Coming Soon to a Drug Store Near You – The Mother of All Side Effects

Have you heard of Alli? If you haven’t, you soon will.

Alli is the first (and only) FDA-approved, over-the-counter weight loss product. It’s manufactured by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, and they’re sinking $150,000,000 into a marketing campaign to make sure you hear about it, and hopefully whip out the wallet to hop on the Alli bandwagon.

Apparently, it works by blocking fat absorption by about 25%. Of course, this fat still has to leave your body, but we’ll talk about that in a minute.

Provided you’re eating a low fat diet, eating less than normal, and are exercising, Alli will help you lose 25% more weight. So, in other words, if you eat low fat, eat less and exercise your way to a 10 pound weight loss, Alli will sky rocket that loss all the way to 12 pounds. Yep…and for only $54 a month.

And oh, by the way, there are a couple of side effects.

Remember, Alli works by blocking fat from being absorbed by your system. But this fat still has to exit your body, and there’s only one way for it to do so. 🙂

Because of the limited exits, the side effects of Alli include loose stools, intestinal gas…and intestinal gas with an “oily discharge”.

An “oily discharge”.

I don’t know about you, but where I come from, that’s called “crapping your pants”.

Personally, that’s a bit more than I’m willing to risk to lose 2 pounds.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see where Alli taken as directed could benefit someone. But the whole thing I want you all to keep in mind is that it only works as a supplement to eating a low fat diet, eating smaller portions and exercising.

So before you run out and spend $54 a month hoping for a magic bullet of weight loss, make sure that you’re taking the basic steps of good nutrition and exercise that we talk about here every day.

And make sure you keep a spare pair of undies in your desk drawer.

So, What Do You Want?

Good morning, all —

Well, my wife is here in New York for a visit this weekend, so I don’t have a whole of time to post.  We’re pretty busy enjoying the big Apple.

So…I’m going to ask you guys for posts instead. 🙂

Specifically, what I’d like is to hear  is exactly what kind of information you would like me to post in order to help you lose weight and get fit.  More exercise related information, nutrition info, diet recipes, supplements, motivation…what ever you need to help you, please let me know.

What I will do then is to use the information you provide to plan out future posts and info.

So please either leave a comment to this post, or feel free to email me at loseweightwithbrian @ gmail dot com.  There’s a link over on the right hand side to email me.

Please, the more specific  you are about what kind of information you need, the better I will be able to use it to provide good information to you.

Thanks a bunch, guys…I appreciate it.

Why You Should Avoid the Latest, Proven, Hot Weight Loss Supplement

Be prepared for a new wave of marketing trying to get you to buy a weight loss supplement that’s been proven to help people lose weight. 

And more importantly, don’t get suckered into buying it.

The name of this supplement is Conjugated Linoleic Acid, also known as CLA.  A study published last month in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that CLA did help people lose weight.

But before you rush out to spend your hard-earned dollars on this weight loss miracle product, let’s look a little deeper.

First of all the study, found that people who took a little over 3 grams a day of CLA showed a loss in fat mass of 0.2 pounds a week.  0.2 pounds.  That’s 2 tenths of a pound. 

Whoopee. 

With sensible eating and a little exercise, you should be dropping 1 -2 pounds a week.  And the effect of the CLA dropped after 6 months.  So you could shell out $15-20 a month for 6 months and lose around 5 pounds.  Again, whoopee.  But it gets worse.

Other studies have raised concerns that CLA could cause some adverse health effects.  Apparently, it can raise blood levels of leptin, C – reactive protein, and lipoprotein…all of which increase risk if heart disease.  For some reason, I’m thinking that the marketers will forget to mention those studies.

Now, please don’t think that I’m against all supplements.  Quite the opposite.  I have supplements that I take every day, and will try to plan some posts in the near future concerning some of the supplements that I do recommend, and why.

Until then, though, if something is touted as a weight loss supplement, keep your wallet in your pants until you can do your due diligence.

Weight Loss Supplements: 3 Signs That a Supplement May Be a Scam

As long as there are people who want to lose weight without exercising or eating healthy, there will be companies willing to make empty promises and take their money. Here are 3 warning signs that should set your alarm systems off about weight loss supplements:

1. No Mention is Made of Lifestyle Change – If the supplement claims you will build muscle and lose fat without exercise or a healthy eating plan, put your wallet back in your pocket. It’s a load of hooey.

2. Secret Ingredients – Many, many supplements use the same ingredients, but don’t want you to know. So what they’ll do is list the ingredients on their website, but make it dang near impossible to find them. Keep looking, Sherlock…they’re on there somewhere. If not, you’ve got a bigger concern. DO NOT use a supplement that hides the ingredients so you can’t find them.

1. Your Common Sense is Offended – if the product has a far fetched “back story” to it…like it’s used by tribesmen in South America once a year to avoid eating while on a 48 hour alligator hunt – put the bottle down and back slowly away.

Always remember that a supplement is nothing more than a tool to help you attain your weight loss and fitness goals. And yes, there are some supplements that you should be taking if you’re eating healthy and exercising (more on those later). But the majority of the supplements that get pitched to us on TV are nothing but a waste of your hard earned money.