Technically speaking, losing weight is simple -- just cut your daily intake of calories and exercise more. When your organism finds it cannot extract the necessary energy from the food you consume, it will start burning the fat deposits in waist and other parts of your body. So, the most natural way to lose weight is to keep to a diet, which reduces the energy your consume and do regular exercises to burn energy.

While this approach to weight loss is most natural and healthy, it is not easy. No wonder that a lot of so-called weight loss pills were developed, which make it easier to lose weight. One of the most popular categories of these pills are fat blockers and fat binders. They work by reducing the amount of fat that your organism assimilates from foods. Fat blockers (the most well-known example is Orlistat, marketed as Xenical) in particular inhibit the lipase enzyme in the intestines which breaks up fat making it ready for digestion. As a result, the fat cannot be absorbed by the organism so it passes freely through the bowel. Fat binders work by binding to the fat molecules, again making it unabsorbable by intestines. Fat blockers and binders have very nasty side effects (among them are uncontrollable foul-smelling anal discharges.) Naturally you cannot expect that removal of fats from your diet in such a way will be healthy.

Another category of weight loss supplements includes appetite suppressants. They reduce your appetite by making the organism think it is already full. One of the most popular herbal appetite suppressants is Hoodia Gordonii. Hoodia is a cactus-like plant which grows in South Africa. Its appetite suppressing capabilities were well-known by Bushman who used it during their long hunting trips. Since Hoodia Gordonii is a purely natural treatment, it doesn't have any side-effects associated with synthethic prescription appetite suppressing drugs such as Phentermine.