Over the counter diet pills are basically diet pills that you can buy without prescription. Losing weight is hard work. If it wasn’t there wouldn’t be so many overweight people in the world, but finding a suitable weight loss product can be quite a chore. People who feel a pressing need to lose weight may follow one of several routes.

At one end of the scale, there are those who make modest changes to their lifestyle and hope for the best. At the other end, there are the people who take a do or die attitude and sign-up for a weight loss boot camp. However, the majority of people needing to lose weight go looking for diet pills instead.

More often than not, people who need to lose weight start to search for a diet pill to buy online, or peruse the shelves of their local health food store or pharmacy, and there are some excellent products available, such as PhenQ, Capsiplex, and Superfruit Slim.

However, despite the fact that today’s top diet pill choices have helped thousands of people to lose weight, some people still think prescription diet pills, such as Phentermine, and Xenical are likely to be a better option.

This is far from being the case. Prescription weight loss drugs have value but, like over-the-counter (OTC) diet pills, they are intended to be used in conjunction with diet and exercise. And unlike OTC diet pills they only offer short-term support (most weight loss drugs are only prescribed for 12 weeks or less).

OTC Diet Pills v Prescription Weight Loss Drugs

Prescription weight loss drugs are powered by chemicals. They are renowned for causing side effects and some of them—Phentermine is a good example—can be addictive.

In fact, for most people, the negative aspects far outweigh the potential for good. That’s why doctors consider drugs like Phentermine and Xenical to be the last resort and only prescribe them to people who are so obese their overweight nature poses such a health risk the pills can be seen as the lesser of two evils.

OTC diet pills, produced by reputable manufacturers, contain plant extracts and other natural ingredients. They are generally easier to tolerate and the best ones have been specially formulated to provide weight loss without side effects.

Shocking as this may seem, some of today’s leading OTC diet pills work faster and more efficiently than prescription diet pills. This is largely due to the fact that they have been specially formulated to offer dieters support in a number of key weight loss areas. Prescription diet pills tend to have more limited value.

A Few Popular Prescription Diet Pills and What they Do

Although there are a number of prescription weight loss medications available, most of them are appetite suppressants.

Nopal (opuntia ficus-indica) is a cactus extract that is equally capable of providing appetite suppression and is also a proven fat blocker.

A combination of Phentermine and Orlistat would be required to match its abilities. Nopal is also rich in nutrients that are good for the health, so it is easily the better option and diet pills that contain nopal usually combine it with other natural ingredients that can provide dieters with further support in other areas, such as faster metabolism and improved fat burning.

Concluding Thoughts

Although not all OTC diet pills are all they are cracked up to be, the fact remains there are some very good products available that can easily beat prescription medications and are safe for long-term use.

The lack of restrictions on their use makes them available to all, not just the seriously obese. Are they better than boot-camp? That’s hard to say, but a good quality OTC diet pill can certainly provide dieters with an easier way to lose weight.

A list of most effective diet pills can be found here