The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) advises doctors to only prescribe anti-obesity drugs in special circumstances. But neither drugs work on their own - you can't carry on with unhealthy eating and still lose weight as it doesn't make you lose weight, just helps you to diet. Few people managed to diet successfully with them and, more importantly, keep weight off and many became physically hooked or addicted to them. Slow metabolism is a myth In general, the idea that overweight people have a slow metabolism is a complete myth. The heavier you are the harder your body has to work to carry the weight and the greater your metabolic rate. Very few people benefit from them in the long term, and they should be viewed generally as a last resort, to help people who are grossly overweight, have already lost some weight and are now struggling to lose more.
Supermarket shelves are crammed full of lite, light, low fat, and diet foods, which offer an easier alternative than trying to make changes in overall diet. See our advice guide for more on understanding food labelling. For some foods the difference is clear to see. Lighter margarines have more water added to them, so a 10g serving of original Flora has 53kcal compared with 35kcal for Flora Light. And the label has to state clearly what has been reduced and by how much, for example 'light ? members in September 2008, and 109 of them had bought slimming pills over the counter (OTC), so we asked an expert panel to assess some of the leading ones on the market against their claims (see Our research). Up until recently, there was no definition for what 'lite' or 'light' meant, and companies could label their products as they pleased.
