pwhitechurch, welcome and that you for sharing your story. I am so glad that your have beaten the congestive heart failure and I am sure you will get back to your pre-baby weight as well.

Losinwt, GREAT to see your progress! I would love to see your daily menu. I have lost about 8 pounds but obviously not losing a quickly as your are. If you don't mind, what is an average day of food like for you? Do you exercise and, is so, how much? You said earlier in the thread that you were nosy. As you can tell , you are not the only one! Please tell me everything you would want to know about someone who is losing so much faster than you are. :D Thanks for sharing the xenical users site but it seems VERY slow to me. I have visited several times and there just doesn't seem to be that much traffic there.

Have a great day, everyone!

After a minor illness set back, I was finally able to start the Xenical on Monday, 3/20. I've lost 3 pounds and I'm even pms'ing! :dizzy: It isn't as bad as I thought it would be, depending on what I eat, of course. Will start with the exercise regimen this Monday. I bought a power walking DVD.. anyone ever try that? :carrot: It's great to have somewhere to go where there are others going through the same thing. It helps to compare and relate!
:goodluck: To All!
Renee

Congratulations on your 3 pound loss, Renee! That is great. Also great that you a starting to exercise. That helps me a lot. Good luck and keep posting!

Karen

renejo
 

Hi, I have never tried the dvd but i powerwalk and it worked without any medicine, its just too cold here to walk now. I lost about 25lbs including watching sugar intake and eating higher fiber foods.

losingwt
 

Hi, when did you start to see weight loss? Also what are you adding in to lose more? How much have you lost now? Please let me know, I would like to hear from you. God bless!

losinwt
 

I have been on Xenical for a week, I see not much weight loss but I am noticing that I am getting very toned. Not as flabby around the thights and midsection. The weight I will have to check after my PMS because I can swell about 10lbs during this time. I like Xenical, no shakes not nervousness. Its alright with me.

I am thankful for your posting. I have been on xenical for about a week and have had the nasty side effects. My problem is though that I feel that I can eat all the high fat stuff cuz i'll just poop it out ne ways, but I think i'll just stick with weight watchers i've noticed i've gone over my points all this week because of that messed up thinking. Next week for me will be better hopefully

mommyof 1, I livein Pearland!

After what happened tonight, my wife suggested I read up on other people's XENICAL experiences to see if anyone else had the same problems I had.

I had no idea about Xenical until I read about it in the newspaper regarding it going over the counter. I have struggled with my weight for years and suffer from both IBS and sleep apnea. I was unaware of the apnea condition. Sleep apnea made it very extremely difficult to function and it was discovered by a friend even though my doctor could find nothing wrong for ten years! In fifteen years I ballooned from 185 lbs to 299 pounds and suffered massive chronic headaches as well as sheer chronic exhaustion. My doc told me there was nothing wrong with me and to simply get off the couch and stop eating chips!!!!

When I approached him with the possibility of sleep apnea, he told me I had all the symptoms. We did a sleep test and let me tell you the hospital admitted me the same week for an operation at which time they put me under also discovered my trachea was way too small! The operation was an anesthesiologist's worst nightmare to keeping me alive! The apnea problem was addressed with surgery and a CPAP machine. I finally found I had been able to recover enough energy to start working on the weight problem which would also alleviate the apnea problem.

Anyway, I had asked the doc over the phone if Xencial could help me (after reading about it in the paper.) I had already started a treadmill regimen of 1 hour a day for a month prior to that. It was working slowly but I wanted faster success as I wanted to simply recover from years of misery. (I had also tried Meridia with success but the heart issues caused him and my insurance to take me off it.)

