Can Drugs Make Americans Lose Weight? Not Likely

"I have taken this drug off and on for the past 10 years for weight loss. It works, but the results NEVER last, it makes you feel great for about six months, you lose weight, you have awesome energy to work out and then it begins to not work anymore. It's like you build up an immunity to it or something."

The comment is about phentermine (Fastin, Adipex, Ionamin), half of a new drug under consideration by the FDA, but it could apply to all the diet drugs. Thanks to human's "thrifty gene," diet drugs work until they don't work, say scientists. When the body senses it's losing its adipose stores, it actually changes the metabolic rules to retain saddlebags and love handles. Thanks for that.

So, even though two-thirds of American adults are overweight and a third obese, few drugs have been able to make a dent in our gross national product; they've proved to be ineffective and sometimes dangerous.

Fen-phen was withdrawn 13 years ago for killing at least 120 people...and it didn't even work that well, people say.

Meridia, one of the few diet drugs currently on the market, was given heart attack and stroke warning from the FDA earlier this year and only works with diet and exercise anyway, users say. Both sound like the joke about the restaurant that had such bad food...and such small portions.

And let's not even talk about Alli and Xenical which, by blocking the body's absorption of fat, cause "oily bowels" and "anal leakage" yet produced no more weight loss than a placebo. (And the FDA just added a "severe liver injury" warning.) "With allies like this, who needs enemas?" comedians quipped.

So when an FDA advisory committee considered a new diet superdrug called Qnexa this month, many put down their Pirate's Booty and listened. Especially when patient Erin Aycock testified she lost 50 pounds during trials and others were said to lose 10 percent of their body weight.

Qnexa, made by California biotech Vivus, combines Topamax, an anti-seizure drug also given for pain and bipolar disorder, with phentermine (the phen in Fen-phen).

Topamax makes you lose weight all right, say patients on the drug-rating site askapatient.com -- along with your memory, your word recall and your hair. In fact Topamax's brain-zapping properties are so well known it is referred to as "Stupamax" in the military where it is in wide use, according to Army Times.

Topamax's weight loss properties may come from the fact that it makes food and beverages tastes bad, say 33 users. Last year it received an FDA suicide warning (along with other seizure drugs) and a few years ago, a warning for acute myopia associated with a type of glaucoma.

What about the amphetamine-related phentermine, the other drug in Qnexa? "I honestly can't distinguish this drug from Adderall, or even cocaine. It might as well be called Prescription Coke," says one phentermine user. Users report losing 50 to 60 pounds (many gaining it back) while being unable to sleep, and chewing gum -- and the insides of their cheeks -- constantly.

Will American soon get a chance to lose weight on Qnexa, albeit while lying awake and biting their cheeks? Maybe. The FDA advisory committee voted 10 to six against Qnexa because of concerns about depression, memory-loss, birth defects, and lack of long-term data. But the committee only makes recommendations and the final FDA decision comes in October.

Meanwhile, two other diet drugs soon come before the FDA, also made by California biotech firms.

In December, an FDA advisory committee will consider Contrave, another combination of already approved drugs that mixes the well-known antidepressant bupropion (which is also an antismoking drug) and the drug naltrexone, which is used to manage opioid and alcohol addictions.