When diet and exercise aren’t enough, a weight loss pill can help you make up the difference between where your weight is and where you want it to be.
Weight loss pills, like many fat burners or thermogenics, work in a variety of ways; some increase your body’s baseline metabolic rate, others fill you up and tamp down on your feelings of hunger, so you consume less food, while others block or slow the absorption of the food you do eat.
It’s a complicated series of mechanisms that govern how your body gains or loses weight.
Fortunately for you, we’ve looked at the best weight loss pills on the market and ranked them according to how effective they’ll be for you. Our advisory panel and our research team rank the best health products and supplements based on performance, label accuracy, and the efficacy of the ingredients in the products.
- Best Overall: LeanBean
- Best For Men: PhenQ
- Transparent Labs Fat Burner
- Burn XT
- Evlution Leanmode
Research
Rankings
Last updated: October 21, 2022
Weight loss pills considered: 24
Hours of research: 46
Experts reviewed: 9
Scientific papers referenced: 16
| IMAGE | PRODUCT | |
|---|---|---|
Best Overall  | 1. LeanBean
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Best for Men  | 2. PhenQ
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 | 3. Transparent Labs Fat Burner
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 | 4. Burn XT
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 | 5. Evlution Leanmode
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 | 6. Old School Labs Vintage Burn
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for older adults  | 7. Lean PM
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 | 8. Genius Diet Pills
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 | 9. Alli
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 | 10. Atrafen
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1. LeanBean
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LeanBean is the trendiest natural weight loss pill for women.
A hit with bodybuilders and fitness models, the fat-melting pills are a great “bonus” to a healthy lifestyle.
LeanBean has a formula designed to control diet (suppressant) while accelerating metabolism as well. The result is faster weight loss allowing for increased fat burning all over the body. No harmful additives. Vegan.
How it works
Each serving of Leanbean is engineered with garcinia cambogia, green tea, green coffee, turmeric, cayenne pepper, konjac, and chromium, a powerful lineup of appetite suppressing and fat-burning ingredients.
The result: the most powerful natural weight loss supplement of 2023 and powerful testimonials like these:
Benefits:
1) LeanBean helps you overcome food cravings (appetite suppressant)
2) LeanBean speeds up your metabolism (melts more fat)
(Tip: choose the 3-month pack so you can save money and get a month free)
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2. PhenQ
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The best option for men.
PhenQ hasn’t been on the market for quite as long as some of the other products on this page. But we love it because it combines a lot of benefits into one bottle, and their formula packs a caffeine punch as well, making a great habit to start your day.
PhenQ is not just a weight loss supplement. It also burns stored fat, blocks fat production, and improves mood and energy levels.
PhenQ packs in some pretty impressive power. Capsimax powder (which is a blend of capsicum, piperine, caffeine, and niacin), chromium picolinate (an essential natural mineral found in some meats and vegetables), caffeine, nopal, and L-carnitine can all be found in this supplement.
This formulation is formidable, scientifically proven, and takes a top spot on our list as an all-in-one weight loss supplement.
3. Transparent Labs Fat Burner
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Transparent Lab’s fat burner is a no-nonsense thermogenic supplement. It has 9 science-backed ingredients, zero fillers, and no harmful additives.
Its ingredients are centered around several powerful thermogenics like Forslean. Thermogenics are ingredients that produce heat in your body by raising your metabolism.
In a weight loss supplement, that raised metabolism is what we’re after, as that will help you burn more fat faster. It’s not a magic pill, you still need to pair this with diet and exercise, but what it will do is give you a little extra energy to get through your day and some extra help burning off the pounds.
Transparent Lab’s packs this with other ingredients like L-tyrosine which are designed to let you get all the energy and fat burning power of the thermogenics without any of the “jitters” that can come from them. It’s a great supplement to any program.
4. Burn XT
Burn XT is a thermogenic-focused daytime weight loss pill that uses a potent combo of ingredients to amp up your fat oxidation, including green tea extract, caffeine, and cayenne pepper extract. It’s a solid choice to accelerate your weight loss.
5. Evlution Leanmode
Evlution’s Leanmode combines effective doses of supplements that work very well together, and has no worrisome ingredients or extraneous additives.
Each of the primary ingredients (green tea extract, green coffee bean extract, conjugated linoleic acid,and acetyl-L-carnitine) have loads of scientific evidence behind their efficacy, making it a great pick.
