Q: Mike i have fallen in love with you site but i have noticed you dont say good things about diet pills. I my self take stacker 2 do you think i should stop? My main goal is to look good and be healthy and i have started the diet plan you have and i am hopeing that will help because like many MANY others on the sitei have man boobs but since i started working out my chest and useing your diet i have noticed improvement. But back to my question do you disaprove of diet pills?

A: Thanks for compliment and I'm very glad my advice is helping you! You're correct, I'm not a fan of diet pills. Several reasons:

• Horrible hype, misinformation, and plain lies surrounding them. There hasn't been a singly reputable scientific study published on any fat-burning supplement, as far as I know. There's plenty of references to 'studies' in the ads which are either not substantiated or turn out to be funded by the pill maker. TV, web, magazines, are all flooded by a huge number of ridiculous claims for these pills which are plain lies hiding behind the 'actual results may vary' disclaimer. The anecdotal evidence you get from people is heavily tainted by the ads hype, so it's not reliable either. Bottom line, it's safe to conclude that some supps helped some people lose some amount of weight in some period of time, which may or may not be better than they could've lost without the supp.
• Loss of focus. This is actually the bigger issue. Most (not all!) people treat diet pills as some sort of replacement for a healthy diet and exercise. In fact, most commercials are aimed at this perception: 'Lose 20 pounds in one month without exercise and eating all the chocolate you want'. So instead of focusing on having a good diet and a good training program, people start asking which pill is the best. And that's where all the hype and misinformation comes in. In the end, the person still does not know how to eat right, still doesn't exercise, and even if he or she manages to lose some fat thanks to the pill, it's only a matter of time till the fat comes back.
• Health risks. Nobody has any idea about the long-term risks of these supps and many people suffer obvious short-term side-effects including anxiety, insomnia, digestion problems, headaches, etc. And yes, in extreme cases, death. Ephedrine seemed perfectly fine for years till all the death stories starting appearing and then it was banned. Who's to say the same won't happen to the current roundup of fat-burners? And ephedrine was just as 'natural' as any of the current ones -- an extract from a plant. Same anecdotal evidence that says the pills work also says that some people get both psychological and physiological addictions to these drugs, including suffering through withdrawals.

That's about it in the nutshell. If you choose to take diet pills, please understand the health risks and do not treat your diet and exercise with any less attention as you would have without the diet pills.