A Little Hard to Swallow
A reporter from the New York Sun called me this week to get a comment about the new diet drug that went on the market a couple of days ago. If you haven't heard--impossible, unless you're on a total media fast--it's the first over-the-counter version of a prescription weight-loss pill. They're basically doing the same thing with this that they did with Claritin. Anyway, this reporter asked me what I thought. Now, I don't know much about drugs in general, except that I try to avoid taking them unless absolutely necessary. And I certainly don't know much about this particular one. But the little I do know is that like all legit weight loss drugs (and some illegit ones), the makers clearly state that you have to eat a "healthy" and exercise, or the thing won't work. And I also know that when you're forking over however much money it costs to get this drug, the last thing you want to hear is that you have to diet and exercise too. I mean, isn't that what you want the pill for--so you DON'T have to do the hard stuff? Not to mention the fact that telling someone they have to exercise and diet doesn't mean they're going to do it. At least when you're under a doctor's care, you might feel a little more motivated to actually make some lifestyle changes, even if it's just out of the fear of having to face him at your next appointment (you know how mortifying it is when you promise to lose, and you don't ...)
When getting a diet drug is as easy as slipping a pack of pills in your cart at Wal-Mart, though, there's none of that. No fear, no advice or guidance, no one to talk you through how to take it, or to impress upon you the seriousness of following those fine-print directions on the box. Sure, there's the pharmacist, who can be hugely helpful, if you haven't figured that out already (mine even helped me determine the right dose of Benedryl to calm my itchy, scratchy, allergic dog). And yes, there's a website--a very good website, in fact, with a club you can join, a plan you can follow, whatever.
But ...
I have to think that people will be snatching up this pill, hoping it will work magic without all that distasteful sweating and portion controlling. Because the fact is, that PERMANENT weight loss is hard. And the hard part isn't so much the physical strain of exercise or even resisting a bag of Peanut M&Ms (although that's .... damn hard). The hard part is change, pure and simple. We'd all like to think we could keep our lives like they are, but take a pill and be ... thinner, richer, happier, more successful. We'd like to think that we can have what we want without all the hard work. And when I say we, I mean me too. There are lots of things I want, and sometimes it takes a bonk on the head to realize that I'm sitting here, waiting for them to drop in my lap. And that's not going to happen unless I do the hard work.
Now, I'm not against diet pills. Or gastric bypass. But they aren't the ONLY answer. They only change what's going on in your body ... not what's in your head.
A couple of months ago, before my book came out, I had the opportunity to interview a guy who had had gastric bypass three years ago. He had lost an amazing amount of weight, and was being showered with compliments. But they made him uncomfortable--because he finally had realized that he hadn't done the hard work yet. You see, even though at first he had physical restrictions on what and how much he could eat, after a year-plus, he began being able to have his favorite burgers, fries, etc. He wasn't exercising, he wasn't eating right. But just before I met him, he hooked up with a trainer and started getting serious about his diet. We had a great conversation about our journeys--he was so candid, and so, I think, touched by the fact that I understood what he was going through.
He has a road ahead of him. We all do. But we have the tools (and we have each other!) to get through. Maybe that pill is one of them, I don't know. All I know is that a pill won't sustain you for the journey.
What do you guys think about this issue? Will you take the new diet drug? Feel free to disagree with me (God knows, I'm not always right!).
Lisa D
When getting a diet drug is as easy as slipping a pack of pills in your cart at Wal-Mart, though, there's none of that. No fear, no advice or guidance, no one to talk you through how to take it, or to impress upon you the seriousness of following those fine-print directions on the box. Sure, there's the pharmacist, who can be hugely helpful, if you haven't figured that out already (mine even helped me determine the right dose of Benedryl to calm my itchy, scratchy, allergic dog). And yes, there's a website--a very good website, in fact, with a club you can join, a plan you can follow, whatever.
But ...
