Weight loss can sometimes feel like a cruel joke, like a game that you have been designed to lose. It’s easy to feel frustrated, discouraged, and impatient during your weight loss journey. Sometimes you feel like considering what seems like a faster or easier route. When deciding to use weight loss pills they can become enticing amid the struggle.
If you are considering using weight loss pills there are several things you need to keep in mind. The following will break down the things you need to be aware of when deciding to use weight loss pills and the factors you need to be conscious of when deciding which weight loss pills are worth spending the money on and which ones are safe to put into your body.
Weight Loss Pills Are Not A Quick Fix
Before we begin, a myth about weight loss pills needs to be dispelled. At the moment, they can feel like an easy solution to your problem. However, when considering including them in your weight loss journey, you need to keep in mind that there will come a day when you stop taking them. And when that day comes, if you have not established the right habits and mindset, it will be all too easy to wind up back where you started.
Whether you decide to use weight loss pills or not, you need to be cultivating a healthy mental perspective on food and weight as well as developing healthy habits. It might seem foolish to you, to focus on your mindset when you aim to lose weight, but study after study has proven that your beliefs about yourself have a massive impact on all areas of your life, including your body. Beginning early on in our childhoods, our minds have been programmed to believe certain things about us and the world around us. It is not uncommon for these beliefs to be entirely wrong or harmful:
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I’ll always be overweight, no matter what I do. I’m just meant to be bigger.
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Exercising is awful and uncomfortable and there is no way I’m ever going to like it.
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Vegetables are gross. I won’t ever find any I like. It’s hopeless.
You get the idea. It takes a serious, concentrated effort to alter these self-limiting beliefs. Your mind is insanely powerful and it always wants to be proven right. This means that if you don’t tackle these beliefs, no matter what products you use, no matter what habits you instill, your mind is going to find a way to make sure the things it is expecting will still happen. All change begins in the mind. Weight loss pills are not going to tackle that part for you.
Pro: Weight Loss Pills Can Work (If They Have The Right Ingredients)
Foremost, you need to learn about the ingredients that have been scientifically proven to assist with weight loss. Experts from BestHealth.org break down effective ingredients into three main categories. An ingredient can have a positive effect on your weight if it has been proven to:
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Increase metabolism or boost your energy expenditure
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Help with appetite suppression
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Assist with improving motivation or focus
Always research the active and medicinal ingredients in any weight loss pills you are considering. Not with just a quick online search, but by looking into the studies cited and reading the actual studies. It’s sad and cruel, but many online descriptions of products can be biased or designed to manipulate purchases without any scientific evidence to back them up.
In particular, those seeking weight loss are easy targets as they are often extremely emotionally invested in the idea of losing weight. If the active ingredient has not been proven to do one of the things mentioned above, it is not worth your time or energy, because it is not going to work.
Con: Additional Ingredients Can Be Harmful To Your Weight And Your Health
Beyond the active “weight loss” ingredients, you need to research the other ingredients as well. Many weight loss pills containing an intense amount of stimulants, which can inflame anxiety and other mental health struggles, can ruin sleep (and therefore inhibit focus, motivation, and productivity, as well as have negative effects on mood, weight, and relationships…go figure), and can negatively impact blood pressure.
It is a good idea to research each ingredient’s effect on the gut biome as well. Many pills and medications can kill off good gut bacteria in your intestines, which can affect your digestion long term, and by extension, affect your weight loss progress. This also can have a brutal impact on your emotional and mental state.
Of course, every person is different, and no one weight loss journey will look the same. Always listen to your bodily responses to what you are ingesting. If you’re worried about allergic reactions or feeling doubts of any kind, speak to a healthcare practitioner before taking supplements.