yes

No, No, No, and NO. Exercise instead.

depends on the company you buy from. if you want reputable products that really work then I used a great website and coach who helped me. They were very friendly and gave me lots of great advice. I needed to lose 40 pounds and I did so fairly easily. The website is www.myhealthabcmall.com once you fill in your details then you can see the full range of products they have. The products really work and you feel great whilst losing weight, its all nutrition based.
I lost all my weight in less than three months and they have helped me to keep it off. I would definitely recommend using them, the tips you get and encouragement are excellent (their advice and time is FREE). I am still with them so I stay healthy. If you just want to buy the products and not use the coaching then you can do that aswell, there is a link in there to email them so you can tell them you just want to buy and not speak to anyone. The owners will even advise you via email on what to purchase depending on what you want to lose, my sister did it this way (she was more self conscious than me) and lost 76 pounds in less than five months. These guys are just great, try them.