It is only cosmetic if you are an unhealthy weight. Based on your pictures from a medical perspective... you're not obese. As a medical professional, I would not prescribe you a medication to help you lose weight because you're not morbidly obese. Medication to help people lose weight is usually only prescribed to people who are severely to morbidly obese. Otherwise, changing your diet and going to the gym will make you lose weight and is the way to do it. No matter how many times we say it, people will still want us to give them a friggin pill to lose weight though. It's not natural to take a pill to do that! Eat healthy, go to the friggin gym, cut back calories, stop eating sweets, stop drinking anything unless it's water and you'll slim down fast... PERIOD. Even just eating 1000-1200 calories a day will make you drop 1 pound a week with no exorcise. Cutting out all drinks and only drinking water... that will make you lose an average of 20-40 pounds in 3-5 months. ( No, you can not use flavored crap in your water like MIO because even though it SAYS no sugar, it has sugar alcohol in it and your body still processes it just like sugar... unfortunately. It's not much better for you than soda... it's still processed junk in the end. Just plain.... water. ) Exorcise is the only way you can be certain you will lose the weight and keep it off. There's all these fad diets out there and people drop weight and what happens... BAM it comes right back as soon as you stop the diet... usually 10 fold.
It's the only way to be certain it will go away and stay away... Most people don't like it... but it's the truth. Also, helpful tip. Drink a bottle of water before every meal. Fun fact, your brain can not decipher thirst from hunger. You may think you're hungry... but you're really thirsty or dehydrated. That 8 glasses of water a day is crap. In order to stay hydrated you're technically supposed to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water every day. If someone is 200 pounds, they need to drink 100 ounces of water a day to stay hydrated. Of course it usually doesn't happen, but you're still supposed to try and hit that number. I weigh around 107 ( but I'm friggin tall as hell unfortunately ) and I probably drink 80 - 100 ounces of water a day. :P but I don't drink soda or anything else ever. ( Alcohol okay okay but not on a regular basis and no soda or any of that crap ) Drink a good amount of water, start to flush yourself out and you're body will release some of that water it's holding onto as well.
Also Dreamer... keep this in mind about those "miracle" diet pills. They are to treat VERY over weight people. HEAVILY morbidly obese people. I'm on a prescription right now that is off label to treat obesity. No, I'm not obese... at all. These "miracle" medications or "diet" pills are usually prescribed to treat one thing and found to OH LOOK AT THIS IT CAUSES WEIGHT LOSS! So, they use it to off label treat something else. These medications often some with a heavy, heavy, often multiple heavy prices, and heavy side-effects. They're nothing you ever want to have to take... believe me. The medication I take is called Topamax. It is one of the three ( yes three ) medications I take to stabilize my bipolar disorder. It is commonly prescribed to morbidly obese patients who want to lose weight. It comes off... fast. I was 140 when I started taking this medication around a month and a half ago... I'm now 107. No going to the gym, no special diet... nothing. I can't taste carbonation in soda or anything, chocolate and many sweets taste like pennies ( metallic ) I have to set alarms to remind myself when to eat because I'm never hungry. When the alarms go off I don't even eat because I'm not hungry. I feel nauseous, dizzy and weak all the time, I want to sleep all day and was recently approached by a coworker with a pamphlet on anorexia.
Yeah... so, think twice before you want one of these "miracle" diet pills... okay? Because they're ALL like this. ALL OF THEM are like this. I'm not taking it for that purpose... but this is what they ALL DO. They all have BUTT loads of side-effects and you lose weight through anorexia essentially. It suppresses your appetite. Yes, I'm slooooooooooooooowly returning to normal because they're adding in another medication to the mix to counteract it... This is why you have to be MORBIDLY obese before they will give you a prescription for these... They destroy your body! For my height, I was a perfect weight before... I went to the gym... I was toned... Now... I can see my ribs... Not... cool... For me height, I should weigh NO LESS than 130! ( See the problem here? ) 107?! At 5'10 do you think I should weigh anywhere around 107?! Do not take a pill to lose weight. Listen to what these people here are telling you. SC is a health nut and in awesome shape. I've talked to him in the past... that guy knows his stuff. Reba is super intelligent and always gives great advice. I'm a friggin P.A.
All I will tell you is don't go doctor to doctor trying to find one who will write the script... it's not a good idea. Look at the crap I'm in right now... Just Google Topamax side-effects and you'll have hours of reading material on any given day. People started FORUMS on that crap!
seriously, you'll have weeks of reading material, and it's a commonly off label treatment for morbid obesity. But they don't give it out easily. It also treats chronic migraines, seizures, bipolar disorder and various other crap!
That's how these things work. I always tell people, if you can stay away from putting man made pills in your body, do iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit....
Just go to the gym, change your diet, drink lots of water and you'll be dropping it off in no time. There's no miracle pill on the shelf at walmart that will help either... or TV adds... everyone has already tried... ( my friend buys every new pill that releases known to man no matter how many times I slap her ) Good luck with your weight loss though, lose it for you, not because of what society thinks you should look like... keep that in mind... society has this stereotypical woman image... It messes with women's minds... and makes their self-esteem low... and it's sad. don't let it do it to you. If you're happy, that's all that matters. In your pictures, I think you look fine... I would have never considered you huge-mongous or anything.
Just don't let jerks get to you hun.