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Most of these diet pills you mention, including Qsymia, are (1) meant to be taken alongside a regimen of regular exercise and a reduced calorie diet, (2) indicated specifically for people with a certain BMI.
Do you get get regular exercise? You don't have to be a cray cray cross fit nut or start running marathons, but do you at least do 30 minutes of cardio a few days a week? Do you plan to?
Qsymia is approved for people with a BMI of 30 or higher, or, for people with a BMI of 27 or higher PLUS at least one other obesity related condition like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
A BMI of 30 is, for example, a (non athlete) woman who is 5'4" and 175 pounds.
Do you meet this criteria? Or are you someone who wants to lose 10 pounds of vanity weight? Are you 5'4" and 135 pounds, wanting to fit into a size 0 for a high school reunion? (And trying to be a size 0 is NEVER a healthy goal, by the way.)
You say you have already reduced your caloric intake, but be honest with yourself. Most people are not honest when it comes to counting calories and watching portion sizes. A tablespoon means a measured tablespoon (not a heaping spoonful using a random spoon from your kitchen drawer). Four ounces means four ounces...do you have a food scale? Also, four ounces of plain, poached chicken breast is different than a portion of prepared chicken out of a box or from a restaurant, that you eye ball as being a serving size, that is also battered or drowned in some kind of sauce.
Do you even know what your specific daily caloric needs are, based on your gender, height, age and activity level? Do you know what your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is, or what your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is? Before Googling "NJ clinics Qsymia", you should be Googling "TDEE calculator".
To put this in perspective:
For a 5'4", 30 year-old, couch potato female who has a desk job and does zero exercise, it takes about 1600 calories per day to maintain a weight of 135 pounds. If this 5'4", 30 year-old, zero-exerciser, couch potato female with a desk job wants to be less than 135 pounds, she has to consume less than 1600 calories a day, and/or, do more than zero exercise.
Also, exercise does not magically burn a bajillion gazillion calories and give you free reign to go Godzilla at the buffet.
To put this in perspective:
Running an entire marathon burns (very generally) about 2,600 calories. If you eat ONE lunch special, a side dish and a large soda at the Cheesecake Factory, you could easily have consumed that many calories...for one meal. Do you plan on running 26 miles everyDAY for exercise? Do you even plan on jogging 26 miles a WEEK?
What does your actual doctor have to say about Qsymia? Your doctor is the one with your medical history. A random clinic does not.
If it is true that most clinics in NJ do not want to prescribe Qsymia, that's probably one of the reasons why. And any clinic that is going to give you a 'scrip all willy nilly does NOT have your health or best interests in mind. And if you want to go to some shady clinic that doles out 'scrips all willy nilly, then YOU don't have YOUR health and best interests in mind.
Qsymia, by the way, is a cocktail of phentermine and a 2nd drug topiramate.
Phentermine (like the cocaine you mention) is a stimulant and appetite suppressant.
Topiramate is an antiepilepsy drug that is also sometimes prescribed for migraines, and for a host of psychiatric problems like PTSD and BPD, as well as for addiction issues (e.g. alcoholism and smoking cessation). Weight loss is a common adverse side effect of topiramate, and thus, another off-label use of this drug was born.
Qsymia failed FDA approval initially.
It is approved now, but it is still undergoing a bunch of FDA-required, post-approval safety testing (the results of which are yet to be seen).
Not to mention, I am assuming you are a sexually active adult female who is capable of getting pregnant. Even the drug maker itself (Vivus) recommends that women take a monthly pregnancy test while on Qsymia because of the risk of birth defects. If you are actively trying to get pregnant now, or in the future, you don't want this drug in your system.
There are a bunch of other risks and adverse side effects that I won't get into because this post is already too long. And, obviously, considering that this drug has only been on the market for about 2 and half years, no one know whether there will be any long term health risks. Twenty years from now it could come to light that it may have played a part in your breast cancer or heart problems.
Does any of this sound particularly healthy to you?
Do you plan on taking (and paying for) Qsymia for the rest of your life to maintain a certain weight?
What happens when you stop taking Qsymia (or Belviq or Orlistat or Adipex)? Gain the weight back?
