The weight loss industry has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past 30-40 years because of a variety of reasons, but the main reason is arguably the changes that our society has gone through regarding how we eat and the nature of our jobs. In the old days, we could eat whatever we wanted because we would burn away those calories by doing what we needed to do to simply survive. These days, of course, we’re a lot more sedentary so we’ve had to take steps to make sure we stay healthy.
Diet Products
A proper diet is one of the two big things that have to change in your lifestyle to lose significant weight. There are the big-name diet plans, and a lot of people have read a review such as the Nutrisystem program and come to their own conclusions.
Despite the success of these plans, many people have difficult time sticking to their diet; so there are a variety of products they use to help. Most such products can be placed into one of the following categories:
Appetite Suppressants – These products act on the hypothalamus, the part of your brain that is the core of your hunger drive. Without your hypothalamus, you would literally not have the desire to eat and you would starve. So we need it to survive, but it can go into overdrive and cause cravings and overeating. Appetite suppressants work by lowering the drive of your hypothalamus, reducing appetite and increasing the sensation of being full. Many appetite suppressants contain stimulants and as such those who have high blood pressure or heart disease should consult a physician before taking them.
Fat Burners – These products trigger the hypothalamus, causing it to produce adrenaline and cortisol. These substances in turn cause your metabolism to burn a greater amount of calories. Many athletes, in fact, use fat burners to enhance their metabolism when they need to make weight.
Fat Binders – Fat binders are relatively new on the market and they work by absorbing consumed lipids before they go into the small intestine. What this means is that up to 3/4ths of the fat you consume is not absorbed. Fat binders do have side effects, including gas, diarrhea, bloating.
Prescription Diet Pills – These products are primarily for obese adults, i.e. those who have greater than 30% body fat. They can help you lose up to 10% of your body fat in six months or less, but keeping it off long-term still require the necessary lifestyle changes. There are non-prescription diet pills as well, but they are considerably less effective and often have more side effects. The FDA regulates both types of diet pills.
Herbal Supplements – Herbal supplements are all-natural, often side effect-free products that are not regulated by the FDA. You can buy them at any health food store or pharmacy, but always check with your doctor to see if they will interact with anything else you are taking.
Exercise & Lifestyle Changes
There’s more to weight loss than just dieting and taking some sort of pill to help you. Those pills aren’t going to be the cure-all you want, you have to get out there and be more active. Walking, running, biking, playing a team sport – all of these are simple ways that you can get exercise without having to resort to the tedium of push-ups, sit-ups, and the like. No matter what your goals from your workouts may be, there are great tips at www.weightlosstriumph.com where you can find out more about how to improve your health.
Melissa Cameron is a married homemaker with two children. She enjoys spending time with her wonderful family, dabbling in digital photography, and loves learning about new things. Her current passion is getting back into shape and losing a little weight while improving the eating habits of her husband and kids at the same time. He is working on articles on a variety of topics where you can learn more about images for websites.
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