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Over the past 13 years, only two weight loss drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The second of the two is called Belviq and is generating a storm of news, information and interest amongst the media and individuals who are looking for a way to lose weight. The first of these two drugs was called Qsymia and has been out for well over a decade now.

The newest pill is from a company called Arena Pharmaceuticals and the generic name of the compound is Lorcaserin. During the time when the drug was being developed, it was being called Lorqess. However, if you are to read through many of the Belviq reviews available online, you’ll quickly find out that it might not be the miracle pill that people have been waiting for.

What does Belviq Do?

At its core, Lorcaserin affects the chemistry of the brain in a way that suppresses appetite. More specifically, this new drug has an effect on a neurotransmitter named serotonin. It is part of a class of compounds known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSSRIs) which are traditionally used for treating psychological disorders such as depression. This means that this drug essentially stops serotonin from being cleaned out of the synaptic cleft, therefore increasing the overall availability of the neurotransmitter (and thus, its effects).

Scientists have also known for a while now that this class of molecules have many other effects than those useful for treating mental disorders. These drugs change the way the brain works which in turn can affect the way people feel, think and perceive their environment.

The range of effects that antidepressants can have (other than help fighting depression) is quite extensive and isn’t only limited to appetite control. Some increase appetite which is the direct opposite of Belviq. One example is Zyban is a drug designed to help people quit smoking tobacco but it was originally marketed as an antidepressant called Wellbutrin.

The pharmaceutical industry is literally filled with drugs that originally had completely different purposes. One of the most famous is Viagra, which was originally designed to be a heart medication.

It works, if you listen to the company who sells it...

Arena Pharmaceuticals have performed many scientific studies and clinical trials on Lorcaserin. The FDA is quite strict on what drugs it lets through to market. In the clinical studies, it was found that individuals who took Belviq lost on average more weight than those who were given a placebo instead. But the difference in weight lost was termed as “slight”, even though the total weight lost was twice that of those taking the placebo.

However, here is the kicker: in practically all cases, once the trials were done and people stopped taking the drug, the weight was entirely regained. But this is obvious if you think about it. The drug is designed to reduce appetite and cravings for food, which drives people to eat less. So it stands to reason that while they were taking the drug, people ate less but returned to their initial eating habits once they stopped taking the drug, which explains the weight regain.

Beware of the (many) Belviq side effects

You don’t need to read the many Belviq Reviews to know that the side effects this drug has are many. In fact, the list is quite daunting and anyone who reads it and isn’t instantly convinced that taking it is a bad idea is quite foolish.

Here is just a taste of that list of side effects. Constipation, nausea, dry mouth, fatigue, dizziness, back pain, low blood sugar, headaches, coughing, lowering of the heart rate, painful erections (!?), problems with heart valves, slowed brain function, euphoria (the only “good” one) and hallucination.

But that’s not all, it gets worse. The Drug Enforcement Agency has classified Belviq as a Class IV controlled substance, which means that it can be addictive. To top it all off, the FDA originally rejected the drug because it was found to cause tumors in the animals they used to perform the earlier studies.

It is a wonder why in the world the FDA would reverse their stand on a drug that can cause cancer, especially when the European equivalent of the FDA (the European Medecines Agency) rejected the drug entirely. Arena Pharmaceuticals haven’t pushed harder to get their drug approved in Europe.

Even doctors are saying to stay away from this “miracle” drug

There is no denying that obesity is an epidemic in the United States that needs to be dealt with. As it stands, it might even have surpassed smoking as the top cause of preventable deaths. No number of positive Belviq reviews will change that. With all the side effects that Belviq has (that we know of) it is truly a wonder how it got passed the FDA and was approved for sale in the United States. As a bit of redemption, it is worth noting that the FDA has required that Arena Pharmaceuticals continue performing studies to determine the long term effects of the drug on people who use it regularly.

But what doctors are concerned about is whether or not the little weight loss (5 to 7 percent of total body weight, according to the studies) that Belviq can bring to its users can outweigh its potentially disastrous side effects. And on top of that, the clinical studies have demonstrated that not all individuals who take the drug respond to it effectively. This means that many people will be exposing themselves to the dangerous side effects without even profiting from the positive effects, you know, the ones that are marketed to people.

Because the studies that have been performed have only accounted for the short term effects of Belviq, it is still unknown how serious the long term effects of continuous use actually are. And that’s only in patients who are only taking Belviq in terms of medication. The studies can’t possibly account for all the different combination of drugs that people might be taking in addition to this weight loss pill at any given time.

As of right now, all we can do to see if Belviq will be worth using is to wait and see. But that doesn’t mean that overweight people don’t have any options when it comes to weight loss. There are many programs out there that teach healthy eating habits and smart people will tak advantage of that available knowledge instead of waiting for any type of miracle pill.

More reasons why most Belviq reviews are a sham

After the moment that their weight loss pill had been approved, Arena Pharmaceuticals has been on a mission to sell as many pills as it possibly can. It is giving a big push in advertizing and judging by all the Belviq reviews available online, they are even posing as individuals who have made extensive use of their newest creation.

