Are you considering buying slimming pills?
It is very easy to find slimming pills online – pills sold with promises that are too good to be true. If you are lucky, the only harm done is spending money on a product that simply will not work, but if you are not so lucky, the product could harm your health and be fatal in the worst case.
Talk to your doctor before taking slimming pills
If you want to lose weight, we advise you to consult your doctor. It is important that you receive the right treatment, and it may not be the case that slimming pills are the best solution for you.
In most cases, slimming pills are for people who have first tried other ways of losing weight such as through exercise or a diet change, and for people who have an obesity-related disease such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Only buy authorised slimming products
If your doctor believes that slimming pills might be right for you, we recommend that you buy the pills from a shop or a pharmacy that has been authorised to sell medicines to consumers either by us or a corresponding authority. You can find them on our lists here:
Pharmacies selling medicines legally online
Authorised retailers selling medicines online
Follow the rules if you buy products abroad
Private individuals can buy medicines legally abroad, but knowing which foreign shops have been authorised to sell medicines can be anything but easy. We encourage you to read our advice on how to buy medicines safely online.
Avoid “effective and unharmful” natural products
We advise you to watch out for slimming products (diet pills, slimming pills, weight-loss products, etc.) that claim to be effective and unharmful natural products. Laboratory analyses have in fact found many to contain dangerous substances like sibutramine, phenolphthalein or ephedrine. Since the products contain undeclared substances, you have no way of knowing what is in them exactly.
See what products are presently on our list of illegal slimming products.
Put your health first, and ask us if you are in doubt
Put your health first when you buy products online, and ask us if there is a product that you are not sure if you can buy online.