The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign relates that caffeine has been safely consumed for hundreds of years. Caffeine is contained in foods such as coffee, chocolate and soft drinks. It is also available in diet pills, frequently mixed with other substances such as guarana. Caffeine is potentially habit-forming in some people, so please consult with a doctor if you intend on using caffeine-based diet pills as part of a weight-loss regimen.
Stimulant
Caffeine is well known as a stimulant; many people start their day with a cup of coffee to provide a burst of energy in the morning in preparation for work. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign explains that caffeine may help you stay awake and alert but that moderation is important. A moderate level of caffeine is 300 mg per day, the amount in three average cups of coffee. To take diet pills and ingest caffeine from other sources might push you past this moderate level and prove dangerous to your health.
Appetite Suppression
MayoClinic.com nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky informs that caffeine reduces your desire to eat for a short period of time. She states that caffeine may slightly aid weight-loss efforts, but that there is little evidence to show significant permanent weight loss from caffeine ingestion. The diuretic effect of caffeine does promote temporary weight loss by increasing the amount of urine you excrete. Dehydration might result if the excess water lost through urination is not replaced by drinking fluids. Another of caffeine's effects noted by Zeratsky is increased thermogenesis, or the way your body generates heat and burns calories. This increase might not contribute to significant weight loss, however.
Increase Stress
The American Council on Exercise states that caffeine increases stress and raises blood pressure. The effects of caffeine ingestion can linger for many hours, so the caffeine diet pills you take before lunch can continue to affect you at bedtime. A Duke University study published in "Psychosomatic Medicine" in 2002 found that participants given caffeine pills had slightly elevated blood pressure, were more stressed out and produced a significantly higher amount of epinephrine than a control group. Epinephrine is a stress hormone. As a result of these findings, the researchers recommend that people with conditions made worse by stress, such as heart disease or high blood pressure, cut back on caffeine.
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