A Closer Look at Weight Loss Medications vs. Supplements
Published by
CONTRAVE Care Team
on
As the prescription weight loss market grows, so is there renewed interest in weight loss supplements. It can be confusing to differentiate the two—especially when you can get both at the pharmacy.
Prescription weight loss medications and weight loss supplements can be more different than they are alike. Keep reading to learn more.
Regulations and Clinical Studies
As with dietary supplements and vitamins, the companies selling weight loss supplements are not required to perform placebo-controlled clinical studies or get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to confirm their efficacy or list potential side effects. Prescription weight loss medications do need to go through this process and need to prove they help patients lose at least 5% of their body weight.
While you may observe many weight loss supplement products advertise that they are “clinically proven” to work, there is a spectrum of how strict clinical studies are. Clinical studies testing the effectiveness and safety of prescription medications must follow international clinical studies ethics guidelines. Researchers usually publish these study results in academic journal articles that must go through a formal review process by other experts.
Companies that make weight loss supplements face less regulation and thus may take greater risks with what they claim about their products in their advertisements. Clinical studies for weight loss supplements vary widely in terms of how many people were studied, length of time studied, ingredients included, and overall quality of the study design that could influence the study's results. This could make it difficult to know if the supplement is effective for weight loss. This may make it harder to find conclusive data on the efficacy of weight loss supplements. Furthermore, some supplements tout an ingredient's potency or effects on weight loss, but the supplement might only contain a very small amount of that ingredient.
Working With A Healthcare Professional and Dosing
When you take a weight loss supplement, the dosage on the package serves as a general recommendation for all adults. When taking supplements, generally speaking, you aren't working with a healthcare professional; therefore you control dosing and what kind of supplements you want to try.
Whereas with prescription medications, you are under the care of a healthcare provider. Your provider can ensure you are taking the proper dosage and can ensure you are progressing towards your goals. Additionally, your healthcare provider can make adjustments as needed—a service not included when taking weight loss supplements. Along with this, your healthcare provider is the source of truth for any useful tips that can assist you during your weight loss journey.
Do Weight Loss Supplements Work?
A savvy consumer may know not to believe any claims of quick fixes for weight loss, but there are so many weight loss supplements out there—caffeine, green tea, Garcinia cambogia, to name a few. It can be hard to know which ones (if any) are legit.
Thankfully, there are people out there doing that hard work for us. The U.S. National Institutes of Health keeps a running fact sheet for consumers on the many weight loss supplements available and their available efficacy and safety data.
Scientists and researchers have also done in-depth reviews of the data from publicly-available clinical studies of weight loss supplements. One large review of 315 randomized and controlled clinical studies pored over the data and concluded that these studies often suffer from bias and poor methodology. Some do show some efficacy, but the weight loss is often not significant and likely won’t help address long-term, weight-related health issues.
Talking to Your Provider
Always talk to your provider before considering any weight loss medication or supplement!
However, it’s important to note that one of the reasons people may turn to weight loss supplements to try to lose weight is that they need help accessing a provider. That’s why we’ve made it simple to talk to a provider online to learn if CONTRAVE (alongside diet and exercise) may be right for your weight loss journey. Prepare for your telehealth visit by completing our short Personal Weight Loss Assessment Tool!
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