If you do not follow a very very low fat diet on Orlistat this WILL happen. It is not worth the humiliation. I wouldn't recommend it, not even if you are at home all day.

Reductil I fared a little better. The purpose of Reductil is to make you feel as though you don't want to eat. To be fair, the tablets make you feel ever so slightly car sick or seasick. Not so much that you are incapacitated, just enough to make the thought of eating anything quite repugnant. If you girls are on Slimming World, this defeats the purpose as they always say, the more you eat, the more you lose on SW.

Also, Reductil made me very constipated. Perhaps this was part of it's evil plan.

I would say that both diet pills were not worth taking if you are following Slimming World 100% to the letter, though when I first started SW, Reductil did help me with my erratic cravings for food I really wasn’t hungry for. I only stayed on them a week at a time before I found I could come off and properly get into the SW eating plan. However, they also raise your blood pressure to unacceptable levels, I found I woke up in the night sometimes grinding my teeth and you have to go and see your GP every fortnight to have your blood pressure checked.

I also did the cabbage soup diet. I did it when I was 18 for 3 and a half weeks and lost 3 stone in a month. At this point I was 11 and a half stone I also put back on twice that when I came off it over the period of about a year.

At two other periods in my life I tried the cabbage soup diet pills you can get from Holland and Barratt’s. Apart from giving me tremendous heartburn and making my burps taste like cabbagey vomit, they didn’t do me any weight-loss favours and I hated them.

There really really is no magic pill. I would say a lot of these pills are, as another person said, ‘placebos’ – particularly the over the counter ones. The prescribed ones are really last resort only. I see that a month course of Alli costs somewhere in the region of £40/£50 is that right? Save your money and spend it on lots of lovely free food because you are, literally, throwing your money down the toilet with these pills.

You’ve given me a GREAT blogging subject for today though, so thank you! :D
 
I wondered when you’d chip in Betty! I remembered you were a pill popper…

Thanks for all your input – it’s really interesting to read. Jay…like you, I have always been scared that I am the person that any kind of drug is going to kill! So I’ve totally steered clear of anything like this in the past.

And…to be honest with you all, I very nearly didn’t post about taking these now. I’m actually a bit embarrassed that I’m taking them. It’s not like me at all. I’m a diet and exercise girl, and that’s what I believe works. But if I can’t be honest with you lot, who can I be?! :)
Sticky – I agree that I’m already on the best diet plan out there at the moment…so why should I need anything else? Firstly, I can’t believe I was suckered into spending £15 on 90 tablets…and without doing any research of my own (which is sooo not like me, I am a big researcher!). I’m surprised a trained pharmacist would recommend them.


So, anyway – if there’s any ‘wow’ results I will let you know…obviously! But I seriously doubt it.
 
Wow, this is such an interesting and fascinating thread. Thanks Hellie and to everyone who has contributed. xxx
 
LOL!! Eek i have a reputation on minimins:eek: x

LOL! Only with me I think hun. I just remember talking to you about it ages ago, and how we got you to throw loads of your old pills away ;)
 
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