Taking Laxatives to Lose Weight Is Not A Valid Option
Since the surgeon general released a report saying that more than two thirds of the people in America are overweight, magazines and the Internet have been flooded with diet and weight loss information. One of the least desirable, and least effective, ideas to date is taking laxatives to lose weight.
Laxatives were created as medications to help treat certain issues people may need to manage. They should only be used to alleviate constipation. But if taken on a daily basis, these drugs could limit or destroy the body’s ability to move waste matter through the colon.
Laxatives only effect the very end of the alimentary tract, by the time anything reaches that point all of the calories and nutrients have already been extracted from it. This means that all of the calories consumed in a meal have already been absorbed into the body before any remaining material gets to this part of the digestive tract.
There is only a certain amount that the bowel can hold. Any method used to relieve constipation, even a high colonic, will only successfully remove a certain amount of waste. Laxatives will only have an impact on the lower part of the bowels, as such they are unable to move anything more than a colonic out of the body.
Changes in eating and exercise habits are the best way to bring about weight loss. Reducing the number of calories taken in while increasing the number of calories used is the only real method of losing weight.
Of course, the changes made must be at a fundamental level. It is pointless to diet until you have lost weight, then continue as you were before. When this occurs the result is always that the weight will return. You will be right back where you started, perhaps even heavier. An even more dangerous and fruitless proposition than dieting to starvation is taking laxatives to lose weight.
