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Question
QUESTION: hi i am an 18 yr old male, i am 6'1 and right now im lingering in between 380-400 range i do exercise and work out often i have a decent amount of muscle i really am unsure of my body fat % but no matter what that is im am still certainly over weight, my doctor put me on a medicine called miridea , i am not sure exactly what it does but all i know is i have been taking it for about a month and i dont really see any physical changes i havent weighed myself lately but i dont think i lost too much if any weight while taking it, but my question is , could taking this medicine be dangerous if my body fat % isnt too high, because dont you need to have a certain amount of fat to be healthy, and is it possible to have too much muscle that it makes you weigh more and be unhealthy?

ANSWER: Hi Mike
You'll need a simple tape measure to do this, but there is a free % body fat calculator at http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/body-fat-calculation-and-health.html .  You're quite right that we need body fat to be healthy - for more about that you can read http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/bad-fat.html . And you're also right, muscle does weigh more than fat - about three times more.  However, I've never read any research that says too much muscle for men is unhealthy.  I have read research that says that women can have too little fat though.

I'm not a medical doctor, I'm a psychologist.  However, I personally don't believe in diet pills.  This is just my personal take on the matter, but for every chemical we put into our body, it may help with one thing and meanwhile we never know what else it's busy harming.  And many of these weight loss pills are later pulled from the shelves because even though they were apparently 'researched' and 'approved by the FDA' they're later found to be blatantly unhealthy.  http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01933.html

Kind regards
Cari



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: oh well since you are a psychologist i guess i could ask ya another thing, i am pretty sure this medicine he gave me (miridea) is an appetite suppresent, does that mean that it has some effect on the mind?, also i read the side effects and they didnt seem too risky but you are right there are always some side effects, but it said that in rare cases it can cause like irration and anxiety, i have noticed lately that i have had a "short fuse" and get upset or angry about little things that normally wouldnt bother me, could this be from the medicine?

Answer
HI Mike, I'm afraid that psychiatrists are the 'medicine' people... However, if it says those are side-effects then I suspect there's a pretty good chance that may have something to do with it.  Unless, you're finding that you're under more stress than usual which also wouldn't be difficult with all that is going on in the world at the moment.  By the way, thank you so much for kindly rating my last reply, I'm glad I was able to be of some help.
Kind regards
Cari

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