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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Appetite suppressants

Try as I might, I can't make myself like appetite suppressants for weight loss. I believe they just don't work. In my experience, they help you lose weight while you're taking them, and then you gain it right back and more as soon as you go off them. In addition, appetite suppressants go against the very theory of reducing cravings by aiming for lower insulin levels. As soon as they wear off, they stimulate your appetite, starting the whole cycle going again. And they have a ton of bad side effects while you are taking them.

The other day I heard someone pitch a physician-supervised weight loss program complete with appetite suppressants and vitamin injections (probably B12). Everything else in the program sounded just fine (a plan based on keeping glycemic index low and glucose levels stable throughout the day, so that insulin levels stay low). But on the basis of those two things alone, I would not recommend the program. Even with a vegetarian diet, there are other ways to get B12, and if you are working on eating low glycemic index foods throughout the day every two to three hours, you should not have intense cravings.

Your feedback is welcome.

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