Safe and rapid weight loss can be a contradiction in terms! Patients with medical problems who have a significant amount of weight to lose should be under a physician’s supervision while losing weight. They should be monitored by someone with clinical expertise in diseases which regularly manifest in overweight patients. Many times the physicians in the multitude of clinics do not even see the patient after the first visit! Outrageous promises like ‘Lose10 lbs. in one week’, or ‘eat cookies and lose weight’, are made to desperate, vulnerable people who are misled into believing that they are actually losing fat when they are actually losing muscle mass and water. Because medications are regularly dispensed and weight loss can be rapid, side effects must be monitored carefully as long term effects can be dangerous.