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Goofball Answer:

Nicole Hilton,

Anoretix™ is a weight loss pill. Therefore, it most certainly contains an ingredient that is bad for you: false hope.

That the name is disgustingly close to "anorexic" should scare off anyone who is considering this weight loss pill. But that alone is not the only reason to avoid it. The more compelling reason to avoid this product is that it is a complete waste of money. And it very well may be dangerous for you.

There has been, is, and always will be one surefire way to lose weight. And it is this: burn more calories in a day than you consume. Even more simply put: move more, eat less. If your body uses more energy for movement, metabolism, temperature regulation, and whatnot than you consume through food and beverage in a day, your body must burn its own energy stores to bridge the deficit. As it happens, our bodies store energy in fat. Therefore, if you routinely (i.e. every day) burn more calories than you consume, your body has no choice but to lose weight. It is a biological certainty.

The most common retort to this simple course of logic is always, "I work out all the time and I never lose weight." Allow me to address this often-fallacious statement with a few things I've learned from several years of my own weight going up and down (between 147 and 195 pounds in just the past 7 years) and from spending countless hours in countless gyms watching countless people lose countless pounds:

1. Chose a unit of measure other than pounds. When you first start working out, you'll probably build some muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat, and therefore, may cause your weight to increase even though you're working out like the Governor of California. So measure your "weight loss goals" in inches, pant size, a new notch on the watchband, or something other than pounds—at least at first.
2. Many people notice their appetites increase when they first begin a workout regimen. This is pretty natural. But the goal is to create a calorie deficit, so don't begin rewarding yourself for good workouts with cookies, cake, ice cream, and the like. Instead, take a normal 3-meal diet of 2,000 to 2,500 calories and break it up into several smaller meals. Eat less food more frequently and the hunger won't bother you so much. But mind what you're eating and keep the daily calories at a healthy level. (I try to have five meals of 500 calories each in a day.)
3. If you can read a magazine while you're working out, you're not working out, you're just making it harder to read your magazine.
4. If you're talking on your cell phone while you're working out, you're not working out, you're just breathing heavily in the ear of your fellow conversant.
5. Three minutes on a cardio machine followed by 25 minutes of stretching is not a workout.
6. 35 minutes of dumbbell curls is not going to help you lose weight; you need to be doing cardiovascular exercises (e.g. running, swimming, cycling, walking, snowshoeing, inline skating, cross-country skiing).
7. Working out with other people is immeasurably easier than working out alone. Find workout partners. Push each other. Agree from the beginning that you will be stern with one another about attendance, workout duration, and supporting one another.
8. Always stretch. Trust me.
9. Diversify your workouts. Don't do the same thing over and over. You will build a more balanced body if you do different activities and you will save yourself from going insane.
10. Change scenery. Try a different bike trail. Go to the other gym. Walk at the zoo now and then. This will keep you from going insane as well.
11. Get good shoes. $39.00 running shoes will only hurt you. Go to a running store and buy real running shoes—it's an investment in you.
12. Set goals. Sign up for a run or walk. Knowing that you have to perform at the event can motivate you to work out harder. Buy a pair of pants in the next smaller size and hang them where you'll see them every day. You've already spent the money on them, so you might as well do what's necessary to fit in them. It may cost you $25.00 to sign up for a race or walk and $50.00 for a new pair of jeans, but it may be all the incentive that's necessary. And the cost of these is small compared to the price you pay for not achieving your goals.
13. Stop comparing yourself to others. No two of us are the same. Therefore, you must set your own goals and strive to achieve them. It doesn't matter how fast the person next to you has set their treadmill. It doesn't matter how much the other person is lifting. We are all of us different. And there will always be someone better off and someone worse off than you.
14. You will have bad days working out. Some days I'll have a nearly effortless two-hour bike ride and the next day I struggle through a half-hour run. It happens. Sometimes, if the running just isn't working for me, I switch to the pool or elliptical machine and try to find a different rhythm. But I always finish my workout (unless I think I'm injuring myself).
15. Country music is not good for working out. That country music sucks in general may be the reason, but I find country music can actually lead to weight gain. So avoid it while working out.*
16. Working out twice per week is not working out. You must make vigorous activity part of your daily routine. The idea is to create a daily calorie deficit—not an occasional one.

The long and short of it all is this: working out sucks. This is the price we pay for no longer having 13 hours of farm chores every day. Get over it. If you want to lose weight, you will experience uncomfortable breathing. You will get sore muscles. Your iliotibial bands will hurt. Your feet may blister. Your toenails may fall out. You will sweat. You will be bored out of your mind. You will have to dedicate time to it. And it only gets easier after you have stuck with it for a while. But if you can force yourself to workout diligently for a year or so, you may find you can no longer live without it. And the rewards are plentiful: in terms of health, self-satisfaction, and self-confidence.

This answer is caustic, and I meant it to be so. The most common barrier to weight loss is an excuse. So I figure it's best to be realistic with people. I have been working out with near-religious fervor for seven years now, and there are days I still can't stand to run another step or do another pull-up. It's not that my body can't do it, it's that I can think of a thousand other things I'd rather be doing than pedaling a stationary bike for two hours. But I finish my workouts nonetheless, and it always feels great once I'm done.

May you find the fruits of hard work,

topher

* I'm deadpan serious about everything on this list except number 15. That was comic relief.