Diuretics – good or bad?

[TroyBurger]

I know that some ingredients used in certain non-prescription diet pills are diuretics (they make you pee), such as dandelion root. Is this a benefit or a drawback? Can this actually help with weight loss, or do you really only just lose water weight for the short term?

[enviroTodd]

When it comes to dieting, diuretics - prescription or natural - are not a good idea. For one thing, all they do is cause you to lose water weight, not fat, so you can expect everything you lost to come back again once you rehydrate. Furthermore, these actually work against your dieting efforts because staying hydrated is one of the key components of a healthy and effective diet. Since a diuretic is effectively flushing the fluids out of your tissues, you are actually making fat loss more difficult for yourself in order to achieve water loss to make you look slimmer for a couple of days.

[suzieQ]

What enviroTodd said is true. They really aren't the best thing for weight loss because they really only cause you to lose water, which you will gain back. That's why so many diuretics are part of short-term weight loss diets that people use to look slim quickly. It's bad for your body though and it's really quite stupid when you think about it. What's the point of losing weight for a couple of days when you're just going to gain it all back? It's far better to stick with a slow and steady plan when the weight you lose is actually fat and it stays off.

[TaraNorth]

Diuretics are bad. They make you lose water. While this will result in weight loss, as everyone else has said, it's only temporary. If you want to cut down on carrying around excess water, lower your salt intake and drink more water.

[TroyBurger]

Alright. Thanks. That's about what I thought.

TaraNorth - Drinking more water actually leads to less water weight?

[Whirlybird]

If you take diuretics and then drink tons and tons of water, then does it have any positive effects since it's not dehydrating you?

[JokerzWild]

If you take diuretics and then drink tons and tons of water, then does it have any positive effects since it's not dehydrating you?

Even if your not dehydrated it's still not good for you, because drinking all that water flushes out your system. This doesn't just flush out the "evils" but also nutrients because you're not giving your body enough time to properly digest and absorb the nutrients your're taking in.