Are they worth it?

As everyone who has tried will testify - a weight loss program is a lot of hard work and can be very stressful. It is very easy to lose your motivation when you look in the mirror and the fruits of your labour aren't immediately obvious. Experts reckon you shouldn't lose more than an average of about 2 pounds per week, so a healthy weight loss program is not a short term project. It is at this point, when the motivation is dipping, that fad diets and possibly 'miracle' weight loss supplements are looked apon as the solution to those difficult to shift pounds.

Weight loss supplements all promise to rid your body of some excess weight. They come in various forms, pills, powders and liquids for example. A lot of the time, these supplements are nothing more than a 21st century version of snake oil. However, people in the position of wanting to lose weight quickley tend to be desperate, and will try anything promising them that miracle cure. If you are thinking of trying a weight loss supplement, there are a few things you should consider first.

If there was a magic pill available which helped us lose weight, there probably wouldn't be any fat people in the world. The only way to lose weight is by combining exercise with a diet high in protein and low in fat. This may take some time for you to experience the results you are looking for, but it is the only way to safely lose a significant amount of weight. This fact is backed up by the labels on every weight loss pill packet which mentions that the supplement will only work if taken in conjuction with exercise and a reduced calorie diet. That's like a 'get any girl you want' pill which states on the label that it will work best if taken by someone with a gym body and a Wall Street salary...

If you are at the stage where you have shifted a lot of weight and additional weight loss is becoming more difficult, you might want to look at your exercise program before trying weight losss supplements. The acclaimed book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is an excellent piece of research into how a weights program can actually help us lose fat. Basically the theory is that as you put on a bit of muscle, your metabolism increases, which in turn burns off excess fat. If you want to read more about this research, click HERE.

Fad diets and weight loss supplements offer a quick fix, but you will rarely hear any health professional advocate their use. There must be a reaon for this, don't you think? Losing weight is a difficult task, requiring at least as much mental stamina as physical stamina. This is not an easy goal to achieve, but if you stick to an exercise program and eat a sensible diet, you will achieve this goal. For motivation, imagine the various stages in your weight loss as individual goals, dropping one size in clothes, for example, rather than losing 6 stone. A series of smaller goals is easier and quicker to achieve than one big goal. You will also be less inclined to give up if you actually achieve your first weight loss goal.

Motivation is a key in any weight loss program. If you find you are having difficulty after not having lost any weight for a couple of weeks after achieving some progress, then you should look to refresh your exercise program before you should purchase some snake oil pills or launch yourself into some weird celebrity endorsed diet.