My insurance didn't cover Xenical and it cost me $750 for a three month supply. He made NO MENTION of the side effects! When I went to see him after two months, he was absolutely thrilled with the success I had; I had lost 21 pounds. I told him I was pretty surprised that he didn't counsel me on the side effects. He said he counseled me in his office and even told he he had "crapped his own pants" when he used it for a few days. I reminded him we never met, and that he prescribed it over the phone. Anyway, he insisted that the Xencial was working and insisted I stay on it. I told him the positive effect was more the daily treadmill exercise than the Xencial, and the Xenical had horrible effects on me. I told him I ruined my office chair ($800 leather swivel chair embarrasingly stained without me being aware of it).

Speaking of ruining things: one other time, I helped my son move. Against my advice, he insisted on driving the Uhaul without having a drivers license. There was no way I was riding with him and followed him by driving my wife's car which we also packed with his and his wife's belongings. Well, you guessed it- he got pulled over, my stomach did a complete rollover and I messed up my wife's driver's seat pretty badly. Being in the health care field, she simply put me in diapers after that and insisted I wear them until I could get the accidents to stop.

Anyway, I told my doc about the problems I was having and that I was wearing them when I went out in public-even to his office. He actually told me that NO ONE WOULD KNOW UNLESS I TOLD THEM and that I should stick with the drug, but watch what I eat! I could not believe what he was saying!

Well, needless to say, I sure did learn by trial and error what I really needed to stay away from. Having IBS, my wife insisted that I continue to wear protection because I had very sporadic problems anyway. The only good thing is that I run a professional practice from my home and afforded me the luxury to get to a bathroom very quickly if an eposide occured. Otherwise, I would not even be posting now or dealing with this issue at all.

Needless to say, I am pretty careful about what to eat, but still seem to suffer more than the average Joe. So I follow the wife's regimen and have been quite thankful on a few occasions. Oddly, the best "underwear" is not detectable under clothing and not even self-noticable after a few days. And I stress only the BEST ones-every other lesser product is truly a nightmare to wear. It makes you itch and the noise makes you completely paranoid.

Well, today was the last straw. My wife and I had the grandchildren (twin 1 1/2 year old girls) for the day. We NEVER eat at McDonald's because we outgrew it a loooong time ago. Well, my wife and I had a salad and the kids split a happy meal for lunch. Well, they didn't eat many of the fries, so not thinking about it, I ate them as I was pretty damned hungry even after that salad. Since we are on vacation this week, I took my wife out to our favorite restaurant for dinner. Mind you, I have eaten the same meal there plenty of times before while on the drug without side effects.

Not this time. Right after we left, I was in a Home Depot and without any warning, had a MAJOR problem. We left immediately so I could get home and clean up. No warning at all. Just a huge embarrasment that would have been far worse had I not been prepared for an emergency. My wife and I were trying to figure out what I ate different at the restaurant when it dawned on her that I had eaten the french fries from Mickey D's that day.
Let me tell you I have had other "better" restaurant fries without a reaction like that!

Let me also tell you, my doctor and I are going to have a a long talk about this because I am done with this baloney. THis is NOT normal as far as I am concerned and I am not sure where his thinking lies. Is my mental stress less important than my physical health at this point? He tells me I am simply going to die if I can't get my weight under control. I have lost 35 pounds in 4 months but an occasional mistake like today is nightmarish for me.

I am quite confident that I will be looking for a new doctor after our next (last?) meeting.

If you are considering taking this drug:

Be VERY prepared- my studies are telling me that this drug affects people in a wide variety of ways,

DO NOT be a sufferer of any type of colon problem like I have had since a young child,

Make sure your doctor as well as yourself is aware of your other medical conditions,

Watch what you eat VERY carefully,

READ every damned package for the fat content before you put anything in your mouth, (which I learned to do very quickly),

Ask the waitress about dietary concerns-most chefs and waitresses will understand and help you make informed choices,

and above all, make sure you have a doctor who cares about your mental well being as well as your physical one. I've had just about enough of mine, and will be looking for one that will be a little more sensitive. I am thinking that mine is either a quack or simply not interested in the Hyppocratic Oath!