Diet pills contain ingredients, such as caffeine and ma huang, that serve as appetite suppressants, energy boosters or both. Available both over the counter and by prescription, diet pills are intended to be used in conjunction with diet and exercise to supplement your weight loss. Taking more than the recommended dosage of diet pills, however, can have dangerous consequences.
Dependence
Taking too many diet pills over the course of a day releases a higher than recommended dose of the active ingredients into your body. Some diet pills, such as Adipex and Fastin, contain warnings that increasing your dosage without a doctor's supervision or taking the pills for longer than recommended may result in dependence.
The Weight Control Information Network notes some diet pills cause users to experience a feeling of euphoria. This carries a risk of addiction that increases if the patient's dosage increases. The risk is highest for users of amphetamine-based diet pills and those who have a previous history of addiction to drugs or alcohol.
Increased Side Effects
The side effects of weight-loss medication are numerous and include insomnia, nervousness, nausea, headaches and anxiety. Increasing the dosage of your diet pills also increases the chance you will suffer unpleasant side effects, since you're introducing a greater amount of the pill's active ingredients into your bloodstream.
While some side effects of diet pills are a mere nuisance, others present a legitimate threat to your health -- even if that threat has yet to be discovered. The diet pill fen-phen was pulled from the market in 1997 after 99 patients taking the drug developed heart-valve problems. The drug had already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the testing phase did not reveal the side effects. Too many pills increase your risk of previously unknown side effects.
Damage to Metabolism
Diet pills aren't designed to stop you from eating. Rather, the pills that act as appetite suppressants help you eat less at meal time and avoid snacking. Taking too many diet pills may eliminate your appetite altogether -- causing you to eat too few calories over the course of the day.
While eating fewer calories may sound like a quick way to lose weight, it can have an adverse effect on your metabolism. Researchers from the University of New Mexico conclude that ingesting too few calories slows your metabolic rate, since your body goes into "starvation mode" when not provided with adequate nutrition. This, in turn, slows your weight loss. Although your metabolism can recover with a healthy diet, a slow metabolism can result in immediate weight gain after you stop taking the medication.
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