Step Up to a Lighter Place –
July 11, 2019 – How easy would it be, I thought, to just take a pill and not be hungry? For an emotional eater like me, it seemed like the perfect solution. I looked up the nearest medical weight-loss clinic and took the first appointment. The year was 2001, and I picked the clinic with the nicest ad in the phone book. Little did I know, I would eventually visit them all.
When I stepped on the scale at the clinic, it read 170. I was informed that my BMI was firmly in the overweight category for my height. I am 5’6, so a normal weight for someone my height can be anywhere between 118-148 pounds. The doctor talked to me briefly about healthy habits, and prescribed phentermine, a commonly prescribed amphetamine-like medication used to suppress appetite.
Phentermine is one of four FDA-approved weight-loss drugs intended for short-term use only. (Five other medicines are approved for long-term use.) Potential side effects include an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, insomnia, constipation, and nervousness. On more than one occasion, I woke up with my heart beating out of my chest—scary as fuck, but not scary enough to make me stop.
