Are Diet Pills Safe

Diet smart this summer

For college students, summertime means beach, pool and swimwear season – and inevitably, staying-in-shape season.

Many students work hard during the spring semester to lose weight or reach their fitness goals by spring break or start of summer. However, maintaining that regime is often difficult as schedules change, access to fitness equipment may be limited, or students just don’t have the motivation once classes are out and they are free to relax.

Some students alter their diet if they feel their exercise regime is lacking. Meal replacement diets such as Slim Fast or the Special K diet are often popular among young, on-the-go students.

“For many people, Special K cereal, Slim Fast and Lean Cuisines provide a convenient way for people to get a quick meal and also be aware of how many calories they are consuming,” said Sheenan Quizon, assistant director of health education and prevention and Student Health Center dietitian. “Replacing one to two meals a day with these types of products can be safe, but I discourage my patients from solely relying on these products.”

According to Ralph Lane, health and nutrition professor at the University, meal replacements may work initially but can’t be maintained long term.

“These kinds of diets cannot be maintained for very long because they are monotonous, so the dieter returns to their regular eating habits, and the weight returns,” Lane said.

Currently, several diet pills and exercise supplements are targeted toward young people, as celebrities profess rapid weight loss or muscle gain. Both Lane and Quizon caution against the use of these pills or exercise stimulants.

“Diet products can wreak havoc on our metabolism by disrupting our electrolyte balance, GI function, and other body mechanisms in order to get our body to drop weight – usually water weight – that has been sacrificed from muscles and not actual fat tissues,” Quizon said. “Many of the products can also cause rapid heart rate, irritability, sleeplessness and other undesirable effects that can do long-term damage to our metabolism and make it more difficult in the long run to lose or manage weight.”

“There are no fad foods or pills that maintain weight loss and/or health for an extended period,” Lane said.

According to Lane, weight loss is a simple equation of burning more calories than you intake in a day. Exercise should be a part of any diet.

Q&A: are the acai berry diet pills safe for a teen girl whos 13 ...

Honestly, most, if not all, diet pills are never a good idea. Acai berry pills and supplements I haven’t heard much about for being effective in weight loss (They are rich in antioxidants, but that does not mean they will make you lose weight.), but at your age you should be able to lose weight in a healthy manner by increasing your activity and/or switching up your diet. Try that first. I wouldn’t resort to the pills immediately, because even if they may not stunt growth (And I don’t know if they do or not) you never know what side effects you may encounter.

I’m thirteen too, fourteen next month and I lost 7lbs in two weeks eating 2 meals a day and biking 1 1/2 miles every night. It’s possible without diet pills ! After a while… loosing weight became harder so i lost my motivation to go biking and to diet as i felt i wasn’t getting anywhere with it even though i was. I turned to diet pills around four weeks ago 2 weeks into them i got spots all over my torso and chest, i took a weeks break with them while i went on vacation, returned and started them again 3 days ago. Now i have severe stomach cramps and am in a lot of pain.

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