4 Ways to Compare Prescription and OTC Diet Pills

1. Diet Pills Work in Lots of Ways

There are several ways that diet pills work. One way is to act as a fat blocker. These diet pills reduce the amount of fat the body absorbs. Prescription Xenical is an example of a fat blocker, and it prevents your digestive tract from absorbing fat. By not absorbing the fat, you absorb fewer calories and therefore lose weight. Other weight loss drugs are appetite suppressants, which prevent hunger, and still others work by increasing your calorie and fat metabolism, which allows your body to burn what you eat at a faster rate.

2. Consider Regulations

The main difference between prescription and over the counter weight loss drugs is that prescription weight loss drugs have been proven to work and are regulated by the FDA. Conversely, there's no proof that over the counter diet pills work and are regulated by no one. Over-the counter diet pills are basically a guessing game. There isn't even a guarantee that the ingredients listed on the labels are actually the ingredients in the diet pills. Alli is the only exception to the rule, since it is a reduced strength version of Xenical and garnered FDA approval.

3. Not a Path to Easy Weight Loss

Weight loss is minimal on prescription diet pills and practically non-existent with over the counter diet medications. At most, you can expect to lose 5 to 10 percent of your body weight in a year with prescription medications. You only see these results, however, when combined with a low-calorie and low-fat diet, along with regular exercise. Once you stop taking your diet pills, generally you can expect to gain most or even all of the weight you lost back, and in some worst case scenarios, you might even gain back more than you lost.

4. The Unpleasant Side Effects

Most diet pills have unpleasant and sometimes even deadly side effects. Common side effects with weight loss drugs include diarrhea, lose stools, more frequent bowel movements, excessive gas with an oily discharge, and hard to control bowel movements. Bitter orange is a popular herbal weight loss supplement that may cause health problems similar to ephedra. This weight loss supplement was pulled off the shelves because of its link to several deaths in people who were taking it. Although this ruling was later overturned, most manufacturers still leave this ingredient out of their products, and you should be careful when choosing a product with ephedra in its contents.