How to Use Diet Pills Safely

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette, and I'm a registered dietitian, with the Austin Regional Clinic, and I'm going to talk to you about how to use diet pills safely for weight loss. Right now, there is only one diet pill that you can buy over the counter that is FDA approved, that is approved by The federal Drug Administration. That diet pill is is Alli, and that particular pill, the way it works is it actually inhibits your body from absorbing a percentage of the fat that you eat. The diet pill alone won't work. You actually do have to follow their meal plan, and their whole web site offers a lot of information on how to eat. You can actually join an online group through their website for support, tips on menus, meal planning, all those types things, and you also still have to include exercise. That particular drug does come with side effects. If you overeat fat beyond what is recommended you can really suffer some very unpleasant side effects; things like uncontrollable diarrhea, oily spotting, that type of thing. So it is very important again, that you actually do follow a low-fat diet when you are taking that diet pill. As long as you're following the recommendations, and you use it short term to assist you in weight loss it can be a useful aid, and that is truly the only over-the-counter diet pill that can safely been used. Since it has been FDA approved there are checks and balances. There is inspections to make sure that those pills have what they say they have in them. There's a method for filing complaints should you suffer adverse effects. Other diet pills don't have that. They really fall into the supplement category that isn't heavily regulated by the FDA. Typically, with supplements it's not really on the manufacturer to necessarily prove that their supplement is safe. What happens if some way somebody suffers an adverse side effect and they report it. At that point the FDA may start investigating, but they won't do that beforehand. So, there is no guarantee if you buy any other weight loss drug over the counter that it will actually have what it say it has. It may have all types of other contaminates. It could have a variety of things. It may not even have what it says it has on the label. So truly, Alli is the only safe diet pill to use because it actually has been approved and it has been verified that it contains what it says it does. So, something to keep in mind when looking at diet pills for weight loss."