I am on day 5 with Alli and so far I am down 3 lbs. I have had absolutely NO effects. For those who are looking for the starter packs, I bought mine at Costco for $67 for 150 pills. We actually split it up between three of us at work to make sure that we wanted to do it. So I have a two week supply to give it a try.
So far I am really happy with the results. And more imprtantly... I know that I am loosing weight because of what I am doing, and not by some miracle of pharmaceuticals.
I have been writing everything down... and I have not had any problems at all. Monday will be a full week... so I will know more then.
I am going to start the eatting plan before I start taking the pills. I know they say to eat no more than 15 grams of fat per meal. But does anyone know how many calories you should be eatting?
there are three different calorie options based on your current weight...either 1200, 1600, or 1800 calories. I really like the eating plan. Because I'm terrified of the treatment effects, I am going to try and follow the plan to the letter. I've been doing WW (unsuccessfully). Part of that is....most of that is because I sped WAY too many points on sugary, candy, junk foods instead of milk and fruit and whole grains. I know that I can't do this on alli and that is a very good thing!!
edited to add that there are 3 different phases as well that increases the fats per meal until your body adjusts to alli. In the beginning, the fat count is as low as 8 g per meal (maybe lower, I can't remember??)
I've been on Alli since Monday, June 18th. So far I'm down 3 lbs, but I've also started dieting so the weight loss is probably a combination of this. I bought the 90 pill starter pack at Walmart for $50. I usually only take one pill a day(at dinner) on days that I work since I have a slim fast shake for breakfast and lunch and a low fat meal when I get home. On days off I usually have cereal for breakfast, which is very low fat and two low fat meals, which I will take a pill with for each.
I, so far, haven't experienced any discomfort or "treatment effects" and don't suspect that I will following my current "plan". As I understand it, as long as you stay low fat, under 15 grams a meal, you shouldn't experience the side effects.
Well I just picked up the pills at walmart. They were 90 pills for $47. I will follow the diet part until I get back from vacation. I will start the pills on July 1st. Do you think it would case any harm if I took the pills saturday and sunday? I would be able to take them next week though because of my vacation. Or should I just start them July 1st? Does anyone have the Alli book that is sold seperately?
Bev, I have the book "The alli Diet Plan" that I ordered from Amazon. I'm really impressed with the book and think it would be great even for people that don't take alli. It has very detailed menus for each phase covering each calorie level 1200, 1500, and 1800, and even includes options for meatless menus. It's filled with recipes, too. There are lists of foods, including a ton of restaurant foods, that include fat and calories. And it even includes a fitness plan. The whole book is filled with everything someone needs to follow a balanced, low fat and calorie controlled diet. It doesn't have fluff for filler like many diet books.
I was embarassed buying them and I'm embarassed posting about them!
But this is all in the name of science, right?
I have been on South Beach which is low fat for several weeks with one day off last weekend. Last week I totally hit a plateau and I know being bad Saturday didn't help so I decided to give it a shot.
Something else to note, about my trying to diet in general is that for the past year I have been under extreme and constant stress which I will talk about in another post.
So far I have had no effects though I had a headache yesterday that was different from my usual ones and I'm fairly certain it was the pills. This morning I was 161.8, (been hovering around 161 for over a week), so we shall see.
Day two, still no "effects": We went out for lunch and I had a spinach salad with chicken (my favorite). I ordered the dressing on the side and used probably less than a teaspoon on the salad because I didn't want to risk the "treatment effects". The salad tasted great with very little dressing. Tonight some friends are coming over. Has anyone had wine while taking Alli? I would like to have a glass or two of white wine, but wasn't sure.
Is anyone using the nutrition tracker on th Allie website? To me it seems like a pain. I have calorie king on my palm so I will just use that to keep track.
I can't believe they have me at 1800 calories. I weigh 165 and I think that is way to many calories.
Well, I'm on day 1 and so far, so good. I decided to go ahead and start this morning instead of waiting until dinner. I had a Slimfast shake for breakfast. I went out for lunch and had grilled chicken and a salad with a tomato based fat free dressing. I can't tell you what the name is because I just told the waitress to bring whatever they had in fat free. Then, I had light yogurt for a snack this afternoon. Probably going to pick up fresh fish on the way home for dinner.
