Every day we’re exposed to thousands of images and standards of beauty from the media. Facebook videos, Instagram ads, magazine spreads, and television clips are all projecting different brands that show off men and women with toned and lean physiques. While we may turn a blind eye and think that these images won’t affect us, they are rotating through our mind when we’re not aware and can stimulate negative body image. With that pressure comes the urge to look great and lose weight fast, and many who feel necessary turn to dangerous diet pills that are sometimes even FDA banned to burn off fat.

It’s important to know why these pills are so dangerous to the body and what the healthier ways are to lose weight. While the process to get a leaner body isn’t a magic fix like these brands promise, with enough consistency and effort you can get the physique of your dreams! Make sure to learn the wholesome ways to teach your body healthy habits so you can build a stronger self both mentally and physically.

Avoid An Eating Disorder

You might think that stopping all your daily meals will help contribute to losing weight, but the opposite is true. Doing that will only shut your metabolism down over time and leave you feeling incredibly tired, cranky, and disheartened from becoming healthier. In general, try to avoid any types of behaviors or attitudes that focus too much on your weight loss, dieting, and controlling of food out of proportion. If you’re spending hours every day counting your calories down to each number, you might be expending too much concentration rather than focusing on getting enough exercise and eating whole foods. However, counting certain aspects of nutrition like macronutrients is a great idea (ie. your daily volume of carbohydrates, fats, and protein) as you’re looking at your daily eating habits in the bigger picture. The worst thing to do is to completely refuse to eat certain foods that make you weak. We all have that amazing food item we crave from time to time like chocolate, pizza, ice cream, fried chicken, you name it. Mine personally is Oreos and it’s sometimes incredibly hard to not have it as a treat! The key is to enjoy it in moderation and not fall into an abstinence and binge cycle with those unhealthier foods.

If you feel that you are experiencing an urge to control your eating too much, it’s important to know that there’s many misconceptions about going about them. Studies within nutrition have recently shown that genetics account for up to 80% of the chance for developing eating disorders. Such disorders can drastically affect your brain and if left untreated can damage your bones, reproductive health, skin, and other organs for life. Regardless of background, men and women of all types of backgrounds can suffer from eating disorders and even seek out banned weight loss pills to cope. That vicious cycle of under eating and taking pills with a strong substance doesn’t treat the body well at all.

Pill Precaution

Supplements are awesome to take as part of your weight loss, especially when paired with proper diet and exercise. Creatine, protein powder, and amino acids are all popular choices that help fuel your muscles before and after a workout. These give them the proper endurance to work out properly, maintain your building lean muscle, and burn fat in a healthy way by  boosting your metabolism naturally. The wrong supplements to take are FDA banned diet pills that some people may say works like a charm. Whoever they are, they’re telling a flat out lie as relying on a strong drug to lose weight never works well. Fad diets that include taking diet pills everyday usually cut your calories too low and can decrease your ability to use energy to fuel your body. Some of the fad diet dangers associated with under-eating for a long period of time include having trouble sleeping, problems with infertility, consistent acne, increases in body fat, reduced strength and even mental disorders like depression. It’s best to stay away from this alternative, even if you are just looking to drop a couple pounds.

Healthy Alternatives

There’s no reason to revert to a fad diet, under eating, or using dangerous diet pills to get the body you’ve always wanted. Being proactive about your options is the best way to go when you want to lose weight or build more muscle. It will take a lot of time and consistent effort to get the results you want, but you’ll feel so much better about working hard toward your goal. Be wary of what the media tells you as brands can build a facade of what works, or promote images of models who are otherwise pretty touched up and Photoshopped before being published mainstream. The unrealistic body image that’s widely shared within the media seriously distorts our reality and allows thousands of people to believe they’re abnormally over weight. Shoot for health instead of a measurement, and you’ll so much more happy being a better version of yourself!