What is the truth about appetite suppressants?

Appetite suppressants are usually dietary supplements, which are promising weight loss in a way that due to your reduced appetite you will eat less food. These are mostly tablets containing fibre, which soak up water in the stomach and they swell and fill us up. As a result you start to feel bloated and you do not eat any more food. There are certain products aimed at normalizing your appetite by the optimisation of the blood sugar level. It seems to be a very simple solution for any weight loss-related difficulties, but if the appetite issue can be resolved so easily, why are there still overweight people out there? How do the appetite suppressant pills work? Is it really enough just to take one pill to lose weight? Why do we have to suppress our appetite? What is the truth about appetite suppressants?

Why are you feeling hungry?

The feeling of hunger is the indication of the brain to take some food, because the body needs it.

There are several motivating factors, which trigger the brain to indicate that we are hungry. These could also include false signals, namely when we do not require the energy or vitamin and mineral content of the foodstuffs, but for some reason the brain still sends a signal. These stimuli can be mouth-watering dishes shown in advertisements or amazing smells coming from a bakery or restaurant. But you can also get this kind of signals, if you are exposed to stress or you are not sleeping enough. If the brain has a reason for giving this signal, presumably the body requires something. We can also get these kind of signals, when the blood sugar level is too low in the stomach or the pressure is not right. We do not necessarily have to starve to feel hungry. For example if we eat too much simple carbohydrates, the body reacts by insulin emission and as a result the sugars in our blood are transferred to the cells thus the blood sugar level will drop in your blood, despite of the fact that you have recently eaten. You will still feel hungry, even though your body is not lacking any energy. This is how diabetes can be developed in the long term. But is an appetite suppressant pill efficient in the case of all these signals?

Relation between training and hunger

Many advisors recommend that if you want to lose weight, you need to start to exercise. Yes it is a great idea but exercising in itself is not going to result in losing weight, unless you pay attention to your diet. Exercising means additional energy use, which can be handy when trying to lose weight, as long as you don’t eat as much as it has been used by your exercise. Your body will request the burnt energy and if you listen to your body, you will eat that much more and there will be no weight loss. If you start exercising regularly, you have to also consider that your body will require extra nutrients for regeneration. Therefore you have to make changes to your diet. It is crucial for the regeneration of the muscle tissue to use sufficient amount of proteins. Carbohydrates are the best solution however for supplementing the required energy, but it really matters what type of carbohydrate you are eating. You also have to pay attention to the vitamin and mineral intake due to sweating, otherwise you will get tired and enervated easier, thus you will not experience the beneficial impacts of exercise as much.

When you start exercising, you need to make sure that there is always sufficient amount and quality nutrients in your body, otherwise you have to calculate with the possibility of feeling hungry, and as a result after training you  might consume a lot more food, than you actually need!

It is crucial, that you consciously define your goal and you compile your diet accordingly!

Appetite suppressants

As you can see, there are several reasons behind hunger. Similarly, obesity has also several reasons, which can be physical or mental. Obesity or overweight is clearly caused by the fact, that more food is taken up than the body can actually use, and it is stored in the form of fat. Which means that we eat more than we need. But why are we eating more? Is it because our appetite is bigger? Not necessarily.

Stress- or emotional eaters do not eat a lot because they have a great appetite, but because this is the way they get rid of stress. If there are hormonal reasons behind the false hunger signals, even if we remove the symptoms the root cause will still remain. Which means that also in this case suppressing our appetite will not mean a long-term solution.

Appetite depressants are designed to work based on a principle, that due to their fibre content they swell in the stomach and intestines and they leave the body without absorbing.

Yes, but what is going on with the useful nutrients? Sadly they will also not absorb during this process. As they absorb water, you become dehydrated easily, which is a problem due to dehydration -which can give you a headache, dry skin- and with respect to the subsequent effect, your body will request the missing fluids, therefore later on it will absorb a lot more, which will result in significant water retention. Incorrect water balance can also cause issues to the cardiovascular system, but when exercising you will have to face the disadvantages of the above. You get more tired, enervated and weaker, if you are not properly hydrated.

Instead of taking pills: right diet and fat burning

If you compile your diet in the correct way and you also stick to it, your chances are lower that you become hungry or that your appetite grows. The optimum diet includes at least daily 5 meals. The necessary nutrients are distributed evenly between the meals in a quantity required based on your body weight. Every meal should contain appropriate amount and quality carbohydrates, protein, fat and we also have to pay attention to mineral and vitamin intake during the day. By using extended-release carbohydrate sources you can prevent massive insulin peaks, which will case the feeling of hunger later. There are several dietary supplement products, which are actually very efficient and useful. L-carnitine is one of those, which motivates your body to use the fatty acids released during exercise as energy, furthermore there are also dietary supplement products containing usually caffeine with a thermogenic impact and their goal is to boost the metabolism and by this ensuring higher calorie use. Don’t forget that you can do a lot for losing weight not only by adjusting your diet but also by exercising. You need to train at least three times a week, but the best is if you exercise and you are active every day, you can cycle and do strength training as well.

No matter which dietary supplement product you are using, it is important that you think about the mechanism of action associated with the given product in order to define whether you really need the product or not. If you want to successfully lose weight, it will not happen due to a tablet, but due to your perseverance, will and appropriate balance of energy. If there is no reason for your hunger related to insufficient amount of nutrients – for example you know that you didn’t sleep much or you are stressed- make sure that you drink plenty of fluids (for example green tea) and eat such foodstuffs, which will help you to fill up your belly quickly. If you are on diet and you are starving hungry, you can eat low calorie foodstuffs, for example fruits or a protein bar. You can have a protein shake at any time, it will fill you up quickly and will also reduce your cravings for sweets. A few almonds can also be a good choice, but make sure that you don’t overindulge, as even though they contain a lot of good fatty acids, it’s easy to eat too many of them, which will add too much to your calorie intake. If you are keen on spices, you can also grate ginger in your tea or you can eat ginger on its own, because it has a beneficial impact on the appetite suppressant leptin level.