What's with all the hate on the NJ forum? Almost every thread asking for help or information either gets no response or judgmental, negative posts. It's really sad to see everyone leaping to break a random stranger down for no reason. Unless you know the OP in real life, there is no call for all the assumptions you make in your response. It sounds like the OP unintentionally hit a nerve of yours, but please take a breath next time before venting on a random stranger. Silence can be as telling a response as a tirade.
What's with all the hate on the NJ forum? Almost every thread asking for help or information either gets no response or judgmental, negative posts. It's really sad to see everyone leaping to break a random stranger down for no reason. Unless you know the OP in real life, there is no call for all the assumptions you make in your response. It sounds like the OP unintentionally hit a nerve of yours, but please take a breath next time before venting on a random stranger. Silence can be as telling a response as a tirade.
All the assumptions that I'm making? What assumptions am I making? I ask a bunch of questions and present a bunch of examples.
I know weight loss is hard, and I know that overweight people get a lot of judgement, so if you and/or the OP felt like I was I deliberately trying to break a person down, then I sincerely apologize. That was not my intent at all. My intent was not to hate or be negative. I was trying to give this person as much information as possible so she could make an informed decision. My intentions, genuinely, were that I didn't want this person putting her life in danger and/or spending any unnecessary money towards people that do not have her best intentions and health as their first priority. I mean, I don't like seeing people getting screwed at the car dealership. I sure as hell don't want to see them getting screwed at some rando clinic that puts $$$ before sound medicine.
I was actually trying to be supportive, which is why I made it a point to say that she didn't have to start running marathons or be a cray cray cross fit nut when it came to weight loss/exercise, and also that I hoped her goal wasn't fitting into a certain dress size (because the goal of weight loss should be your health...your blood, your bones, your muscles, your organs...not conforming to some arbitrary standard of beauty). The bit about the Cheesecake Factory was to give an example of how easy it is to consume more calories than you think. A 'healthy' salad at a lot of restaurants contains more calories than a Big Mac. The bit about how many calories burned by running a marathon was to demonstrate that exercise doesn't burn as many calories as people think, and the primary route to weight loss is calorie reduction. There are some harsh truths that can't be sugarcoated.
Before trying to get on a medication that could be dangerous, that is still undergoing a bunch of testing, other alternatives should be exhausted.
People should be consulting their doctors about prescription medications. Not asking random strangers on the internet where to get them at random clinics. This is dangerous. Dangerous dangerous dangerous. Especially when we are talking specifically about a medication that requires extra caution.
It's good to know you didn't intend to be harsh, but reading your text without the emotional context, the use of unnecessary capitalization, flowery language (such as the bajillion gazillion), and especially the use of "even" in your questions to the OP, come off as you disbelieving, condescending, and mocking the OP. As in, "Do you even know the sky is BLUE?" That sentence structure implies the speaker does not think the person asked knows the sky is blue.
As I said, without emotional context that's how your text comes off. In person, it likely would not have come off that way since your intent was different. The sentences that made me think the post was harsh are below.
"Do you even know what your specific daily caloric needs are, based on your gender, height, age and activity level?"
"Do you meet this criteria? Or are you someone who wants to lose 10 pounds of vanity weight?"
"Do you plan on running 26 miles everyDAY for exercise? Do you even plan on jogging 26 miles a WEEK?"
"Also, exercise does not magically burn a bajillion gazillion calories and give you free reign to go Godzilla at the buffet."
People should be consulting their doctors about prescription medications. Not asking random strangers on the internet where to get them at random clinics.
Weight loss clinics are more likely to prescribe these meds vs a primary physician.
I prefer a weight loss clinic because trying to get it from the primary and an internist is like pulling teeth.
The clinics are not random,and they do all sorts of blood tests.
You still are under the care of a doctor.
It is not like i asked which street corner in the city sells phentermine.
I prefer a weight loss clinic because trying to get it from the primary and an internist is like pulling teeth.
If you know from actual experience that trying to get Qsymia and similar meds is "like pulling teeth", then I'm assuming it's because your primary basically would not prescribe those meds to you, which means that there is a medical reason why, e.g., your BMI is not high enough, and/or, there is something in your medical hx that would preclude you from taking those meds, and/or, you have a specific contraindication for the med (e.g. for Qsymia: glaucoma or thyroid problems).