6. Old School Labs Vintage Burn
While Vintage Burn focuses on stimulating thermogenic effects, it’s quite an effective overall weight loss pill too. Vintage Burn strikes a nice balance between including a variety of effective weight loss supplements without letting the ingredients list get out of control.
If you’ve heard of it, and it’s effective, there’s a good chance it’s in Vintage Burn. What really sets it apart, though, is the converse of this: ineffective ingredients are pretty much nowhere to be found in this supplement, which is great to see.
7. Lean PM
While a lot of weight loss pills rely on heavy doses of stimulants like caffeine to keep your metabolism high throughout the day, these leave you high and dry at night.
Lean PM rectifies this by providing a weight loss pill that is focused more on suppressing hunger and improving the quality of your sleep and less on jacking up your metabolism.
8. Genius Diet Pills
Genius makes a name for itself with innovative and cutting-edge supplements that incorporate new and promising herbal extracts.
Their Genius Diet pills are no exception: the unique combination of the neurotransmitter 5-HTP and the spice saffron promise a totally different pathway to dieting success. This innovative approach is worth a shot if traditional formulations aren’t working for you.
9. Alli
Alli works by blocking the absorption of fat in your gastrointestinal tract. It’s quite effective, and several studies have demonstrated a moderate but consistent amount of weight loss.
The downsides are that it tends to work better with high-fat diets, and it can have some gastrointestinal side effects.
10. Atrafen
Atrafen includes a lot of the hot weight loss supplements right now, like raspberry ketone, african mango, and apple cider vinegar, but this focus on the most trendy weight loss ingredients makes Atrafen overlook older, more established and more effective ingredients.
Category winners
Best weight loss pill overall: LeanBean
LeanBean is our overall winner thanks to its industry-leading combination of herbal extracts that work together to speed up weight loss. With proven ingredients like green tea extract, green coffee bean extract, and garcinia cambogia, it’s definitely one of the best option on the market right now.
Best weight loss pill for women: LeanBean
LeanBean’s all-natural approach, with just the right amount of fat oxidizers and a wide range of appetite suppressants, is perfect for women who want to tamp down on hunger cravings and accelerate fat oxidation.
Best weight loss pill for men: PhenQ
PhenQ’s combination of chromium, niacin, carnitine, and caffeine helps men keep their fat oxidation rates high and their appetite under control, while also sustaining high energy levels throughout the day. It’s both versatile and effective, making it a great choice for men.
Best weight loss pill for older adults: Lean PM
Lean PM address some of the problems older adults struggle with most: maintaining hormonal balance at night and getting quality sleep, which is critical for weight loss.
It’s also stimulant-free, which is great since older adults are often more sensitive to the negative effects of stimulants like caffeine.
Best weight loss pill without stimulants: Lean PM
If the caffeine in traditional weight loss pills is keeping you up at night or causing jitters and anxiety, try Lean PM. Its stimulant-free formulation leans on caffeine-free green tea extract, L-theanine, and 5-HTP for steady weight loss results.
Who should buy weight loss pills?
Weight loss pills are a good option to consider for people who fall into a few categories:
People who aren’t having success with just diet and exercise. Weight loss is driven by energy intake and energy expenditure, and while diet and weight loss are effective ways for many people to modulate these, sometimes they’re not enough.
A weight loss pill can tip the scales in your favor, by increasing your metabolism, decreasing your appetite, or both.
People who need to lose weight fast. Looking to shed pounds quickly? A weight loss pill can increase your rate of weight loss, helping you hit your weight loss goals sooner. The fat oxidizers in particular that you’ll find in a good weight loss pill can push your weight loss beyond what you’d get with diet and exercise alone.
People who have a hard time controlling their appetite. Many people looking to lose weight are able to get themselves to exercise, but have a hard time with appetite control. A weight loss pill can help counteract the natural increase in appetite that you get when you exercise, helping you keep your net caloric balance negative.
Since staying in a state of negative energy balance (and hence continued weight loss) is often only a matter of swinging your net energy balance by a couple hundred calories, even a modest boost from a weight loss pill can turn the tide in your favor.
How we ranked
The range of weight loss supplements that are on the market is staggering—it’s by far the most popular health-related goal promoted by supplement manufacturers. To come up with the best weight loss pills of the year, we had some pretty strict requirements.
No unsafe ingredients. Since weight loss supplements have historically been plagued by adverse side effects, we didn’t rank anything with ingredients with a poor track record when it comes to side effects.