Prinny - I completely understand about being embarrassed. When I went to buy my pills at CVS, there was this mega buff body builder types in the line in front of me. I'm holding my Alli box and he's got 3 or 4 bottles of vitamins and protein shake mix. At first I was embarrassed, wondering what he thought about me, but then I figured if he needed to use all that stuff to give him his ideal body, I can surely use one pill to help me achieve mine. We shouldn't be embarrassed about getting healthy.
Bev - I would follow the diet through your vacation, but wait to start the pills when you get back. No point putting your body through the adjustment more than once. Also, I have been disappointed in the Alli site, it is just too slow. I use Fit Day to track my food intake.
I started Alli last Saturday (June 16). Had no problems Saturday or Sunday. Early Monday morning I began experiences some of the "treatment effects" ie: orange oil in the toilet after using it, but nothing severe. The middle of the morning (2:00a.m.) I got up to get some water and was hit with vertigo. I had to cling to the walls to make it back to the bed. I wondered if this was a rather severe side effect of Alli. I didn't take any Alli for 2 days and went to the doctor who confirmed it was vertigo (only had it happen once in my life and that was 20 years ago and a reaction to stopping medication). However, the doctor didn't seem convinced that the cause was Alli. I began taking Alli again this morning. I'll let ya'll know if I get vertigo again. Oh, I'm also down 3 lbs since I started taking it. Part of it is fear of "treatment effect" (I've had colitis so I know what that is all about!!), part of it seems to be decreased appetite, which may also be due to feeling nauseated from the vertigo. But, I'm sticking with it for now.
Some guy even tried to start up a conversation with me while I was in line buying the stuff. I just wanted to hit him over the head with it and run away! It was mortifying.
Is it more embarassing because the side effects are, well, what they are and seem fairly common knowledge since people are making fun of it? I don't know, maybe. I'm always embarassed by buying diet or exercise stuff anyway. boo.
I enjoyed reading everyone's posts. I too am embarrassed to be using this pill as a crutch... but fear of orange oily stuff is proving to be an excellent motivator! I am not following the alli diet plan, however I am following my WW. The better eating is what is causing the loss of weight... but the Alli is keeping me honest.
Today I caught myself going same cajun shrimp dip, loaded with mayo and cheese, and I caught myself just in time. I have realized that there are a lot of instances in the past, when I did not catch myself and just ate it. So instead of eating something packed with fat and calories... I had an apple.
So far so good... I am actually having the opposite effect of the drug so I have been upping my fiber intake. My headache is long gone. It went away when I started taking my multi vitamin.
Ladies, reading your experiences regarding alli while working the diet or your own low fat diet has made me pretty much decide that I will take alli once the contest at work is over.
I'm trying to decide where I'm going to get it though. I definitely won't buy it from work because I don't want "them" to know I am on it. Then there's Wally World. I'd have to go in personally to get it and it's kind of embarassing. But, to order it online would cost more with the price and shipping because here Wally World is about 5-10$ cheaper than the rest.
I never got an asnwer to my question about snacks on the alli site. The moderators must not want to post questions from people who haven't registered with the product yet. If any of you are willing to help, here it is: is it ok to have a snack with under 3 grams of fat between meals or should we really stick to totally FF snacks? Or would I have to reduce the fat in breakfast and use the difference for the snack? IE 12gm at breakfast and 3 at break? The reason I ask this is because I usually have a cheese stick with an apple or some kind of stone fruit for my first break at work. The protein in the cheese usually keeps me sated til lunch and I wouldn't want to spend my morning starving because I didn't get to have th fat/protein combination. I usually eat breakfast at 4:30 and don't take my lunch til 9:30ish. Break is at 7:30ish and I wouldn't want to have too much fat too close together. I can't see breakfast ever having close to 15 gms of fat unless I had two T of PB on my bread which I love to do.
I really like to plan ahead and want to come up with ideas in case I have to keep snacks totally fat free. (partly because of our $$ budget too.)
I can understand all of the posts about being embarrassed. I ordered my through the internet and was willing to pay more than buying it at a store. My hangup is more that I don't want my MIL or some other family members to know, in case I don't lose weight and it looks like I failed again. I had to take my husband to Urgent Care at the hospital because he got a large palm splinter in his finger even though he was wearing gloves. After two hours at the hospital we were both starving so we drove through Taco Bell and without knowing any fat counts of any foods I order a cheese quesadilla. When I got home I looked it up and it has 28g of fat. Whoops. No treatment effects yet. Staying close to home just in case.
My headache is long gone. It went away when I started taking my multi vitamin.
