Hoodia: Worth the Hype?The Latest Weight-Loss Pill
RobinMillerMD
Posted: Jul 24, 07 11:02am Hoodia is made from Hoodia Gordonii, a succulent plant that grows in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. It became well known to the American public a few years ago when Leslie Stahl did a news piece on 60 Minutes. She talked about how the Bushmen in Africa ate the plant to suppress their need for food and water during long hunting trips. She ate the plant and noted she wasn't hungry or thirsty for the entire day. After that story, Hoodia was all over the market. It is being sold as pills, liquid, powder, tea, and even as lollipops called Hoodiapops! But, do these products work and are they safe? We really don't know. The only studies that have been done so far used rats. When an element of Hoodia called p57 was injected into the eating center of rat's brains, they ate less compared to rats that were injected with a placebo. We really don't know how this would work in humans who take Hoodia. Safety is also an issue because of potential side effects. There are reports that Hoodia can harm the liver. In addition, if it suppresses thirst, it could cause dehydration. And what is also very concerning is the quality of the Hoodia that is available. Is it free of contaminants or does it even contain Hoodia? It is estimated that 80% of the Hoodia available is counterfeit. Furthermore, ConsumerLab (an independent lab that tests health, nutrition, and wellness products) has refused to test it, because there are no tests established for checking the quality of hoodia products. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill for weight loss. There is a company (Phytopharm) that is in the process of testing Hoodia for safety and effectiveness in humans. Until their research is complete, I would recommend waiting before trying it. Have Something to Say? |
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Posted: Nov 25, 07 8:17pm
Not ever going to take any kind of weight loss supplement. Doesn't change my behavior...it's just for the short term. Once off..the weight comes back.
Posted: Dec 7, 07 6:37am
For me personally, I was one of the "phen fen" people years ago. I was 182 pounds. I lost down to 155 pounds in a short time.
I'm 157 pounds today. I have no heart problems, my doctor doesn't believe phen fen caused the heart problems (he's not the doc that put me on it) and said that if a large group study had been done before phen fen ever came out these people were probably all born with the leakage. He said its a common thing.
When I dropped to 155 I saw HEY I, in fact CAN lose it by eating less. It DOES feel comfortable. I DO have more energy with the weight gone ...etc.... Being 182 was miserable and old feeling.
I wish they had kept it legal until I was 135. LOL. I have taken up walking though so we'll see in a few months if I'm 150.
Everyone has to find what works for them. For me, the short term use of a prescription worked. For some, it does not.
Posted: Nov 25, 07 9:52pm
I'm losing weight, slowly. I took sugar out and all prepackaged stuff. Pasta and potatoes use sparingly. I've tried hoodia, it's a nice change. Different diets work for different people. You have to find yours. In this day and age, is anything 100 percent safe? Consider growing your own vegetables and fruits, especially if all of your neighbors are spraying weed killer onto their greener than green lawns as it seeps into the water that you drink?....
Posted: Dec 7, 07 6:40am
I read in Prevention the other day that sugar also causes wrinking of the skin and Dr. Oz concurs. I also know what white flour and processed foods do to us. I know to cut out anything with "enriched" or "corn syrup" or "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" or any word that ends in "ose" meaning sugar. To bad KNOWING doesn't make the pounds fall off. LOL.
The number one thing for me has been journalizing. My mother lost 80 pounds and kept it off and she simply keeps track of what she eats. It makes us conscious. Before, I was eating so many things that I would forget about and the calories just added up!
Posted: Nov 26, 07 3:06pm
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill for weight loss.
Actually,. that's not quite true... Adderall, Didrex, and other stimulants WILL make you lose weight, a lot of weight, very quickly. The drawback is that it can be mildly addictive even to normal, highly discaplined people, so people with addictive personalities should steer clear.
Posted: Nov 26, 07 6:55pm
I wish doctors would consider these pills as weight-loss drugs, with tightly reined-in prescriptions for patients without an addictive history. I very successfully used tenuate dospan, 18 years ago, to lose baby weight, for a period of 60 days. No further refills, but that was okay because it got me off to a great start.
Now, my doctor won't even consider it. She's an internist, and seems more worried about the DEA (or whatever agency is on doctor's cases) -- she only wanted to sell me a "milkshake supplement." No thanks.
I've lost 28 pounds since last February, walking 35 miles a week and eating less. I know that's the way to go, but it's really, really hard. I wish I had a pill to help me lose the last 20, so that I don't have to suffer so much. With age-55 metabolism -- it's SUFFERING.
Posted: Nov 27, 07 7:21am
Barbara, although you may be able to lose more weight with the pill, the only way to really have sustained weight loss is by doing it the hard way. The majority of people that use diet pills, gain their weight back the minute they stop taking them.
