What's in our diet pills?

I've been unavailable for a couple weeks and I haven't posted anything for almost 3 weeks but I have been doing a lot of research. One article I read by accident was in the New York Times about the FDA. I promise you this is not boring. Anyone who is trying to lose weight needs to know this.

The FDA or Food and Drug Administration that regulates the manufacturing of vitamin supplements and diet pills has been called on the carpet for knowing the dangers of a chemical called BMPEA used in supplements and other pills and keeping quiet for the past two years.

All of this is now coming out in the open because Canada health authorities have called this chemical a "serious health risk" and banned the chemical from being used and pulled the products containing BMPEA from the shelves. This product was pretty widely used in nine different supplements.

Now it's been published that the FDA isn't properly policing the supplement industry because top regulators come from that same industry. It's like sending the Fox to guard the Hen House.

All of this comes at a time when the Federal Government is trying to put more regulation on the supplement industry that would include diet pills.

I've never been a fan of taking diet pills but I know many people trying to lose weight will get desperate after trying dozens of different diets. I've written lots of posts about diets and why they don't work, but having said that, I also know that desperation will cause people to use desperate measures and "pills" are a desperate measure. In my experience, pills will do more harm than good. Let me explain. Diet pills will usually cause quick weight loss of a few pounds but not without side effects. Some people become very nervous, others become weak, sometimes diet pills affect your sleep habits. And if you can't sleep that causes a whole new set of problems.

Some people are already on prescription drugs and then introducing a new drug can cause bad side effects and could counter your other drugs. Diet pills are more than just a supplement like vitamin D. Diet Pills are chemicals that will change behavior. And that's exactly what they are supposed to do. The simplest form of diet pill will at least curb your appetite. So the manufacturers think that if we can get you to eat less, you'll lose weight, it's that simple.

But it's not that simple. Losing weight is about losing body fat. If you don't eat properly you might lose some weight, but you'll be losing mostly muscle and you might actually increase your body fat but still lose weight. I hope I didn't confuse you. You can lose weight by losing 10 pounds of muscle in your arms and legs but add 3 pounds of fat to your waistline. You step on the scale and you weigh less, but your waist is getting bigger.

How can that be? How could I lose all that muscle? Actually, most people who lose weight will lose more muscle weight than fat. Muscle weighs far more than fat. If you look at a turkey, for instance, a raw whole turkey has yellow fat inside the Caracas,   take a cup of pure fat and then a cup of pure white breast meat and weight each one and you'll see the meat weights more.

So why do we lose more muscle than fat? Because you have less appetite and eat less, you lose your energy. You have to eat quality foods with lots of nutrition to keep up your strength and keep you active. You get your energy from the food you eat and you need that energy to stay active and burn fat.

I'll follow-up on this later in the week. There is a science to losing weight and I'll write more about the science and why heavy people can change and we shouldn't hold them responsible for their weight until we know the whole story.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of website looking for the material you want. 

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon, BN.com, iBook, kobo, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smash words.com. If you use the smash word promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (PJ42H). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.