Weight loss supplements: Do they really work?

No

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by Ted Sherman

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The most effective weight loss supplement that works is to push your fat butt away from the dinner table. Of course, there are some obese people who must have medical help or surgery to lose life-threatening weight, but most of us just need a large helping of self-control. Non-prescription, over-the-counter commercial products simply peddle pills, that with exercise and lower calorie intake can help in weight reduction.

However, they only serve to make the mind tell the body that it can't eat another helping. If the overweight person can control the mind and the urge to stuff in more food, then there's no need for any supplements. Most people can just forget all their phony claims for magic results, and retouched before/after photos they boast about. It's just a case of mind over fatter.

When I retired nearly 20 years ago, I waddled out of my office for the last time weighing 198 pounds. On a five-foot-eight frame, that was ridiculous. I had stopped regular exercise years before, giving the excuse that my job as manager of a large ad department required 60 hours a week of sweat and supervision. Of course, along with the self-induced overwork, I ate at least 3,500 calories a day, because I was always nervous about some real or imagined office crisis, and needed the comfort of stuffing my already stuffed face to face the day.

Additionally, my job entailed producing recognition and motivation conferences six times a year. The week-long programs were always held in posh resort hotels, where my 60-hour week became 80-hour weeks. Quality food and booze were everywhere, and I never passed up an offer to indulge in both. Of course, I told myself, I needed all that drinking and eating to get through the day, which started at six am and ended at one am or later while hosting a booze party in the executive penthouse suite.

At my retirement day party, an office pal, a company physician, took me aside and, with the help of some tongue-loosening booze, told me frankly that he predicted my sunset years would be five, ten at the most, before my boozing and blubber would kill me. He cited several other co-workers who had retired in recent years, all grossly overweight, who hadn't survived ten years before going to that great buffet in the sky. I asked him which diet supplements I should take. He laughed, shook his head, and then gave his simple advice. As with my first sentence above, he said no artificial supplements were needed, if I could just cut way back on my calories, eat sensible foods and get regular exercise.

Did his boozy advice have any effect on me? You're damned right it did! My spouse and I settled into our little desert retirement home, which was in a senior community with an Olympic-sized pool. The weather allowed swimming every day of the year, and along with doing up to 20 laps every day, I hiked for at least 30 minutes. This gave me an exercise regimen of 90 minutes a day. Of course, with no more banquets or free booze available, I cut back drastically. While I don't count calories slavishly, I know I was eating at least half of my previous amount. Now I have one small glass of wine once or twice a week, and have stayed away from most fat meats, potatoes, breads, cake and other of the usual blubber-producing foods.

It took me several years of swimming, hiking and low calorie intake to get in decent shape, but today, nearly 20 years after retiring at age 65 and weighing nearly 200 pounds, I'm at 165, and still hiking and swimming daily. I never, never took any of the diet supplements the TV pitchmen are always peddling, simply because I made up my mind to do the job all by myself. I'm ten pounds from my ultimate weight goal, so if you'll excuse me, it's time to go to the community pool and swim some laps. Hey, Michael Phelps, that's my lane! Move over!

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