Posted: Nov 26, 07 10:01pm
I take Adderall, and i weigh more now than i ever did !
Posted: Nov 27, 07 7:09am
Lifestyle change is the ONLY thing that is permanent. If you find differently, please advise me immediately
Posted: Nov 27, 07 7:23am
Barbara, congratulations on the weight loss through walking and eating less. I have the exercise part down pat, I really enjoy working out. Unfortunately I also really enjoy eating out, food in general. Walking for me is such an enjoyable way to exercise. Especially around the Seattle area - so beautiful.
Posted: Nov 27, 07 7:41am
Thanks. Walking 35 miles a week is something I plan to do until "my feets fail me." However, I have 20-25 pounds more to lose (although another 10 would thrill me) and it's really slow. The daily resolve to be hungry is weaker on some days than others.
whitemanitou and RobinMillerMD, I'm already working my program (28 lbs lost) but at 55 my metabolism is so slow that a daily denial (in the midst of people who can eat) is hard to sustain. I'm great at maintaining a weight, once I get there (done it all my life until divorce knocked me off my feet and I gained 35 lbs).
I just wish I had a chemical assistant to help me lose the last 20. Daily denial is hard to maintain, and I don't know how much longer I can sustain the hunger.
Posted: Nov 27, 07 12:52pm
Hear hear! If one is lucky enough to live in an area of beauty, walking is a delight. Living in Southern California, I also have the advantage of good weather (when we're not on fire, at least). I would imagine Seattle smells wonderful; I've never been there but I would think it smells like pine and cedar.
And yes, that dang food is tasty. I've discovered the delight of sugar snap peas for my sweet fix (sort of). They're not a sundae, but in the veg kingdom they rule supreme.
Posted: Nov 28, 07 8:43pm
You are very lucky Barbara with the warmth of So Cal. We went to San Diego last month and didn't want to leave. Although the last day of our trip the fires started so that was a bit of incentive.
Posted: Nov 27, 07 8:22am
Robin,
I'd be happy if 3 stone (42 US pounds) could drop off. What do you as an MD suggest? I have seen several studies saying that eating small amounts every three hours keeps the digestive system going and helps to flush out the system. I am afraid of stimulant diet pills and whilst Hoodia sounds interesting, your intro sufficiently scared me.
I would love to hear ideas here on programs that work, I know diets don;t because denial or placing one in a position of NOT doing something sends a negative embedded command rather than positively trying to change behaviour all you do is crave the stuff you are NOT supposed to have.
Can you help?
Posted: Nov 28, 07 6:50am
Everyone is different and what works for one may not work for another. However, in general, it is important to keep the furnace fueled by eating three small healthy meals a day and at least two healthy snacks (which means you eat about every 3 hours). Exercise is crucial and if you want to lose 42 pounds you want to do it slowly. You need to burn an extra 500 calories a day and that will allow you to lose one pound a week. So, exercise off 250 calories daily and drop something from your regular diet that will allow you to reduce another 250 calories. The Mediterranean diet is my favorite. It is healthy and good and has been found to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. If you are having trouble losing weight, you might want to consult with a nutritionist. That might help in terms of accountability!
Posted: Nov 27, 07 8:29am
I've always been leery of the contents in the supplements and not knowing where they are made.
I have been using CLA [conjugated linolic acid] which was recommended to me by an MD in the weight loss, ageless looking industry. He also recommended about 10 other supplements which while I was taking consistently seemed very helpful. it still comes down to eating the right food, drinking enough water and exercise. The latter being the hardest for me to really be consistent with.[along with eating the right food]
So kudos to Barbara for keeping up with her walking regiment!
Posted: Nov 27, 07 8:37am
I've also tried Hoodia for about a week but didn't stay with it.
Now after reading Robin's discussion points I will be tossing the hoodia in the trash.
Posted: Nov 27, 07 10:32am
Thanks -- one day at a time -- complaining all the while (waaaaaa waaaaaaa waaaaaaa) makes it more interesting.
I had a choc-chip ice cream hot-fudge sundae on my 55th birthday, after walking 5 miles on the beach to earn it, and damn-o-mighty it was the best goodie I've ever tasted. Absence definitely makes the tastebud linger -- it's been about 2 years. I've since gone back to walking right past that shoppe daily (but it calls my name). Back, fiend, and damn your breath on my neck! (sorry -- I'm hungry!)
I just read up on CLA and might give it a try. In the words of the great Curly ... "Nerva hoid of it!"
Posted: Nov 27, 07 8:55pm
The weight creeps up on us so we can't expect to drop it all at once--you are doing great with your walking! Congratulations and keep it up. I lost 30 pounds over the last year by monitoring portions, drinking more water and exercising regularly. And I have been stuck at 30 pounds and am fighting to keep from gaining it back! A plateau is hard to break. Whitemanitou is right--it has to be a lifestyle or the yo-yo effect comes into the picture.
