Ethical Issues

The appeal of losing weight quickly is hard to resist for many. Most of us have struggled to lose weight at one time or another. A number of weight-loss pills are available at pharmacies or health food stores. Most of them haven't been proved effective, and some may be dangerous for your health. The weight loss industry is worth billions of dollars. Weight loss products are marketed as "the answer" to our problems.

The term metabolism refers to the “processes in your body that work to either convert or use energy” (Dugdale, 2010). Metabolic functions include blood circulation, breathing, body temperature control, muscle contraction and digestion of food and nutrients. If the metabolic processes that use energy function at a higher rate than usual, it is believed this can help with weight loss. There are a variety of diet pills that claim to boost your metabolic rate.

Metabolism boosting diet pills typically contain stimulants such as caffeine. Stimulants speed up the digestion of food, breathing and heart rates and are commonly used for weight loss (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2010). Caffeine may slightly boost weight loss or prevent weight gain, but there's no evidence that increased caffeine consumption results in significant or permanent weight loss. Caffeine decreases appetite and cause increased metabolism, which causes the body to burn more calories (Zeratsky, 2011). The increase in metabolism causes the body to produce more heat. Stimulants like caffeine can cause nervousness, insomnia, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat, and palpitations. The increase in metabolism caused by stimulants also makes the body’s organs, especially the heart, work harder which can lead to side effects over the long term (Allen, 2011). Many of these supplements have not been well studied and may have other serious side effects that are unknown.

There is no magic weight-loss pill out there.