Everyone knows that the best way to lose weight is through diet and exercise. Diet and exercise are not necessarily the fastest ways to lose weight, though.

Why are diet and exercise the best way to lose weight, even though they are not always the fastest? Well, although diet pills or even more extreme measures like gastric bypass surgery, stomach stapling, or even anorexia and bulimia may quickly reduce a persons weight, they are not always the healthiest measures (especially the latter two!).

And, oftentimes, they are only temporary solutions. The benefit of diet and exercise is that they are healthy life habits. If you can get into a good habit of eating a proper diet and exercising regularly, then you are going to be much healthier than someone who had gastric bypass surgery and is still sitting around and eating junk.

This is not to say that gastric bypass surgery is not the correct answer for some people. In fact, having the surgery might just be the perfect boost that someone needs to encourage himself to eat right and to exercise. Remember that eating healthy food and exercising are key to good health. In fact, someone who is slightly overweight but exercises may very well be healthier than someone of a normal weight who does not!

And, of course, when I say diet and exercise, I am not referring to any specific diet like Atkins or the South Beach Diet. I am only talking about eating plentiful amounts of healthful foods (like vegetables and whole grains) while eating other, less healthful foods in limited quantities and in moderation (like candies, fats, and processed foods).

If you do decide to take that extra measure -- like diet pills -- be sure to also include exercise and a healthy diet into your schema. You can be sure that by doing so, you will not just lose the weight, but you will be able to keep it off (and you will be much healthier, overall).

One popular and FDA-approved diet pill is phentermine. This drug works as an appetite-suppressant. As such, it will make it easier to skip out on those fatty and sugary foods that are adding to your weight.

As with most diet pills, phentermine is only to be taken short-term. In other words, it is not a long-term answer to obesity. Phentermine will simply help you get your foot in the door, and the rest is up to you. In fact, the same is true not just of diet pills, but of surgeries, and other solutions, as well.

Remember, the healthiest and surest way to lose weight is through diet and exercise! There are many fewer negative side effects to these methods than to surgery or diet pills!