Two of the prime suspects here were bitter orange and synephrine, which are chemical analogues of ephedra, a weight loss supplement that was pulled from the market after side effects including heart arrhythmias occurred.
This is why popular products like NatureWise Thermo Boost and PrimaForce SyneBurn didn’t make the list.
More than just a caffeine pill. Next, we cut anything that relied primarily on caffeine for its weight loss benefits.
While caffeine is a pretty solid weight loss supplement all by itself, many lower quality weight loss supplements put in a few token herbal ingredients, then dump in a lot of caffeine and call it a diet pill.
These supplements are no better (and oftentimes worse) than just taking a caffeine pill.
Since many of the top brands leverage the benefits of caffeine and mitigate its side effects by pairing it with L-theanine or green tea extract, plus providing more advanced weight loss benefits from other supplemental ingredients, we saw no reason to rank anything that was mostly or entirely dependent on caffeine for its benefits.
Proven thermogenics and appetite suppressants. We looked for supplements with proven ingredients useful for weight loss, like garcinia cambogia, capsaicin, and green coffee bean extract.
We also kept an eye out for companies that use more sophisticated ingredients like 5-HTP or saffron to alter neurochemistry and, potentially, restore a normal appetite and satiety response.
No unnecessary binders or fillers. After identifying the most promising products, we eliminated any that had any excessive binders, fillers, or synthetic coloring agents in keeping with our philosophy of clean, effective, and natural supplements.
Ingredient synergy. Finally, we made sure the best products combined ingredients that suppress appetite alongside different ingredients that increase energy expenditure via thermogenesis to ensure that you get the best possible weight loss results.
We’re confident that the ten remaining supplements represent the top weight loss pills on the market right now.
FAQ
Q: Are there any weight loss pills that work?
A: Our top weight loss pills, including LeanBean, PhenQ, and Transparent Labs Fat Burner, all include potent ingredients with a track record of success. Green tea extract, for example, has a strong body of research supporting its efficacy (1), as does caffeine.
There are more experimental ingredients like 5-HTP and saffron which have theoretical benefits, or have been proven effective in animals, but haven’t been rigorously studied in humans yet.
Q: What is the best over the counter diet pill for belly fat?
A: When it comes to burning belly fat, you want a diet pill that increases thermogenesis by increasing fat oxidation. While you can’t target a specific area of the body with a pill, a fat burning diet pill will decrease your overall body fat content, which includes your belly fat.
With this goal in mind, we like Leanbean due to its combination of powerful fat burners like garcinia cambogia, green tea extract, green coffee bean extract, and cayenne pepper.
Others among our top-ranked weight loss pills are also effective, but Leanbean is our bet for the best over the counter diet pill for belly fat.
Q: What is the best weight loss pill prescribed by doctors?
A: Prescription weight loss pills that you can get from a doctor include Liraglutide, Lorcaserin, bupropion/naltrexone, and orlistat.
Prescription-only weight loss supplements do work, but have a complex and sometimes risky side effect profile, meaning you should have a conversation with your doctor about the potential benefits and side effects of a prescription weight loss pill.
Q: What are some medically proven weight loss supplements?
A: In terms of the scientific evidence, the best research supports ingredients like green tea extract, caffeine, and orlistat (Alli).
Green tea extract works by increasing the rate at which fat is oxidized, as well as suppressing feelings of hunger. Caffeine is also a powerful thermogenic, and seems to work even better when combined with either green tea extract or green coffee bean extract.
Finally, orlistat works by blocking the absorption of fat from your diet. That means you’re absorbing fewer calories, even if your food intake doesn’t change.
Related articles
- Diet pills for women
- Appetite suppressants
- Thermogenics
- Natural weight loss supplements
- Weight loss programs
- Fat burners for men
- Fat burners for women
- Weight loss tips for immediate results
Recap
A weight loss pill can give you the boost you need to achieve your weight loss goals.
Though the various ingredients you might find in a weight loss pill work through different mechanisms, the ultimate goal is the same: by decreasing the energy going into your body, or increasing your body’s energy expenditure, you’ll be on track to lose more weight in less time.
A top-rated weight loss pill can modulate your appetite, making you less inclined to overeat, and at the same time, increase your body’s rate of energy expenditure.
For BodyNutrition’s #1 weight loss pill recommendation, click here.
