Health and fitness: Weight loss, muscle building, and diet solutions for everyone

In the mad rush to lose weight, some people ignore common sense even though we've been told again and again that it takes time, discipline, and commitment to create a better body. This explains the appeal of over-the-counter diet pills that offer shortcuts to a new you.

Diet pills are available at the local drugstore, supermarket or health food store and many can be purchased online. But are these products safe and effective? Your friend, neighbor or favorite celebrity will probably tell you they are, after all they're using the product themselves.

Anyone who's ever tried to lose weight recognizes the cycle: go on a diet, lose some weight, hit a plateau, feel stressed, return to old habits and gain back EVEN more weight. It's called yo-yo dieting. While low-carb, high protein diets like the Atkins and South Beach diets have been popular for years, what most people don't realize is that the very diet they're counting on to help shed pounds is actually starving their brains; depleting their supply of the mood regulating neurotransmitter serotonin. The result is that many people can't stay on their diet and lose the weight. For others, the damage can range from loss of sex drive to food cravings and from insomnia to compulsive behavior. Dr. Cheryle Hart, author of the new book, "The Feel Good Diet: The Weight-Loss Plan That Boosts Serotonin, Improves Your Mood, and Keeps the Pounds Off for Good," (McGraw-Hill 2007) recognizes how critical neurotransmitters are--not just for successful weight loss, but for every aspect of life. "66% of adult Americans are overweight and many of them truly want to lose the weight," says Dr. Hart. "But the dynamics are stacked against them because low-carb diets rob the brain of precious neurotransmitters. That's why it's so crucial for people to learn how to eat in a way that will boost those mood enhancers and help them lose weight."