By: Andrea Lindsey, Senior Nutrition Scientist and Director of Operation Supplement Safety (OPSS)*
The New Year brings promises of perhaps a new start, a fresh perspective, and maybe some plans to get in shape, take off some weight, and eat better.
So as you consider reaching for a weight-loss supplement to help with your goal to lose weight, here are a few things to keep in mind.
What’s the best supplement to take off the pounds?
Well, if there’s one on the market that’s safe and effective for weight loss, we all want to know, right?!? Weight-loss supplements can be marketed as thermogenics, fat burners, or appetite suppressants, and many have enticing ads on their website, marketing pages and/or social media, or their bottles. But if the ads promise that a product can help you lose 5–10 pounds in one week, make overall exaggerated claims for substantial weight loss, or claim to block fat absorption, be careful! Those are clear warning signs. If you see advertising for a “free trial,” or the newest scientific breakthrough for weight loss, you might want to pause and think, “Could this really be true?”
Stimulants
If you send an Ask the Expert question to OPSS, you’ll receive an evidence-based answer. So if the question is about specific products, we always look up the ingredients and point out potentially problematic ingredients based on the label alone. One thing you might not know is that many weight-loss products contain multiple stimulants that you might not recognize: ingredients such as yohimbine, hordenine, phenethylamine, or DMAA. (DMAA isn’t allowed in dietary supplements but it’s still used in some!) Caffeine is another stimulant—probably the most common one. The bottom line is that no one knows the effects these combinations of stimulants, along with other ingredients, can have on your body.
Tainted weight-loss dietary supplement products
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found hundreds of weight-loss dietary supplement products that actually had hidden drug ingredients—that is, drugs that aren’t listed on the labels and aren’t permitted for use in dietary supplements. An example is sibutramine, an FDA-approved drug that was removed from the market because it caused heart problems and strokes. Now FDA is finding this very same ingredient in some weight-loss dietary supplement products. How can that be? FDA doesn’t approve dietary supplement products before they hit the shelves, so the burden is on the manufacturers to make sure products are safe.
Bottom line
There’s no magic pill that can help you lose weight, and there’s little evidence that weight-loss products work. After reading this, you might wonder, “So, now what?” Well, the answer to weight loss is really the good old-fashioned one: Eat real foods, and focus on an eating plan that incorporates nutrient-rich, low-fat foods. And exercise! It’s a life plan, not a short-term solution. Plain and (maybe not that) simple, you have to burn more calories than you consume. There are so many other health benefits to being active too. And if you and your healthcare provider determine that you need some sort of a dietary supplement, be an informed consumer and use OPSS.org as your “go-to” resource.
Ask the Expert
If you have a question about dietary supplements, ask the OPSS experts.
Andrea Lindsey, of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, is the Director of Operation Supplement Safety (OPSS) and a Senior Nutrition Scientist for the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS).
Disclosure: *The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of USUHS or DoD. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. Mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The author has no financial interests or relationships to disclose.
