An acquaintance of ours we hadn’t seen in a while, who’d always been kind of chunky, lost about 30 pounds! She looked great! I asked her what she did to lose the weight, and she said, “My doctor put me on diet pills – it’s the only thing that’s ever been able to work for me.” I was mildly shocked, because first of all, I hadn’t even HEARD of diet pills for several years now. Also, I always thought they were unsafe. But I couldn’t argue the fact that she looked great and said she felt great too.

So, my question for Bill and the other “experts” – what is the latest info on diet pills? Are they any safer now than I remember them being in the early 80′s? Are they effective – for example, is it likely my friend will simply gain back the weight? HABIT has nothing to do with it. All the evidence we have suggests that if you discontinue the diet pills currently available, you’ll regain the weight you lost while taking them over the next 6 months to a year. Patients in Weintraub’s 4-year study at the Univ. of Rochester were placed on a diet and exercise regimen along with medication (here, a combination of phentermine and fenfluramine).

Even 3.5 years of proper and eating and regular exercise weren’t enough to halt the inevitable weight regain when the drugs were discontinued, even though the subjects were still following the diet/exercise regimen. This isn’t completely surprising: these drugs affect metabolism and energy expenditure as well as suppressing appetite. Indeed, the subjective appetite-suppressant effects of these drugs usually diminishes markedly after 6 months or so. However, the drugs still help with weight loss, and when the person plateaus, continued administration helps maintain that new weight.

I’ve finally decided to do something about those handles around my middle. They aren’t large, just annoying. I’m 6’0″ and 160 lbs, but I still have those handles. Can anyone offer suggestions on exercises to tone them up? Regular sit-ups just aren’t making a difference. Exercising a muscle near some fat will have no effect on the fat different from exercising some other muscle. Spot reduction does not exist in this sense. To lose love handles, you have to lose fat. To lose fat you have to consume less calories than you expend.

Eat less exercise more. Both aerobic and strength exercising are useful. I disagree slightly with the person who said “eat less exercise more”. To be a fit and healthy person means not starving yourself. If you begin to exercise more your body will consume more calories but will also begi to feed on your muscle mass if you do not take in the proper calorie to activity ratio. The best way I found to lose weight,is to cut the fat out of your diet. I cut out all red meats and pork and stay away from most fried foods. Read the labels people. Diet sensibly. To starve oneself to lose weight is insane, and it just doesn’t work.

It is short term weight loss and you WILL regain the weight you lose. One should NEVER stave yourself. All that will happen is that the BMR will adjust, and you will have more trouble losing weight. When I’m trying to lose weight I eat about 2700 KCal/day, down from about 3200 KCal/day. This is hardly starving myself. As a general rule one should probably not eat less than maintenance minus 500 KCal, even while dieting.