MYNIPPON

We have now reached a point that some people will simply never be able to lose weight through diet and exercise, the healthiest and permanent way to a great body that will not suffer from any side effects.  Of course, for some of these patients who are morbidly obese, a more reliable but also tricky and dangerous solution is gastric bypass surgery.  Unfortunately for people who are either overweight or do not have the means to pay for weight loss surgery, other solutions are needed.  It is this situation that is motivating drugmakers to come up with drugs for weight loss.  So far drugs like Meridia and Alli have been disasters because the weight loss was either not achieved or if it was, it was too small, or the patients were not able to keep the weight off for an extended period of time.

What to expect from Belviq? Now Belviq ((lorcaserin HCl)), a weight loss prescription pill, is being marketed (by Arena Pharmaceuticals and Eisai) after approval by the FDA.  The medication is to be given only to be obese patients (the way to determine is to measure your BMI and make sure that it is higher than 30) or to overweight patients (BMI of 27 or more) suffering from cardiovascular problems and diabetes.  What shocked me is that the drug along with diet and exercise was more effective than diet and exercise alone at helping patients lose 5% or more of their body weight after one year and maintaining the weight loss for up to two years.

Is weight loss from Beliviq significant? So I did some calculations for myself.  I am about 5 feet and 8 inches tall and in order to be considered obese, my weight has to be more than 200 pounds.  Assuming that I take Belviq and diet/exercise (it is not clear what kind of diet one needs to eat and how much exercise is required), I will lose a minimum of 10 lbs.  What I fail to understand is that with all the deadly side effects and the challenges of diet and exercise, all I am going to lose is ten pounds.  As anyone who has ever tried to shed pounds knows you can do that without the help of pills.  Just cutting back on things like amount of soda, high calorie foods that we typically consume in restaurants, and lowering the amount of desserts can result in that kind of weight loss, plus you do not have worry about all the side effects and long term damage to your health.

Expert recommendation on Belviq: In light of this, my recommendation will be that if you are even tiny bit serious about your health and want to lose just 5% of your body weight, stay away from this, or for that matter, any diet pill.  Instead, without getting too crazy, make small changes in your diet (remember that the best way to weight loss is through lowering calories but exercise has other benefits) like cutting back on high calorie items.  Chances are that you will soon get used to eating less of high calorie dishes and develop good eating habits that include more fruits and vegetable, whole grains, healthy fats from olive oil and avocado, and occasional treats like dark chocolate.