Overweight or obesity, caused by unhealthy lifestyle, is one of the risk factors for heart disease. Therefore, weight lost has been the prime target for many obese people. Lifestyle is difficult to change. Specialists do realize this fact but they still prefer patients to lose weight in this manner rather than taking weight-loss medicines. Even if obese people are taking slimming pills, it is advisable for them to adopt healthy habits like exercising and dieting. This is the recommendation from the researchers of a study backed by the United States National Institutes of Health. University of Pennsylvania conducted the research and the report of which was published in 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the one-year study, the patients were divided into four groups. The most successful group of patients was those took the weight-loss drug Meridia along with 30 sessions of group counseling that promoted a 1,500 calorie daily diet and half-hour walks on most days. It was especially effective when patients recorded how much they ate each day.

The second group of obese people who took pills alone typically lost 5kg in the study. When they added the full program promoting lifestyle changes, they lost 12kg, more than twice as much. A third group took the drug with brief counseling by a doctor, and a fourth underwent only group counseling. Within five months, those two groups lost a bit more weight than the group that took only the drug, but all three of these groups were roughly equal after a year.

The study had nonetheless established the importance of coupling dieting and exercise with drug therapy in obese people who were exposed to all the risks and all the costs of the medication without the full benefits.

Several weight-loss drugs are available in the market. Besides Meridia, there are Xenical or orlistat, and rimonabant. Rimonabant has the effect of lowering a variety of heart-risk markers in heavy patients who had unhealthy levels of cholesterol and fats in their blood. Doctors and specialists do advise that there are also side effects for weight-loss drugs. For example, it is reported that higher heart rate and blood pressure in some patients who took Meridia. Many people are unaware and misuse obesity medicines without knowing their side effects. This will definitely pose some dangers to the health.

Modify your eating habits. Don't eat all-you-can-eat buffet. These are advices you frequently hear from doctors or specialists. In fact, ever since the late 1990s, doctors have been following medical guidelines and advising obese patients to change eating and exercise habits when they started prescribed long-term weight-loss medicines. Unfortunately, most of the patients have either failed to do so or have simply ignored the advice.

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