What are Water pills ?
Water pills also known as Diuretics, are herbs or drugs that increase urination and amplify the excretion of body water. Medically, they often are used in the treatment of conditions like heart failure, high blood pressure, liver cyrrohsis, and some kidney diseases, but more and more often, diuretics are being marketed to the average consumer as a weight loss aid.
Taking Water Pills to Lose Weight is pretty controversial mainly because when it comes down to using pills for weight reduction, it is very taboo amongst fellow dieters. The reason I bring up this topic up is because about a month ago I went to a dietician to help me further my weight loss to reach my goal. After checking my blood pressure, heart and weight, he created a diet plan for me and also to my surprise prescribed me Water Pills and an Appetite suppressant.
I figured ... this is different I'll give it a shot and see how things go. Well the appetite suppressant went horrible for me. I work 8 hours a day doing customer service at a computer desk. About 30min after taking the pill, I would feel dizzy and zombified (lifeless and disoriented) . But the scariest thing of all was the feeling I felt in my chest. Just to give you a little medical history about myself, I have an Irregular heart beat or a heart murmur depending on who you ask. And for any pill that causes side effects in my chest, just isn't good for me. So I stopped taking them immediately. The water pills however, I did have a very good experience with. The only side effect I felt was of course increased urination and sometime dry mouth. Im sure the dry mouth comes because your losing more fluid than your putting in. Other than that, I did lose excess water weight that I frankly did not need. Think of it like this when your working out in the Summer time your body is heated up and your sweating. In the Winter time you can work out just as hard and just as long, but you may not get as much from the work out. This is because you sweat more in the summer time than you do in the winter time. Your still retaining water and that extra water is preventing you from seeing the scale go down. As a result some people do tend to use the aid of a water pill to help get rid of that extra water weight.
How to Use It ?
Use the pills as directed, if your doctor tells you to use them once a day ... then use them once a day. Don't double your dosage because you feel you ate too much salt or because you feel "Fat". You will severely dehydrate yourself and may cause serious harm. If you feel you don't need to take them everyday, and only want to use as needed. Then I think that's perfectly fine if your using the pill only for Weight Loss. If you need water pills because you have a medical condition... then please use as directed by your doctor. Stay hydrated and stay away from too much high sodium foods because that will defeat the purpose of taking water pills to begin with. High Sodium per-packaged foods and overly salted foods will make you retain the fluids you drink, causing you to gain weight.
Making a Decision
If you decide to use water pills or simply having a low sodium diet, do your research and figure out whats best for you. And remember you didn't gain the weight over night ... so don't exspect to lose it over night. Take your time and eventually we will all meet our goals.