Losing weight is a headache but it is so worth the effort. Some of the weight loss schemes and over the counter drugs may help but old habits are the real problem.
Posted: Nov 28, 07 8:38pm
Kle...congrats on the 30 lb loss!
Posted: Nov 28, 07 6:33pm
Well, if it's anywhere near as effective as coca leaves, which I'm sure it's not, it'll probably be illegal in a couple of months.
There's been a lot of hoot about hoodia as of late, and I hope all of us fat bastards can trim our waist lines somehow, but maybe we should consider the possibilty of, this is tough, consuming less than we burn (minus, of course, the considerable mass (commonly called poop) that we mindlessly send down the sewer with the flick of our flushing hand). But wait, this is the land of Fat-Free 1/2 & 1/2 (what's the other 1/2?), Ultralight 120's, fat-free fat and other cake-and-eat-it-too products meant to, seemingly, get us that certain something for next to nothing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty too. I want to take a pill that makes me look, and feel, like a hunert buks, but I know deep down I can't get that gain without the pain it deservedly requires.
Thank you doc for the post; useful information but I guess I'm just kind of tired of the current paradigm.
I wonder how that caffeinated beer tastes? Has anybody tried that yet? Does it come in a light?
Posted: Nov 29, 07 5:48pm
Yeah -- I'm hungry, too! Paradigm schmaradigm. We'll all be dead before the doctors come up with a hunert-buck gooo-err-antee. Good times.
Posted: Dec 1, 07 12:31am
At fifty (this past year), I lost 42 pounds in 4 months.
It wasn't hard, which probably surprised me most of all. I was just sick of looking and feeling like shit. It started, literally, with Lean Cuisines. I was working on a writing project one day and was on a roll. I wanted a quick lunch so I could get back to work. Had a few LC's in the freezer so pulled one out, nuked it up, transferred the contents to a small plate, and ate it (slowly so as to savor each bite). When it was gone, it was gone, nothing left to eat, and I was back to work in ten minutes. Realized to my surprise that afternoon that I wasn't hungry. Tried the Lean Cuisine thing again for supper. Same result. (I'm the type that if I have an eighteen-inch plate I WILL eat it all before I consider my meal over; conversely, I realized I could do the same with a six-inch plate. To my eye, only when the food is gone is the meal over.)
I'd read somewhere that keeping a food journal helped so I started keeping track, calorically, of everything I ate. I soon realized I was eating 1100 to 1200 calories a day and feeling fine. No hunger pangs. I know nutritionists say this is really low, especially for a guy my size (I'm 6'2") but like I say, it worked.
Lean Cuisines, though really tasty, were lmiting, so I branched out to other foods. I had a calorie-count book from a previous diet attempt, and I'd just use that to keep track.
To this I added exercise, five days a week. Just one hour a day, nothing fanatical, at first just pushing my 1-year-old in his stroller through our hilly neighborhood.
Another change, and it's impossible to say how big a part this played, is that I also stopped taking Paxil. I'd read that in some people it causes weight gain that's hard to lose. For all I know, this may have been the magic bullet. But when you change three things at once, you never know which did the trick. I suspect it was all three working together.
The other essential element I allowed myself was what I called the "one-bite rule." If someone around me was having a truly decadent dessert, usually chocolate, I would allow myself ONE BITE. And I ate it really slowly. I soon realized I didn't really want the whole piece of cake. I just want to TASTE it, to feel I wasn't depriving myself because I was on a diet.
Also, I had a tradition in place before all of this of meeting a friend every Thursday for a fried chicken dinner at our local diner. I wasn't about to cut this out. And didn't. Every Thursday I allowed myself that feast. And still the weight came off.
So that's how I did it. All I know is that from mid-January to mid-May about three pounds a week dropped off until I went from 127 to 185.
For the most part the weight has stayed off. Since July I've stopped exercising regularly and am eating more, but still am able to keep myself under 200 without a lot of effort. With daily exercise, I have no doubt it would quickly drop back down to 190 or less.
Interestingly, once or twice I've tried to eat the kind of gargantuan meal I used to allow myself. Each time I've come away feeling bloated and almost ill. So I guess my stomach rejects the intake of that amount of food anymore.
The biggest and best change, especially before I stopped the regular exercise, was that I felt better than I had my entire adult life, energetic, upbeat, confident, and especially sexy. Sexier than I'd ever felt. Minus the exercise, I feel noticeably less so, but it IS the week after Thanksgiving and I DID allow myself to indulge. A lot.
Another thing I've done is thrown out all my fat clothes so that I will have nothing to wear if I start gaining again. I think that helps too.
That's my story.
