6 Ways to Identify Fraudulent Diet Pill Claims

1. Effortless Weight Loss

The notion of achieving your ideal body weight without having to put forth any effort is a tantalizing diet pill claim. Unfortunately, no diet pill can make a legitimate claim to effortless dieting, unless you find eating smaller portions of healthy foods and increasing your exercise to be effortless activities.

2. Permanent Results

No diet pill can promise permanent weight loss for a dieter. There's always the possibility that a dieter can gain back the weight she lost, immediately or months later. The key to permanent weight loss is the formation of healthy eating habits for life, not a miracle pill.

3. Rapid Weight Loss

Dieters frustrated by slow weight loss results or hitting a plateau may look for a diet pill that promises quick results. However, doctors agree that the safest weight loss programs help patients lose one to two pounds per week. Diet pill manufacturers that promise weight loss of five or more pounds per week may include muscle mass in their tally. Muscles are comprised largely of water, which weighs approximately 8 pounds per gallon.

4. One Diet Pill Fits All

Each dieter faces a singular set of circumstances that makes his weight loss challenge different from his peers. Where one person is a yo-yo dieter, another may have slowly gained weight during college. Where one person is managing heart disease and high cholesterol, another may face complications from diabetes. No diet pill can meet the needs of everyone.

5. Impossible Anatomical Claims

Some diet pills attempt to lure customers by making impossible claims about preventing the body from absorbing fat or calories. The Federal Trade Commission argues that these claims are false; no pill can stop the body from absorbing these nutrients. Only patients with specific metabolic disorders are unable to absorb fat or other specific nutrients from foods. For dieters, the only way to stop absorption is to stop eating that food.

Last updated on: Nov 18, 2009

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