The premise behind Belviq makes inherent sense. It is a diet pill that inhibits the feeling of hunger directly in the brain. And if people who take the pill end up eating less and ingesting less calories, it stands to reason that those people will lose weight. From Arena’s point of view as well as all the scientific studies that have been done on lorcaserin, burning off fat IS simply a matter of calories in versus calories out. But as we’ll discuss in detail, weight loss just isn’t that simple.

The big problem with all the Belviq reviews and the use of lorcaserin as a weight loss agent

The biggest issue that this writer can find with lorcaserin (and all the company funded Belviq reviews) is the fact that it seems to ignore the very way that the human body works. Now this isn’t something that is exclusive to Arena Pharmaceuticals; many other diet pills, supplements and diet plans have fallen into the very same pitfall.

That big problem is that the human body isn’t designed to look good in the mirror or stay as lean as possible. Every single biological and biochemical process that occurs in the human body is done with one purpose in mind, survival.

Now think about it this way. If humans had never developed the sense of hunger (i.e. the very thing that Belviq is designed to suppress), do you really think that the species would have survived for millions of years? If humans had never felt hunger, they probably would have let themselves starve to death simply because they would have had no way to know that their bodies needed food. Now what makes modern medicine think that suppressing something that throughout evolution has been so very vital is even remotely a good idea? Well, if you believe all the people who wrote the Belviq reviews that paint Arena Pharmaceuticals in a good light, you might think starving is a good thing.

Modern medicine has no clue how weight loss is actually accomplished in humans

The fact that Belviq is essentially designed to remove an inherent part of what it is to be human reflects one of two things. Either modern medicine doesn’t even remotely understand how the human body works, or they just don’t care.

I may be a pessimist when it comes to pharmaceutical companies but I have never bought the idea that they work to make our lives better. And online testimonials resembling what passes off for unbiased Belviq reviews nowadays just make me even more sceptical. Quite the opposite really, every shred of evidence points towards the idea that they will sell anything that they can to make as much money as possible. And people who have weight to lose make for easy targets for big pharma, don’t they?

No, I don’t believe for a second that science and medicine don’t know that food is essential for survival. So why do they do everything that they can to sell us pills that makes us not want to eat? Money. It’s always money.

Starvation mode: what is it and how belviq ignores its existence

If there are legitimate belviq reviews out there that are positive, they surely come from people who don’t know what starvation mode is. For those who don’t know, starvation mode is a state that the human body goes into when it senses that it isn’t getting enough food.

Now be careful here. When I say food, I don’t refer to the sugar filled, nutrient deprived processed crap that passes off for food these days. No, I’m talking about nutrient filled foods like fruits, vegetables, meats and sources of healthy fats (margarine doesn’t count, it’s closer in composition to plastic than anything else).

Anyway when the body of the people who wrote the many positive Belviq reviews doesn’t get enough nutrients (think protein, vitamins, fiber, minerals, healthy carbs and healthy fats) it will hold on for dear life to the resources it currently has. That means that the fat that’s accumulated around your midsection or thighs will not go away no matter how much running you do.

Now of course, if the number of calories ingested is lower than the number of calories that are burned, there will be weight loss. The human body can hold on to nutrients pretty fiercely but at some point it needs calories to burn. If there is a caloric deficit in the diet, the body will take the rest from its reserves (i.e. body fat).

But the body still thinks that it’s in a low calorie environment. So the next time a person who takes Belviq eats a complete meal, the body will store as many of those calories as it can to make sure it has enough reserves to last a while without eating.

All in all, starvation mode means that the less nutrients (nutrients, not necessarily calories) that a person eats, the more the metabolism will slow down and the harder it becomes to burn off fat.

Belviq reviews don’t account for people who have taken and then stopped taking lorcaserin

Even though I’m sure that a lot of the Belviq review available online are sincerely well meaning, I’m also sure that they don’t take into account what happens when those people stop taking Belviq.

Given what we know about starvation mode and given that people who stop taking Arena’s diet pill will most likely start eating normally again, what do you think is going to happen? The lack of nutrients will have slowed the metabolism to a crawl and the body will be desperate to stock up on as many nutrients as possible. So, what happens is a case of severe rebound weight gain.

Yes, as soon as somebody who has restricted their eating as severely as anyone who has written positive Belviq reviews, they will gain weight faster than they ever have in their entire life. All that because the makers of this diet pill show a gross misunderstanding of how the human body really works.

Where to look for real answers?

Starving yourself is the absolute worst thing anyone can do in an attempt to burn off body fat, despite what Belviq reviews might say. It’s counterproductive and deeply unhealthy. Instead, people need to learn how to eat healthy and the fat loss will come as a “side effect”. At the end of the day burning fat shouldn’t be the goal, eating healthy should. And for those who want to work out on top of that? Well the results will just come even faster.

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