Posted: Dec 1, 07 2:02pm
Jameliz, That is great! You found what works for you, and you have been successful. I suggest that you might want to start doing the exercise again! It is good for you heart, blood vessels and it is important to have muscle and build up your lean body mass.
Posted: Dec 7, 07 6:54am
Hey !!
So what did you have for breakfast?
And for those of us on teachers salaries and the like, let me just say that budget menu dinners and those others .........check them out! Because usually they have the exact same amount of calores and cost, here in Texas, about $1 or $1.50 at Walmart. Sometimes you can get them on sale for 10 for 10. Turkey and peas is turkey and peas no matter who's selling it.
I agree with the journal part too!! Sometimes I will resist something just because I know I'll have to write it down and use those calories up for the day!
Also I did Atkins Revolution and since then anytime I overeat or do white flour I get the bloated miserable lethargic yuck feeling! The Revolution does NOT advocate bacon, sausage, etc... because of the nitrates. Although now they say one nitrate in bacon actually opens arteries. Sigh. Sigh Sigh.
I also identified, by keeping a journal, my "triggers". Boredom and social situations!!!!!! So at home on my coffee table I have jalepeno sunflower seeds and also the ranch and dill pickle flavored ones and I also make homemade popcorn popped in olive oil with a little cayenne sprinked on it. (Texas ya know)
I'm so proud for you that you did this!!!! u go guy!!
Posted: Dec 7, 07 6:44am
Dr. Miller,
I've heard that as we age we really need to check our thyroids. Yes? or no?
Posted: Dec 7, 07 7:24am
For breakfast I usually have half a cup of cereal with 2% milk and 2 slices of bacon. Or half a cup cottage cheese with mandarin oranges on top, my favorite. Always with the 2 slices of bacon. And coffee. And yeah, the food journal was key when I was losing the 40.
Posted: Dec 7, 07 7:40am
Hi Christyintexas, We do need to check our thryroids. At least 30% of women who are menopausal have hypothyroidism or low thyroid function. We all tend to blame all of our symptoms on menopause when many of us have hypothyroidism!
Posted: Dec 7, 07 7:33am
I have heard that this has become very popular in Japanese Sushi bars, served with Fugu...
It's called "Hoodia and the Blowfish"...
I'm a firm believer in the "caloric expenditure must exceed caloric intake" plan.
Too bad I'm just a believer and not a practitioner....
Posted: Apr 27, 08 9:40am
I looked up Lida, and it is hard to know if it is safe because they are not specific about what is in them! It makes me suspicous that they contain something like ephedra.
Posted: Mar 12, 08 10:45am
I lost 130 in 9 months on strict Atkins...
...but I've now "plateaued" for 90 days at 175. Goal is 150 at a genuinely BIG-boned 5'11". Even when I worked 50 hrs/wk as an aerobics instructor I had to wear "Men's Medium" blazers & shirts; I can still get away with women's size 14-16 trousers & skirts.
I increase my exercise SIGNIFICANTLY every week but nothing yet seems to be helping. Even WITH Hoodia! My appetite is not the problem; I'm down to four/day SO-mini meals you could call them snacks, at no more than 30g carbs/day. Even my registered dietitian is puzzled.
HELP!!!!!!
Posted: Mar 13, 08 7:57pm
Hi Spikeygrrl, are you sure you are eating enough? If your intake is too low, you will hold on to every calorie. The other thing is that maybe you need to change your work-out rather than increasing it. Kick boxing is a good way to burn lots of calories fast...or even just boxing.
Posted: Apr 26, 08 4:20pm
One word: Lida
It's AMAZING. To heck with hoodia!
So tell us, other than guarana and staying away from caffeine and aspirin..is Lida safe?
Posted: Apr 28, 08 7:27pm
Dr. Robin's post is a little up from mine, but I checked out Lida and it has guarana. But I gotta tell ya, it's amazin!! I have hardly any appetite at all and can definitely control what I eat. I think I'll take it twice a week or something until I've disciplined myself to be on my own.
Posted: Apr 28, 08 7:28pm
and just as a final note: I love my flabby ass that is an inch lower than it was 10 years ago. What else could hide all the cellulite on the backs of my thighs??? LOL
Posted: May 13, 08 11:56am
What is Lida?
Posted: May 13, 08 12:02pm
My problem with these kinds of things is that they make me hungry.
I used to drink three slim fasts with a large sandwich about 15 years ago.
I lost some weight and have no desire to put it back on. I have to turn away foods a lot. I know that weight is the same as a bank account but the income and outgo is opposite. In a bank, it comes in hard and leaves easy. With weight, just the opposite.
Like an account, if the income exceeds the outgo-it magically accrues. No mystery.
I don't like the word "diet". All that means is "what you eat". So, were all on one. Some do it smarter than others and know the consequences of not doing it smart. It's simple, but it is certainly not easy.