When choosing a diet pill, the first thing that you should look at are the ingredients. While this may sound obvious, you would be surprised how many people seem to ignore this step. The following are some guidelines to use when researching diet pill ingredients so that you can evaluate the potential effectiveness of a supplement before you purchase.
First of all, when analyzing an ingredient that's contained in a diet pill, make sure that you get your information from credible and reputable sources. You certainly don't want to take the pill companies' word for it; they are the ones trying make money off of you purchasing their product and will naturally be very biased. Always confirm their claims by doing your own research. Some great sources for unbiased clinical research and information can be found at such places as PubMed.gov, Wikipedia, and peer-reviewed and published medical journals.
One common trick that diet pills will use is to cite a clinical study of an ingredient, but try to make it appear as though it was a study on their product itself. Don't get me wrong, it's great when they cite research on ingredients as long as they disclose that the research is actually on the ingredient in the diet pill. Also, many will 'quote' research but will give no reference to verify that the study was legitimate or that it even happened. Essentially if they don't clearly reference the study in a way that you can find it yourself, you shouldn't believe anything that they've said.
It is very important that you do your own research rather than rely upon the sales copy of the diet pills. There are some ingredients on the market (for example, hoodia gordonii and acai berry) that have become extremely popular lately that have absolutely zero well documented, legitimate scientific studies that support any of their claims to help in weight loss. It's all a bunch of hype created by the diet pill manufacturers themselves. So don't believe everything that you hear.
Unfortunately, once you find a diet pill with proven ingredients your work isn't quite over. Even though a product may have good ingredients, those ingredients must be included in high enough amounts for them to function as well as they did when they were studied in clinical testing. Most diet pills on the market hide the amounts of their ingredients by using 'Proprietary Blends.'
The reason that verifying the amounts is important is because most ingredients have only been proven to be effective when they are used in high enough dosages. For example, if a certain ingredient was proven effective in the study when used at 1,000 mg per dosage, the diet pill would need to contain the same amount in order to work in the same way. Most diet pills use only a fraction of the recommended dosages and use a proprietary blend so that you don't know much of the ingredient is actually included. So when possible, look for diet pills that fully disclose the amounts.
Yet another trick that some diet pills use is including an insanely long list of ingredients. Don't be impressed by such tactics. In most cases (not all, but most) they can't fit enough of each ingredient in the pill do any good. They're just trying to add credibility by making you think there's a lot in the pill.
I'm often surprised at how many decisions are made to purchase a diet pill bases solely on how convincing their website is or which celebrity supposedly endorsed it. The only thing that makes a diet pill effective or ineffective is the ingredient profile. Without good ingredients (in the correct amounts), it simply won't work. So do your research before you purchase. You'll be glad you did. - 15683
First of all, when analyzing an ingredient that's contained in a diet pill, make sure that you get your information from credible and reputable sources. You certainly don't want to take the pill companies' word for it; they are the ones trying make money off of you purchasing their product and will naturally be very biased. Always confirm their claims by doing your own research. Some great sources for unbiased clinical research and information can be found at such places as PubMed.gov, Wikipedia, and peer-reviewed and published medical journals.
One common trick that diet pills will use is to cite a clinical study of an ingredient, but try to make it appear as though it was a study on their product itself. Don't get me wrong, it's great when they cite research on ingredients as long as they disclose that the research is actually on the ingredient in the diet pill. Also, many will 'quote' research but will give no reference to verify that the study was legitimate or that it even happened. Essentially if they don't clearly reference the study in a way that you can find it yourself, you shouldn't believe anything that they've said.
It is very important that you do your own research rather than rely upon the sales copy of the diet pills. There are some ingredients on the market (for example, hoodia gordonii and acai berry) that have become extremely popular lately that have absolutely zero well documented, legitimate scientific studies that support any of their claims to help in weight loss. It's all a bunch of hype created by the diet pill manufacturers themselves. So don't believe everything that you hear.
Unfortunately, once you find a diet pill with proven ingredients your work isn't quite over. Even though a product may have good ingredients, those ingredients must be included in high enough amounts for them to function as well as they did when they were studied in clinical testing. Most diet pills on the market hide the amounts of their ingredients by using 'Proprietary Blends.'
The reason that verifying the amounts is important is because most ingredients have only been proven to be effective when they are used in high enough dosages. For example, if a certain ingredient was proven effective in the study when used at 1,000 mg per dosage, the diet pill would need to contain the same amount in order to work in the same way. Most diet pills use only a fraction of the recommended dosages and use a proprietary blend so that you don't know much of the ingredient is actually included. So when possible, look for diet pills that fully disclose the amounts.
Yet another trick that some diet pills use is including an insanely long list of ingredients. Don't be impressed by such tactics. In most cases (not all, but most) they can't fit enough of each ingredient in the pill do any good. They're just trying to add credibility by making you think there's a lot in the pill.
I'm often surprised at how many decisions are made to purchase a diet pill bases solely on how convincing their website is or which celebrity supposedly endorsed it. The only thing that makes a diet pill effective or ineffective is the ingredient profile. Without good ingredients (in the correct amounts), it simply won't work. So do your research before you purchase. You'll be glad you did. - 15683
About the Author:
Cal Stevens is an expert when it comes to diet pills. Cal Stevens has done in-depth reviews and reports on the diet pills specifically, but also the companies that sell them. Don't buy a diet pill until you've been informed!
