Well, In my opinion lots of people prefer the tabs because they think they are more effective. (and they probably are) for two reasons. First off, the caps release the medication at a much slower rate, and have a lower doseage of the meds.
There is a commercial on TV about aftershave where the old guy tells his grandson...."IF YOU FEEL IT BURNING, YOU KNOW ITS WORKING".....or the dandruff shampoo commercial....it tingles so you know its working.
The tabs dissolve almost instanlty and "bum-rush" if you will, the user. That, along with appetite supression and you experience the almost euphoric sensation of a jolt of energy with no nasty jitters or bellyach like you would get by taking ephedra. Its a very clean and unique experience, but very subtle....anyways it doesnt take long before the user will associate that with not being hungry (as the appetite spression is underway while all this is going on). If they switch over to a gelcap, they lower the dose a bit, and then since it breaks down slower, there isnt the sensation you get with the tabs because they arent absorbed into your system as quickly. I think there is a bit of placebo effect there. They dont "feel" anything so they dont feel that its working....or at least not as effectively. As studies show time and time again, the placebo effect is just as powerful as some drugs on the market now.
Phentermine wont MAKE you not eat, but it makes it easier to resist temptation and diminishes the urge to eat but wont weld your mouth shut. One of the side effects.....and a good one, is that it makes you feel very alert, but in control, and gives you lots of energy. When you've got lots of energy to go along with no appetite, loosing weight is a cinch. If you can feel psycially that this drug is in your system and doing its job, you will experience better results. Going from that to a gelcap that you cant tell is working, you will be expecting the energy, but due to the caps and the lower doseage, the energy they give you wont compare to that of a tab.
I dont know about you, but when I take my tabs, they give me enough energy to be too busy to think about food. I also know if I eat anything more than a light sandwich while on the tabs, the energy will go away and make you feel like crap. With the gels, you dont have that...you will think the meds are too weak are not working.....the energy level wont be there.....even tho the appetite supressent may be exactly the same you will assume its either too weak, or not working at all......then you will start to doubt the medication. So when you do feel like you could eat something, you will think, see, this isnt working I knew it, and head to the fridge. With unhealthy lifestyles, or eating disorders....I'd think If your not out doing and staying busy, you will sit around and think about eating. Kinda like someone who quits smoking needs to stay busy until the cravings subside. Here we are talking about eating, but I think the same psycology applies to any type of addiction, whether food abuse or drug abuse. Now, having said ALL that, I need to say here this is merely what I beleive is going on based on my understaning and experience with all of all the above. Im no doctor by any stretch of the imagination, but having been prescribed these meds on and off for so long, I've learned quite a bit. I think its also worth noting here, that I was on these and Paxil at the same time, and it made the anphetamine like side-effects MUCH stronger to me. I just wanted to add that so much of it depends on the individuals body, metabolism, medication tolerance, what other drugs they are taking (prescribed or not) . . . . [use Afrin nasal spray while on Phentermine and you will see what Im talking about] . . . . experiences, and enviroment that I'd have to say each person would have to experiment with doseages and delivery (tabs/gels) to find whats most effective for them.
For me, it took time and tweaking but I learned how to get the most out of them and ended up going from 300 lbs all the way to 192 lbs at my lowest. After coming off them, you will gain SOME weight back as your body adjusts, but if you train yourself to eat right while your on them, you WILL HAVE TO EXERT A LITTLE EFFORT to make sure you keep that regimine you learned while on the meds or you will gain more weight than before, if you go back to your old habits. Trust me, done that once, and had to start over a second time, (if you wanna stay thin, avoid smoking weed or you will be twice as big in no time....learned that the hard way)...after i figured out all that, then stayed slim for 2 years with no phentermine. Now I only need it on very rare occasions....(ie, the holidays or whenever i get a new propane tank on my gas grill ;-))......now, as far as the other... I havent gotten any purepac myself, but have heard good things about them. I got the Adipex tabs once and they didnt do anything.....nothing. I was very surprised that the real mcoy brand name didnt work out for me, the generics A-159 are the most effective I've had so far. I also wonder if there is a "freshness" type shelf life with these things, because I've noticed that even the effectiveness of the a-159's will vary from pharmacy to pharmacy...that can only make me wonder about shelf ife, humidity during storage.....I'm just at a loss on that topic.........There is a girl I work with who was very obese and my
weight loss inspired her to go to her DR and get on them. They gave her
30mg yellow gelcaps and they didnt work for her. She went to the tabs, and the fat melted off. My wife.....nothing phases her that I've seen. Nothing. That just illustrates how different people react to this stuff. My doctor informed me that only her male paitents had uniform success with phen, and that the females were hit and miss....even the biggest weight loosers that were females didnt come close to the men. There's something to that, but I dont know what. Wow, you messed up asking my thoughts, I gave you the short version and ended up with a book here. Sorry.