Why we spend billions on Diet Pills?

We all have heard infomercials say "Lose weight fast" or "drop 2 waste sizes instantly". Somehow we like to believe that what they are saying is really possible. Unfortunately, anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight will tell you that it took a considerable amount of time and energy.

The good news is that there really is no mystery to weight loss. If you burn more calories than you take in and your body will be forced to use the resources it currently has (fat) to compensate for the difference. As Americans we have come to believe that this is some sort of a lie or that there is a short cut in this process. This is the reason why we spend billions of dollars a year on dietary supplements or pills. According to an article in Business Week, Americans spend some $40 billion on diet plans each year.

So what do you do to lose the weight:

1. Try working out with a partner. A partner will help motivate you to workout and won't let you give up as easy. Also try doing your grocery shopping with your workout partner. They will make sure you stay honest and stick to your diet. This leads to step number two.

2. Plan your meals for each week. Planning out your meals will allow you to control the amount of calories you take in and keep you focused on eating the right meals that will help you lose weight. Often people stray from their diets because they put little emphasis on the foods that they buy at the grocery store. You cannot eat the right foods if you aren't buying the right foods.

3. Originally people were told that eating multiple small meals throughout the day helps increase your metabolism, which in turn helps you lose weight. This may only be half true. There is a great article about the benefits of eating multiple mealswhich helps explain why eating more meals may help people lose more weight. There are other factors to consider when choosing to eat 3 meals a day or 6 meals a day. Ultimately it is up to you to decide if eating more meals may help curb your appetite or cravings throughout the day.

4. Get the proper amount of sleep. Sleep has been studied and proven to have effects on your hormones, specifically hormones that effect weight loss. To read more about this, read this article on WebMD.

5. Have goals. It sounds cliche but it's proven that people who make goals to lose weight have had more success. Setting goals may be the most important part of the process. The mayoclinic puts goal setting at number one on their website of tips for a successful weight loss plan.

6. Increase your water consumption. If you are like me, you probably don't drink enough water everyday. Replace soft drinks with a bottle of water. It may help to buy a water bottle and fill it with your daily amount of water. The mayoclinc suggests drinking 8-8 ounces glasses of water a day. This may seem like a lot of water, but if you drink a glass with each meal and a glass after waking up and before going to bed, it is rather manageable.

7. Try drinking more milk or taking in more calcium. A study suggested that women that increased their milk consumption or calcium consumption helped them keep the weight off. I'm not sure if this is a proven fact, but there a study on it on this page. Although this method may be questionable, it never hurts to get the proper amount of calcium in your diet. Calcium helps

8. Find foods that help you lose weight. Proteins take more energy to break down than you receive from them. Taking in a higher amount of protein will help you. Other foods such as whole grains and oatmeal are also helpful. The best foods however are vegetables and fruits, go figure. Here is an interesting article about celery (maybe one of the biggest negative calorie foods). To learn more about negative calorie foods check out wikipedia.

So why do Americans spend millions of dollars a year on weight loss pills? I really don't know because I've yet to see a pill that claims to give you 64 ounces of water a day, help you exercise or eat properly, or compensate for a lack of sleep.

I would like to say I do not possess a medical degree nor do I endorse my list as a diet plan for anyone. This article is meant to be more informative in nature and provide people with possible alternatives to diet pills. I would however like to give you one tip on buying diet products on the internet if you do choose to believe in the "pill diets".

Do Not Click on the "1 tip for a Tiny Little Belly" or "This one weird old tip" ads - They are fictitious advertisements aimed at getting people to order diet pills for a "free trial" but charge you around $150 on a reoccurring basis. You may even see one of the ads on this page! It looks like a hand drawn image of a woman's waist shrinking. The ads send you off to a fake news site.