Diet pills?

[UndertheCedartree]

Has anyone sucessfully lost weight using diet pills? What ones did you use and what doseage?

Restricting calories
⅓ of your food "dietary fat" no more
Cut down your sugar intake
Drink plenty of water

@AmazingGreats - great ideas, thanks

Unless you plan on taking them for the rest of your life (which I presume would be unsafe) there's no point. People who do quick fixes more often than not pile the weight back on once they've stopped whatever it was they were doing, which is logical really. Far better to make changes that you plan to stick to.

@Retroflex - I've been taking Orlistat for about a year and Metformin for 6 months.

I have read about Orlistat but I'm still confused as you have to eat a low fat diet with it so not sure how much it is doing! Isn't it just the low-fat diet helping!

I'm also not sure how Metformin helps lose weight. It is a med for Diabetes as you say. Does it help your body deal with sugar so you get less calories from that? I'm really not sure!

How active are you? You are probably going to have to work harder than some people to lose weight if you have a history of anorexia. I wonder if you also are underestimating your snack intake?

Since you have seen a dietitian and are being prescribed medication (unusual if it’s purely for weight loss- is it private?) I would recommend asking them for further advice and definitely look at joining a weight loss group. I went to WW for support although I didn’t really follow their plan as such.

With the Orlistat, if you're eating a "low fat" diet, (under 33% fat in total spread across everything you eat), then the Orlistat will bind onto the small amount of fat you're eating, and stop your body from absorbing it, so it would be like eating "fat free", but it doesn't work if you ingest more than ⅓ dietary fat total each day, and it doesn't help if you're eating a lot of sugar, which your body converts to fat ifswim? That's where the Metaformin comes in, because that drug, (much like Orlistat does with fat) prevents your body from absorbing too much sugar, so the less your body absorbs, the less it will convert, the more weight you will lose. If you're already restricting the amount of additional sugar in your diet, then the amount of "naturally occurring" sometimes added in processed foods will be prevented from being absorbed, which again should lead to bigger loses...

@firstimemamma - I'm not sure how long I can take them but I think they are safe long-term. It certainly isn't a quick fix! I've lost 7lbs in a year - not very quick!

The reason I'm on them is that my medication causes weight gain so it is more of a struggle for me to lose weight than the average person. Just to give an example I used to crave chocolate when I had PMT - my meds make me have those cravings all the time. Aside to that even when the dietician looked at my food diaries she said I shouldn't be gaining weight on what I was eating.

Just to give another example of my diet - this is a typical mid-week day:
Breakfast - porridge or cereal, orange juice
Lunch - Egg salad or jacket potato with baked beans, yogurt, piece of fruit
Snack - piece of fruit
Dinner - Omlette, bread roll and salad, vegetable stir fry, tofu and noodles, veg sausages, sweet potato mash and veg Melon fruit salad or yogurt with berries
Snack - chocolate bar or popcorn or weetabix
Water, tea and coffee drunk throughout day.

@MatildaTheCat - I go to the gym once or twice a week and do a sports session once a week. I also do the school run of 40 min walk 4 times in a week. It is possible I am snacking more than I think - I need to have a look at that. The meds are purely for weight loss, the dietician is at a private hospital but I'm refered from the NHS. I definitely want to ask her for more advice but I've been waiting a long time to see her - hopefully will be soon. I agree joining a weight-loss group would be a good idea. There is an NHS one that gives weight loss support and does some kind of exercise - I'm hoping to join in a few months (not possible due to logistics, right now).

@Retroflex - thank you for the explanation - I finally understand! I think perhaps I'm consuming too much sugar.

@UndertheCedartree I've been in "recovery" from anorexia for a number of years now, it's something you'll never truly be over, because it only takes the smallest trigger to set you back again.

I found that joining Slimming World with my Dr's permission helped me to not only lose weight, but forge a more positive relationship with food moving forward.

Its not about what you can and can't have, because that's not sustainable for the rest of your life, and unless you plan to abstain from eating the things you enjoy forever, you'll constantly be yo-yo dieting, and you'll be setting yourself up for failure. It's about enjoying healthy foods freely, and "unhealthy" foods in moderation, with portion control only really used for treats. Even snacking, I'm more likely to have a mini egg muffin, filled with veg from the fridge than anything else, and the protein keeps you feeling fuller for longer. It may be worth looking into...

@Retroflex - I have such an unhealthy relationship with food that when it comes to losing weight I have no idea how to do it healthily and I'm always worried about getting obsessed which is miserable. This thread has helped me find some healthy strategies to use.

The dietician did a session on eating 'normally' - it was such an eye opener! She said things like having a takeaway at the weekend sometimes or eating a large portion of an unhealthy food occasionally is all normal. I thought doing those things were terribly bad and felt guilty if I ever did them!

Please stop calling them diet pills.
They aren't diet pills.

A side effect of them is potential weight loss.

Calculate your Total Daily
Expenditure here

www.iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Subtract 500- 1000 calories
Download MyFitnessPal.
Weigh. Count everything you eat.
You will lose 1-2 lbs a week.

@Kelsoooo - well they're prescribed to help me lose weight - so I would say they can be called diet pills. If you type in diet pills on Google they come up!

@joggingon - if I subtract 1000 is it 630 - isn't that too low? Would it be better to subtract 500 - but then slower weight loss.

It doesn't help that I only cook for myself Thurs-Sun at the moment. But I plan to get the dietician to put me back on a weight-loss diet again.

@UndertheCedartree treating yourself to a takeaway occasionally is absolutely "normal" and I think most people, no matter which "diet" they're following look forward to that meal

A really good way to look at it, in my opinion, is that if you only eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week, then that's 21 meals, (if you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, 7 days a week, then that's 28 meals).

In the grand scheme of things, if you are eating healthy for the other 20, (27) meals, is your 1 takeaway meal going to make that much difference overall?

Yes 630 is too low. Did you calculate TOTAL daily expenditure?

Not your BMR. Base metabolic rate.

@joggingon - sorry I've looked at that again and no it's not that low more like 1000kcal

Still sounds low unless your short. Try 1500 and see how you get on.

@retroflex - that's a good way to look at it.

Also as others have mentioned a diet higher in protein will help you stay fuller for longer. I am 140lbs and aim for a minimum of 140g a day. Not easy. Not necessary but optimal for me.

@joggingon - I'm only 5.3 My TDEE came up as 2064

I'm going to aim for more protein and less sugar.

In that case I would say 1500 was a healthy deficit to aim for. I would encourage you to measure food though. It's amazing how many hidden calories there are when you start looking.