More than half of the people in the United States want to lose weight. Sadly, way too many of them want to achieve weight loss by taking shortcuts rather than actually changing their lifestyles and eating habits. Using laxatives to lose weight is one of the most common quick-fix methods. The benefits of this are nothing more than a lie.

That’s because laxatives do nothing to reduce the food, and therefore calories, you consume. Laxatives work to artifically stimulate the bowels, causing abdominal cramping and a sense of urgency. Waste material often comes out very quickly as a result of these cramps. But, what you’re actually losing is your body’s supply of water. While it is true that by using laxatives you may drop a few pounds, what people don’t realize is that once our bodies rehydrate, the weight comes back.

There is also a wide array of health risks associated with excessive laxative use. Use laxatives too long and your body will lose the ability to have a natural bowel movement. Because the force of cramps expelling waste out of the rectum is so strong, the bloody tears in the the rectum can result that have a very high risk of infection as additional waste passes through the area. Laxatives can also cause our bodies to become dehydrated and weak, and play havoc with normal bodily functions.

Numerous people have claimed that taking laxatives will expedite weight loss and make maintaining a low body weight possible. Don’t listen; using laxatives to promote weight loss is misinformed, silly and dangerous. In reality, using laxatives to lose weight is a type of eating disorder not all that different than bulimia. The most notable difference is that bulimics use purgatives to encourage vomiting of the food and forcing the remainder of it down in a laxative action, while laxative abuse is typically more mild and does not include vomiting.

Yet, extensive use of laxatives can make a person feel nauseated and cause him/her to need to vomit food back up out of the digestive tract. Sadly, medical intervention will probably be necessary to wean a person off of laxatives once they start abusing them in this fashion.

There are those people who may say that using laxatives is a fast way to lose weight. These people are actually spreading a lie that will hurt the well-being of anyone who thinks that abuse of laxatives or any other medication is a smart way to reach a weight loss goal.

Chris writes about subjects like how to take laxatives to lose weight and weight loss on his blog.