Panicked after taking weight loss pills for 7 years, girl's weight doubled

Xiaoli, 25, started taking diet pills seven years ago after watching a convincing TV commercial. At the time, she weighed just over 45kg but still felt overweight. So she decided to buy the pills and take them.

Xiaoli recounted that the medication worked at first, but when she stopped taking it, not only did she return to her original weight, but she also gained weight. Little did Xiaoli know that this was the start of a vicious cycle that saw her spend more than 200,000 yuan (US$30,000) on various diet pills and diet plans over the past seven years, only to gain twice as much weight as before.

The young girl's story was recently posted onChengdu Business Daily, after Xiaoli flew from her hometown in Yibin to Chengdu (Sichuan province) for gastric bypass surgery. She arrived at Chengdu People's Hospital and told doctors that after seven years of unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, she thought surgery was her only chance.

The young woman said that after her first experience with weight loss pills, she decided to buy more pills and go on a diet, but the results were the same. She doesn't remember how many pills she took in total, but what she realized was that they didn't work as advertised. Some pills helped Xiaoli lose more than 13 kg in a month, but as soon as she stopped taking them, she gained weight and returned to her previous weight, or even heavier.

At one point, Xiaoli became so frustrated with the false advertising that she contacted the customer service department of a weight loss program to complain about how they dared to claim that their pills worked when they didn’t. They suggested even more complicated weight loss plans to her, but to no avail.

Xiaoli shared that in 7 years she spent 30,000 USD on weight loss pills, even showing reporters the purchase receipts as proof. She hopes that through her case, people will understand that weight loss products in reality are completely different from the advertisements.

According toOddity Central,cDoctors at Chengdu People's Hospital said that although her eating habits had a certain impact on Xiaoli's weight gain, the drugs she had been taking for the past seven years were the main cause. Wang Zhong, deputy head of the nutrition department, said that weight loss drugs work by suppressing appetite or increasing excretion to help the body lose weight quickly. However, this effect is not stable and long-lasting. No matter how good the weight loss drugs are advertised, losing weight is a process that requires a method and cannot be done quickly.