When Should You Take Medications for Weight Loss?

June 8th, 2011 by Jamie

When Should You Take Medications for Weight Loss? Maintaining a healthy body weight is very important because it maintains your overall physical and emotional well-being. Aside from that, having a ...

When Should You Take Medications for Weight Loss?

Maintaining a healthy body weight is very important because it maintains your overall physical and emotional well-being. Aside from that, having a healthy weight will also prevent you from contracting various diseases.

Individuals who are obese or who have excess body fats are often prone to develop various diseases such as diabetes and heart problems. This is why there are many weight loss drugs that are made available for those who need to lose weight.

Despite the availability of drugs such as Phentermine and Orlistat, these are not considered as over-the-counter drugs because of the possible side effects that they can cause. Because of this, people are wondering when should a person be allowed to take such medications.

Weight loss drugs, in general, should only be taken by individuals who have health risks related to excess weight. Usually, physicians prescribe such medications to individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above. Patients who are at risk for developing heart diseases such as those with diabetes, hypertension, and high blood cholesterol with a BMI of 27 are also prescribed with weight loss drugs.

If you are planning to lose weight, it is not advised to take such drugs because it will be very risky. Instead, it is advised to consult a fitness expert or your physician to know other options for weight loss.

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