I have to think that people will be snatching up this pill, hoping it will work magic without all that distasteful sweating and portion controlling. Because the fact is, that PERMANENT weight loss is hard. And the hard part isn't so much the physical strain of exercise or even resisting a bag of Peanut M&Ms (although that's .... damn hard). The hard part is change, pure and simple. We'd all like to think we could keep our lives like they are, but take a pill and be ... thinner, richer, happier, more successful. We'd like to think that we can have what we want without all the hard work. And when I say we, I mean me too. There are lots of things I want, and sometimes it takes a bonk on the head to realize that I'm sitting here, waiting for them to drop in my lap. And that's not going to happen unless I do the hard work.
Now, I'm not against diet pills. Or gastric bypass. But they aren't the ONLY answer. They only change what's going on in your body ... not what's in your head.
A couple of months ago, before my book came out, I had the opportunity to interview a guy who had had gastric bypass three years ago. He had lost an amazing amount of weight, and was being showered with compliments. But they made him uncomfortable--because he finally had realized that he hadn't done the hard work yet. You see, even though at first he had physical restrictions on what and how much he could eat, after a year-plus, he began being able to have his favorite burgers, fries, etc. He wasn't exercising, he wasn't eating right. But just before I met him, he hooked up with a trainer and started getting serious about his diet. We had a great conversation about our journeys--he was so candid, and so, I think, touched by the fact that I understood what he was going through.
He has a road ahead of him. We all do. But we have the tools (and we have each other!) to get through. Maybe that pill is one of them, I don't know. All I know is that a pill won't sustain you for the journey.
What do you guys think about this issue? Will you take the new diet drug? Feel free to disagree with me (God knows, I'm not always right!).
Lisa D
8 Comments:
I have Tivo, so I don't watch the commercials, and so I hadn't heard about this! But I have tried diet drugs, and I can tell you... they made it HARDER for me. Having to take them an hour before meals made me think about that upcoming meal even more; it made me make excuses ("oh, I can have the chips with the sandwich... the pill will offset the damage!"); and, since I'm a grazer, it made me lump my meals into three a day, which just made me hungrier when it came time to eat, and I'd totally binge. It wasn't until I stopped taking the pills (after shelling out a ton of $$ and losing NO weight) that I once again felt accountable for my behavior and started to see progress.
I know for me personally diet pills seem like the magic cure all. Had a bad day? Take an extra pill to "make up" for it. It just got to the point I was taking 6 pills at a time to get any results because I had abused them so much. They actually didn't even help that much. I still have 40 lbs to lose and now I'm just fighting my messed up metabolism from all the pills I took.
Well, I went to the diet pill's website. If you watch the video it basically tells you that the pill will make 25% of the fat you eat undigestable. You will pass it as waste in the toilet. That means that 75% is still floating around your thighs. If you eat a low-fat diet, the pill will probably not cause you many side effects. But, it warns that if you eat a lot of fat, 25% of that could explode out of your....you know....when you think you are passing gas. If you are eating anything else, it will have no effect on it...not on carbs...not on protein...etc.
I just don't believe that they'll work. I don't think that something for nothing is possible, so I'm not going to try. Plus you won't learn good habits, so unless you want to take pills for the rest of your life, you'll go back to your old ways.
Plus you don't want to have to bring a change of clothes in case of an explosion. Ew.
These OTC diet drugs really give a false sense of security. I think they are very dangerous and no one really knows what the long-term affects are on our health.
I recently bought a copy of Health Magazine and in with all the healthy eating tips, exercise advice and stress reducing techniques, was an entire page of various advertisements for OTC diet aids. What's up with that in a HEALTH magazine? I don't get it!
If I were 20 years younger, I might, but at my age, I know better than to think a pill is going to change my eating habits. AND, given the FDA likes to push these things out too fast, it's best to wait to see what happens.
Short answer: No thanks!
If you're willing to have to wear an adult diaper to protect you against 'anal leaking' (their words not mine) to lose weight, then by all means go ahead and try it! For me, I think I will stick with diet and exercise.
Wow! Amazing....I really needed to hear just what you wrote. Things worth having in life don't come easily but our society makes us think they should. I continually fall into that category of waitin for things to fall in my lap adn reality is that is not going to happen. Thanks so much for saying just the right thing......
and by the way....NO! I won't be taking the pill!
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