So are you then seeking weight loss clinics that would still prescribe these meds to you despite the reasons that your primary would not?
A legit clinic is ALSO going to refuse to prescribe to you if there is some reason why you should not be on that med.
Wait. I just went through your post history. It's pretty clear why your primary is reluctant, or plain refuses to prescribe to you.
You went low carb in 2011 and lost a lot of weight. Yet you are claiming on multiple threads that you have already tried diet/reducing calories, and it didn't work. But that's false. You ARE capable of losing weight via calorie reduction alone.
You gained back all 40 pounds "on purpose" because you "look better in the face while bigger".
Eating 1 giant meal a day of "5 chicken breasts or 5 chicken thighs and about 4 cups of salad with ranch dressing" is not a great idea. Shift work SUCKS and I understand that it screws up your sleeping/eating schedule, but you need to eat while at work. First of all, it's not legal for any workplace to deny you a meal break, especially when you're working a 12-hour shift. Are you a nurse? You can find 15 minutes to at least eat a sandwich or a wrap or some soup.
And this: "I am going to try eating 3 or 5 300 calorie meals a day and see how that works."
Three 300-calorie meals a day--that's not enough calories. Would not recommend.
Five 300-calorie meals a day sounds much better (but your calorie intake should be calculated based on your height, age and activity level).
You posted that 2 weeks ago. What happened to that plan? You didn't lose as much weight as you wanted, so now you're gonna give up and go the diet pill route? It's only been 2 weeks. Give yourself time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerseygal4u
Weight loss clinics are more likely to prescribe these meds vs a primary physician.
Well yeah, think about the business they're in.
A hair salon I go to sometimes tries to sell me a $40 bottle of shampoo and a $90 jar of conditioning mask in order to achieve "healthy" hair, when really, a $10 jar of coconut oil from the bodega yields the same results.
Good luck. If you go on Qsymia, use effective birth control, and I hope you are not breast feeding.
(And again, Qsymia is supposed to be taken in conjunction with calorie reduction and increased exercise, so if you lose weight while on this drug, it will be mostly due to your own hard work & diligence, and not some miracle property in the drug.)
Sorry I do one weight loss post each year as a public service. Here is the entry for 2015:
Diet and exercise are the only way too look good. Only. Way. Looking for additives and snake oil from weight loss "clinics" is a road to failure, despair, and continued rotundity.
I would implore you to use Reason, not Emotion and Mysticism, in solving this problem. Why? Reason is the only methodology that works with Reality. They go together like hand in glove. Weight loss is a logical problem, to be solved with rational tools. And the rational approach is to stop eating and start moving over a long period of time, with sustained focus and execution of self-imposed guidelines. It's so simple, yet mysticism and emotionalism paralyze the vast majority into failure-prone behaviors that are disconnected from Reality.
Forget clinics. Forget websites. Forget books and tapes. Forget prescriptions, additives, herbs, and other easy fixes that fix nothing except the bank accounts of the charlatans who depend on your dependency and irrationality.
Stop eating. Start moving. Add time and patience. Mix these ingredients, and the weight will go away, you will look good again, and the goal will be accomplished, and you will not need to give money away to the hucksters and the hustlers.
What part of "If anyone anyone is going to suggest diet and exercise,please,save your writing for another time." was unclear to you? I have my opinions, too. But when someone pointedly tells you in advance that posts about diet and exercise (and "irrationality", I might add) will not be appreciated, you still go ahead and post exactly that. Why? To prove some sort of point?
What part of "If anyone anyone is going to suggest diet and exercise,please,save your writing for another time." was unclear to you? I have my opinions, too. But when someone pointedly tells you in advance that posts about diet and exercise (and "irrationality", I might add) will not be appreciated, you still go ahead and post exactly that. Why? To prove some sort of point?
The point needed to be made, regardless of the irrational blocking directive provided by the poster. We have a society of pill poppers and effort avoiders, looking for solutions that evade real work, focus, and execution. That attitude is wrong and needs to be challenged, regardless of the idle whims of the person who expresses it.
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