Laxatives, like all drugs, have a specific purpose for which they are used. Use of a drug in any manner other than as directed is a form of drug abuse. Unfortunately, it would seem that many people abuse laxatives by deliberately taking an overdose because someone told them it would help them lose weight really fast.

What actually happens when a person does this is that they inhibit the body’s natural rhythm and over stimulate the muscles of the large intestine. This can lead to serious cramps that cause a great deal of pain. The lower bowel becomes flooded with water that has been stolen from other tissues leaving them in a state of dehydration. The contents of the bowel are expelled forcefully, sometimes causing a tear in the wall of the bowel that can lead to waste leaking into the abdomen and causing sepsis, an infection created by the bacteria that live safely in the bowel but are poisonous to the rest of the body.

Now, if the wall of the bowel is torn and an infection develops, one will probably lose a great deal of weight while being fed via IV fluids and possibly having to have part of some of the organs removed to destroy the infection. Somehow, that just does not seem to be the goal.

Other than the conditions mentioned above, the most a person can hope to lose through the use of laxatives is five or six pounds. Then, the weight loss will only register until the person eats or drinks something. Anything consumed will add that weight right back.

There are hundreds of diet plans and schemes that claim to help a person lose weight. Some of them are good ideas and some are not. Laxative weight loss is one of those ideas that is not so good. The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make some fundamental changes in one’s lifestyle, including what and how much one eats and the amount of exercise that one gets.

Laxatives function by stimulating the colon, increasing the frequency of peristaltic movements in the wall of the bowel and by increasing the amount of water present in the bowel. Neither of these functions has anything remotely to do with losing weight. In fact, if anything a person could gain weight from drinking more water to replace what is leeched from the other tissues to fill the bowel.

These drugs do not inhibit the absorption of nutrients from foods during digestion. Any part of what is consumed that can benefit the body in any way finds its way into the bloodstream and into the cells of the body. The only thing that is left over is waste material that the body can not use. The bowel, being of limited size, can not hold more than approximately five pounds of such waste matter.

While laxatives may hasten the expulsion of this waste material, along with a moderate amount of water, the total weight lost in the process will not be over six or seven pounds. In the process, the drugs cause dehydration, possible abdominal cramps, and other problems that are actually worse than carrying those five or six pounds around until they can be lost in the proper fashion.

People who use laxatives routinely as means to attempt to lose weight often find that their bowels will no longer work properly without them. This type of dependence on a drug is harmful to the body and the self esteem of the individual.

Other forms of physical illness often arise as a result of continued use of laxatives. In many ways, this condition is quite similar to the eating disorder known as bulimia, where a person eats all he/she desires, then forces himself/herself to vomit by mechanical or chemical means. Anyone who thinks that eating all one can hold, then forcing it out of the body rapidly through the use of laxative medications is fooling themselves.

This practice is unhealthy and useless in the battle against excess weight. It does not create any significant weight loss. Any weight lost in the process will be regained as soon as the person eats or drinks anything. It can lead to serious health problems. It is impossible to lose weight with laxatives, so it is best to find a more sensible approach to weight loss.

Laxatives, like all medications, have a specific use in human lives. They are designed to relieve constipation by softening the stool with added water in the bowel and stimulating the muscles that line the bowel to help push the waste out. If taken on a daily basis, these drugs could limit or destroy the body’s ability to move waste matter through the colon and out of the body on its own.

The part of the digestive system that is affected by laxatives lies at the end of the line, after food has been digested to whatever extent it will be. This means that all of the calories consumed in a meal have already been absorbed into the body before any remaining material gets to this part of the digestive tract.

The bowel is open at both ends, meaning that it can only hold a finite amount of material. Even a high colonic could only flush out a certain amount of waste matter. Much of this weight would be immediately replaced as more waste comes out of the upper digestive tract into the bowel and makes its way to the rectum. Because laxatives typically only affect the lower one third to one half of the bowel, they could not force any more weight out of the body than a colonic.

The best way to attempt to lose weight is to make changes in one’s lifestyle concerning the amount and types of food consumed and the amount of exercise the body receives as a matter of routine. Reducing the number of calories taken in while increasing the number of calories used is the only real method of losing weight that can have any hope of succeeding.

Of course, the changes made must be at a fundamental level. One can not ‘go on a diet’ and starve oneself until the desired weight is lost, then resume the same old habits. The result would be a rebound in weight. The lost pounds would return and one would be back where he/she started from, if not worse off. Taking laxatives to lose weight is even more futile than starvation dieting and much more dangerous.

That’s because laxatives do nothing to reduce the food, and therefore calories, you consume. What they do is stimulate the bowels, often resulting in painful cramps and having to go to the bathroom a lot more often. Because of these cramps, fecal matter is often excreted under force. But most of what is expelled is water, not fat. It might seem like someone has lost two or three pounds using laxatives, but as soon as they quit taking them, they put back on the weight as soon as they’re hydrated again. You’re not losing fat, you’re losing water. Which is NOT a good thing.

Not only that, overuse of laxatives can cause some serious health issues on its own. One might not be able to have a regular bowel movement without the help of a laxative. Moreover, repeated bowel movements with force and wiping can lead to tearing in the rectum. This area is naturally an infection hazard. A person might not even be able to get through normal routines if he/she becomes too dehydrated and weak. This is not something you want to go through, trust me.

There have been many who claim that using laxatives will help with weight loss or fat loss. These people don’t know what they are talking about. Sure, you can lose weight, but what you’re after is losing fat. Not water.

In reality, using laxatives to lose weight is an eating disorder along the same lines as bulimia or anorexia. The biggest difference is that bulimics use purgatives, not laxatives, to make them vomit up the food they eat and force any that stays down out of the system by a laxative action while the use of laxatives is slightly milder and does not usually involve vomiting.

There are those people who may say that using laxatives is a fast way to lose weight. Abusing laxatives, or any other substance, is an unhealthy way to achieve anything, and the people who claim that laxatives are a fast way to shed weight are only making a potential harmful myth. Do yourself a favor and don’t fall into the trap of believing that losing weight with laxatives is the best way. There are far better ways commercially available.