Will my doctor......?!

Will my doctor......?

About 2 years ago, I started a very stressful job in a call center. I gained several pounds during the past two years and have been unable to shake the extra weight off. If I was to go to a primary care physcian and explain the situation, what are my chances that the doctor would prescribe me a diet pill (such as phentermine or adipex)?

You said you haven't been able to shed off the extra weight. Have you seen a Registered Dietician yet? If not, I highly recommend it before you resort to any diet pills because a lot of diet pills are not healthy or safe, even if it is approved by the FDA. For example, Fen-phen (not sure of the spelling) was approved by the FDA but later taken off the market because people actually died from it. Anyway, your doctor can probably refer you to a Registered Dietician. Registered Dieticians are the most qualified people to help you lose weight and do it safely. They will teach you how to eat (without having to cut out a lot of foods) and make wise choices and it's something you can use for the rest of your life.

Another thing you could try is Weight Watchers. I don't believe in most Formal/fad diets because a lot of them are not healthy but Weight Watchers is actually one of the good ones. I'm not sure if you're familiar with their program but they use the points system. You're allowed so many points per day and each type of food is worth so many points, so once you've used up all your points for the day, you can't eat anymore. So, what's great about this diet is that you can practically eat what you want and it teaches you how to make choices. You can use these choices for the rest of your life so you don't gain the weight back.

Any diet that actually works in losing weight is because it's cutting calories and portion sizes because simply stated, if you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Simple as that. I know it sounds simple but there is a lot of hard work that goes into it. I will be honest with you about that. Ask yourself- how badly do you want to lose this weight? If you really really want to lose the weight badly and have the determination to do it, you will succeed. If you don't want it bad enough, it makes it a lot harder to do well. I've been there before. It's tough but anyone can do it. Honestly, I tried to stick to diets on and off for about 5 years and nothing worked until I actually sat down and started reading and learning about how the body works. From that, I learned to diet and succeed with it. I wanted to lose weight badly just like you. So, if you don't do weight watchers or see a dietician, that's what I would recommend to you- just educate yourself on the human body and nutrition. Just be careful where your sources are coming from. A good source would be a college nutrition textbook. They sell them at great prices on half.com. The textbook I used this past semester is called Nutrition Concepts and Controversies. The authors are Frances Sizer and Ellie Whitney. It's an introduction level textbook all about nutrition. It's very helpful and I learned way more from it than I expected. There's even a chapter devoted to weight loss.

Honestly, the top 2 reasons I believe people fail with diets is: 1. they don't have enough will power 2. They simply are not educated enough about nutrition. (this is the most crucial factor) I'm not saying you're dumb or anything but this goes for everybody- it never hurts to learn more to benefit yourself.

Since it is summer and I have quite a bit of free time, I could give you some diet counseling if you'd like. I don't charge people at the moment because I am just a nutrition student. Nutrition (especially weight loss) is one of my favorite subjects to talk about and I actually love helping people meet their goals. So, with that being said, you can always email me and ask me questions and I will be glad to help you. You can email me through my yahoo answers profile.

One more thing- feel free to read other answers i've posted for other people about nutrition and dieting. This may help you.