about the new diet pill the FDA approved for non-prescriptive use?
OTC orlistat
B

I know nothing about it. Could you link to it or something?

Taken from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...r/a601244.html

Orlistat is used with a low-calorie diet to help you lose weight and to maintain your weight after weight loss. Orlistat is used in patients with a certain weight who may also have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or heart disease.

Orlistat is in a class of drugs called lipase inhibitors. It works in your intestines, where it blocks some of the fat you eat from being absorbed and disgested. This undigested fat is then removed in your bowel movements (BM).

Follow the diet program your doctor has given you. You should evenly divide your daily intake of fat, carbohydrates, and protein over three main meals. If orlistat is taken with a meal very high in fat (30% total daily calories from fat), you may experience more side effects from the medication.

Orlistat blocks your body's uptake of some fat-soluble vitamins and beta carotene. Therefore, when you use orlistat you should take a daily multivitamin supplement that contains vitamins A, E, K, and beta-carotene. Take the vitamin once a day, 2 hours before or 2 hours after taking orlistat, or take the vitamin at bedtime.

To help you get started on reducing the fat in your diet to about 30%, read the labels on all the foods you buy. While you are taking orlistat, you should avoid foods that have more than 30% fat. When eating meat, poultry (chicken) or fish, eat only 2 or 3 ounces (about the size of a deck of cards). Choose lean cuts of meat and remove the skin from poultry. Fill up your meal plate with more grains, fruits, and vegetables. Replace whole-milk products with nonfat or 1% milk and reduced- or low-fat dairy items. Cook with less fat. Use vegetable oil spray when cooking. Salad dressings; many baked items; and prepackaged, processed, and fast foods are usually high in fat. Use the low- or non-fat versions of these foods and/or cut back on serving sizes. When dining out, ask how foods are prepared and request that they be prepared with little or no added fat.

Side Effects:
* oily, spotting BMs
* gas with discharge
* urgent need to have a BM
* oily or fatty stools
* an oily discharge
* increased number of BMs
* inability to control BMs
* orange or brown color of a BM
* stomach pain
* irregular menstrual periods




*cough*.... erm.... sounds okay, I guess.... oily bowel movements and blocked vitamins? common sense diet tips combined with a pill to make me lose control of my bowel movements? WOOHOO

(k, I know I'm being crass, but it really sounds kind of... useless. If you have to follow a reduced-fat, healthy diet while taking it anyway, well... I don't know, it seems superfluous.)

This is what I learned from the Today show:

- Costs approximately $2 a day
- If through diet and exercise you lose 5 pounds it can help you lose an additional 2
- Can cause diahrea (the "guinea pig" man on the show said often during the day he would have to restrain himself from running to the bathroom, this happens more often when you eat fatty foods)

It sounds.... delightful....

However, if that's what motivates someone to eat better and work out, then to each his own. I know that a 7 pound loss is more motivating than a 5 pound loss and a 5 pound loss is more motivating than a 3 lb loss. I think under the *intended* circumstance, it is merely one tool to help someone understand that they can do it. Hopefully,

However, with all things like this, many do not use it for its exact intention. I did hear on the Today Show that when faced with a fattening food choice, the participants just didn't take the pill and ate the fatty foods.

Now when do we get a self-restraint pill?

Oh jeez, when that comes out i'll be the first in line...
(re: the self-restraint pill, of course, not the gives-you-the-runs pill)

i don't know. i am always hesitant about diet pills. i hear they are suing trimspa now for false advertising (?)

i feel like either they don't work, they are too expensive, and the second i stop taking them i will gain all of the weight back plus more.

Suing trimspa? Does that mean I can get my money back?! LOL.

Speaking of trimspa (although no relation to the pill I believe), according to CNN Ana Nicole Smith died

Omg, have you guys seen those Lipozene commercials? They make me sick! The super-solicitious, dripping-with-sympathy spokeswoman saying (verbatim) "It's not your fault! Excess fat builds up over time with having kids, stress at work..."

Yes, let's just feed the "I'm a victim and need an easy way out" mentality in weight loss, why don't we?

I just saw that! I was telling Melody it's probably because of the trimspa. Glad I stopped taking that. I would probably be dead now also... 0_o

Makes me think that those of us that are currently following a fairly low fat diet will not benefit much. We already have cut the fat--will it really block the absorption of the rest of the fat that we do eat? What about the good fats that we eat on purpose--seems self defeating in that way.

I do not think that this pill falls into the same "diet pill" category as TrimSpa and all those. This one is FDA approved and has been proven to work.

Exactly my thoughts....so I don't even bother. I also wonder what kind of effects it has on your body later in life. I don't think they have been testing these for 20+ years, maybe a couple at the most.

Ughhh, I have read horror stories about the drug you mentioned at the beginning of this post. The thing about it is that it FORCES you to cut out all fats, because if you eat too much of those fats which the pill keeps your body from processing, you won't get off the toilet all day!!

Personally I think it's a silly concept... if I were to take a weight-loss drug, it would be one proven to curb appetite, not to make food go through my body unprocessed and come out of my backside without my permission. Hahaha, okay sorry to be so graphic, but that's what I think of it!

I actually DID try such an appetite pill... "Acomplia," which was suggested by a doctor of mine whose advice I value greatly. It is not yet sold in the US, (they are working on FDA approval), but I got it in Germany. The results? My appetite WAS greatly lowered... in fact, I really had no interest in food for a while, and ate out of necessity, not really hunger. The only thing is that my stomach is VERY sensitive, and within 2 weeks I had bad stomach cramps (I get them a few times a year anyway, but the Accomplia aggravated them). So I stopped taking it.

You guys can read tons of articles on it here. As a warning to anyone who may try it though: aside from my own stomach troubles with it (due I think more to my own sensitivity than to common side effects), my dad tried taking it, and he said it did NOT curb his appetite... if anything he claimed it made him want to eat MORE. So it varies from person to person, and the drug was very expensive to get overseas: quite an investment for something that may not work for you.

But just getting it out there, it certainly curbed my appetite, so it's no hoax. But with the kinds of stomach cramps I get that keep me in bed for days? Not worth it. I'd rather just eat veggies to keep my hunger down between meals.

interesting interesting - I myself didnt' know too much about it - but now you have all taught me so much more! thank you!
i am not sure if I would try it - I agree I would rather have the stop reachign for that thing you are not hungry for and stop dreaming about food pill - I think that would be much better. if only maybe hypnotis is the answer