by : Lucinda Reynolds

Being overweight is no laughing matter. It affects your health and it affects your self esteem. The longer you stay overweight the more damage you can do to your body. Obesity can damage your heart because it has to work harder to pump the excess blood through your body. Excess fat can damage your body’s ability to process sugar and carbohydrates and cause diabetes. So what do many people do when they need to lose weight? They turn to diet pills. If you are considering diet pills, you need to be aware of some of the dangers.

Diet pills will have side effects. These side effects can be very dangerous if you have any other health problems. A lot of diet pills contain amphetamines. The side effect of amphetamines is nervousness, increased blood pressure, irregular heart beat and irritability. If you have an underlying heart problem, taking amphetamines could be fatal.

Diet pills also tend to have a laxative and diuretic effect. Excessive diarrhea and urination could lead to dehydration, dry skin, increased thirst and the most dangerous of these side effects, electrolyte imbalance. When the normal balance of sodium, potassium, calcium, glucose and chloride is upset, then you run the risk of having heart problems, muscle weakness and other conditions that can be very dangerous.

Finally, diet pills can be very addictive. A lot of people who use diet pills will find that over time they will need to take higher doses of the pill to get the same effect. They will become accustomed to the way the pill makes them feel and before they know it, they will become unable to function without the diet pills.

So as you can see, taking diet pills is not a good solution to your weight loss. The best way to lose weight is to follow a diet program. Not just any program, but one that will give you the option to choose a variety of healthy foods.

Learning how to eat sensibly and knowing when to stop eating is the key to losing the weight and keeping it off. Frequent small meals throughout the day will increase your metabolism to burn more calories. Getting away from sugary drinks and drinking more water will be very beneficial to your weight loss also.

There are many good diet programs out there that can help you lose the weight. You need to find the one that is right for you and one that fits your lifestyle. Just remember that weight loss is a long term commitment. Once you lose the weight, you must work to keep it off. Falling back into bad eating habits will put the pounds back on again.

Diet pills are not the answer to losing weight. The risks from diet pills are too great. Forget the diet pills and do some research on a healthy weight loss diet. Start eating healthy and you will see the pounds slowly start to come off. It may take some time, but remember, you didn’t just pack on all those extra pounds in one week. Being overweight is a result of months and months of unhealthy eating habits. It took time to put it on and it will take time to take it off.