Can Laxatives Make U Lose Weight

One consequence of this can be weight loss – and a study last year of 13, 000 people by Pediatrics found that dieters are increasingly turning to these small pills. The study found that 10.5pc of males aged 23 to 25 and 5.5pc of females within the same age group have used laxatives to try to lose weight.

They may be misguided in doing so. Using laxatives for weight loss is like playing with fire, according to Nigel Denby, a dietitian specialising in treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome. And The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) agrees,  calling the overuse of laxatives for weight loss the “The Laxative Myth” – because, quite simply, it doesn’t work.

The reason? Laxatives act on the large intestine, long after most food and calories have already been absorbed by the small intestine.

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“The ‘weight-loss’ caused by a laxative-induced bowel movement contains little actual food, fat or calories, explains the association. Instead, laxatives encourage the loss of water, minerals, electrolytes and indigestible fiber and wastes from the colon.”

“There are three main types of laxatives, ” dietitian Nigel Denby explains. “Some help to soften the stools and make them easier to pass. Others bulk the stool up by adding fibre, which again makes waste easier to pass out of the body.

Then there are also laxatives which help to stimulate the gut muscles to do their job to move waste along the large intestine and out of the body.”

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In a word? No. “Using laxatives to obtain a flat stomach is crazy, ” says Nigel. “Of course, if you’ve been constipated, you’re definitely going to feel more comfortable once you’ve been to the loo.

You might also find that opening your bowels relieves trapped wind and bloating but it won’t aid weight loss and routinely taking them is very dangerous.”

You may have read reports of people feeling ‘skinnier’ or having a flatter stomach after taking laxatives but this is purely down to a loss of water weight, which will immediately return once the body is rehydrated.

Laxatives For Weight Loss

“Laxatives can lead to the body losing a lot of fluid, and with it, a lot of important electrolytes, ” says Nigel Denby. These electrolytes control systems and functions in the body - including vital organs and your heart beat.  “When your electrolytes are out of balance, you can feel very ill and in extreme cases, it can be fatal.”

Because laxatives encourage a loss of water, users are at risk of dehydration. Severe dehydration can cause tremors, feelings of weakness, blurry vision, fainting and in extreme cases, untimely death.

“The body can become resistant to laxatives so if you’re overusing them, you’ll have to increase the dosage, ” says Nigel. This can lead to laxative dependency. This is when the colon stops reacting to usual doses so larger amount are needed to produce bowel movements. In turn, this can lead to long lasting health problems, even after laxatives stop being used.

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“We all have occasional periods when we struggle to maintain our natural digestive rhythm– this might be when we are travelling, unwell and not so active or if we are feeling particularly stressed.

For these odd occasions it’s fine to take a laxative. For some people who don’t or can't eat a lot fibre, regular use of fibre supplement laxatives can be helpful. It’s really important to drink plenty of fluid when using these sorts of products, as the fibre needs the fluid to make it swell, allow air into the stools thus making them soft and easier to pass. Taking additional fibre without extra fluid can make you feel even more constipated.”

Healthy, sustainable weight loss takes time. Drastic measures such as crash and fad diets or overuse of laxatives are unsafe and often unsustainable. Visit your GP if you’re struggling to lose weight and read up on professional tips on weight loss.Everyone I seemed to be following - the skinny bronzed girls - were all just flogging it at the time, the 26-year-old tells Newsbeat.

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It changes how a gut works, it changes the gut bacteria that we know now is very important to maintaining our health, said Dr Duane Mellor, senior lecturer in human nutrition at Coventry University.

And there's no scientific evidence to back up claims that herbs in diet teas have weight loss benefits, according to nutritional therapist Sonal Shah.

India's experience was several years ago, but diet teas - and the celebrities who promote it - have come under harsh criticism this week from actress and activist, Jameela Jamil.

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In a video watched by 10.1 million people, Cardi says she used the tea to suppress her appetite and planned to continue to use the tea when she ate fattening foods.

Many brands, including the one Cardi B advertised and leading UK diet teas, don't use laxative herb senna in their products - but it was the effects of senna that caused problems for India.

You take them and lose a little bit of bloating, but when you've had an eating disorder you get addicted to feeling thinner and they do help in the short term, she says.

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When the cost started to build, India ditched the branded teas and started drinking cheaper senna teas, which can still be bought from high street health stores for as little as £2.49 a box.

India says she only realised she had a problem with diet tea when her boyfriend made a joke about her being addicted to them

She believes drinking diet teas can be useful for someone feeling bloated and says that friends of her who use it experience no problems.

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I've got a couple of friends who still do them occasionally, like if they've had a really indulgent week, but it's only really me who got a bit crazy on them, she says.

23-year-old Queenette Konyeha tells Newsbeat she developed an ulcer and a bladder infection after using products she'd seen celebrities promote on Instagram.

You want to try it because you feel that they use the product and it works for them so it will actually work for me too, Queenette says.

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If they were, then everyone would be looking slim and healthy. It has to be a whole lifestyle change and it's got to be something that is sustainable.

But many diet teas on the market, as Jameela suggested when talking about Cardi B, contain laxatives, which some people use as a quick way of losing weight.

Newsbeat has asked the brand Cardi B is promoting for a statement on Jameela's comments and their products, but they have not responded.

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Experts say celebrities promoting diet teas on social media can lead to their followers developing a poor relationship with food from an early age.

Young people, particularly young girls - many of them don't need to lose weight - start on a weight loss dieting cycle at an early age, says Dr Duane Mellor, senior lecturer in human nutrition at Coventry University.

He says the use of senna-based products potentially could lead to other uses of laxatives or even purging behaviour, which is very unhealthy.

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Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.Firstly, a thank you. Thank you for all the messages in response to my piece last week where I spoke about my experience of bulimia feeling like the “failure” eating disorder. Thank you to all those of you who shared in my pain, and who heeded my pleads for friendship with others who are equally as mentally fraught as I am.

There was one message on Twitter that I received, which is the reason for this post. It read: “Interesting article, but by focusing on vomiting as the only purging in bulimia you exclude about 40% sufferers (myself included).” That’s a very fair point. One that got me researching, and allowed me to discover that bulimic methods extend a lot further than what I had originally assumed, given my own story. According to B-eat, besides vomiting, people with bulimia try to compensate for overeating by taking laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or exercising excessively – these are all known as purging.

One brave sufferer of bulimia told me: “When talking about eating disorders and bulimia, the first thing people think of is vomiting. That’s what we are taught in high school health class. I didn’t vomit, so I didn’t think that I had a problem. None of my physicians asked. None of my therapists or counselors asked. They all assumed I was fine because I was at a “normal” weight.”

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I believe it would be insulting to many people for me to skim over all the other types of purging in one piece, especially given my little understanding of them all individually, so I’m going to start with laxatives.

Ahh, laxatives. Let’s address the elephant in the room, shall we? Laxatives make you shit. People with bulimia often take laxatives to shit out their food in an effort to lose weight. Poo, poo, poo, poo, poo. Good. Glad we’ve got that out of our system. What a relief.

People don’t tend to like talking about their toilet habits on the internet, which is why I

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