Alli question
 

Are you suppose to take an Alli before every meal? I mean if I eat special K cereal and skin milk for breakfast should I take an Alli pill?

I've been taking Alli with all my meals including the super low fat ones. I've also been having some gas issues the last couple days. Does anyone know if taking Alli with no-fat meals leads to gas problems?

Is there any extra advantage to taking Alli with evey meal instead of those that just have 10 or more grams of fat?

Malik, I also only take Alli if the meal contains a fair amount of fat. If the meal contains no fat or only a little, then I consider the Alli pill to be wasted because there's nothing for Alli to block! I guess a couple advantages are psychological...you keep on a schedule of taking the pills so you don't forget later on, and knowing you took one at breakfast (if it had no fat) and then one at lunch probably reminds you to be extra careful at lunch, if that makes sense. But personally, I think the Alli pills are too expensive to use unless I have a meal with a moderate amount of fat.

I take Alli with all 3 meals regardless of the fat content. I really don't see it as wasted even if I don't reach my fat gram target for that meal because I know that by not missing a dose it's built up in my system so I'm much less likely to cheat or binge. I'm just the kind of person that needs that extra psychological kick in the booty lol!

On another note, I won't be weighing in this week. Since Monday I've been having horrible pain in my jaw that's been getting worse everyday. I believe it's caused by 2 bad wisdom teeth and I'm getting an oral surgeon to take them out tomorrow. I've only been to the gym Monday and I'm stuck eating soft foods so I really don't want to see what the scale wants to say about all that this week. Hopefully monday or tuesday I'll be able to go back to the gym but I really don't know how long it takes to feel better from having teeth pulled. :( Oh well, we shall see...

Gypsy, I'm sorry to hear about the pain! I'm getting my last 3 wisdom teeth out next month, but thankfully it's mostly preventative and I haven't experienced that sort of pain yet. Good luck!

Thanks Amy! The procedure was a breeze, they knocked me out, numbed me up and when I woke up I was like "so when are you going to start?" lol! I can't talk great with the gauze stuffed in my mouth and I can't eat just yet but the pain is minimal which is what I was most worried about. I'm soooo glad this is all done and over with! :bubbles:

My 2nd WI I gained .6lbs but AF was here so I think that explains it. I'm happy to say as of this morning (weigh-in) I'm down 2.5lbs! Yeah!

I think taking Alli three times a day is a good idea. It stays in your body longer than just one meal. I noticed that sometimes I would take one at lunch--with maybe something very lowfat I wouldn't have a reaction. However, if I ate string cheese and crackers or something late in the afternoon, I would have the side effects after having the snack.

As most of you already know Alli is much lower strength than the Rx of Xenical doctors customarily doled out so I don't think 3x's daily is anywhere near unsafe or anything like that.

Gypsy, I so badly need my wisdom teeth out. Two of mine are impacted. Were yours? I like the idea of going to sleep and waking up.

Thank you Amy, Heather, Gypsy, and TBG for your advice on taking Alli with low fat meals. I've gone down to two Alli pills a day and I take them with both moderate fat and low fat meals.

Luckily my gas problem has now gone away for the most part.

I've been able to stay within 1800-2000 calories pretty consistently. I eat a lot of puffed wheat which I find helps control appetite. I've been posting about it in the full bar thread under Does it Work.

I love how active this thread is. Let's keep going and make our goals happen!

Is Alli Worth it?
 

I've been researching Alli recently and while most people seem to be singing its praises, I also wanted to be aware of any negative aspects (I don't mean the obvious 'side effects either'). While I want to join the Alli bandwagon, it just does not seem logical (or healthy) for that matter. What Alli does is completely unnatural. Really think about what it does.

'When you eat the fat and it enters your digestive system Orlistat will attach itself to some of that fat and block it from being broken down by your body's natural enzymes. Since it can't just float around in there, your body will then pass it through your digestive system, into your intestines and eventually out through your bowels. In short, this pill turns some of your fat intake into a fiber type source. Just like when you eat fiber, your body can't break it down and digest it, so it passes through your system. This also means that the energy (calories) do not count, so the fat you eat you isn't absorbing into the body.

Off the bat it doesn't sound to bad does it? Well like anything it isn't that simple.

When you block fat from being absorbed in the body, you are blocking the valuable nutrients that fat can provide. We have already learned from study after study how valuable and important fats are for the basic needed function of the body. Since you have to take in a low fat amount (remember you don't want to have an accident) as it is and of those fats a certain quantity of that intake is going to be blocked, in a day your percentage of fat from you diet is going to be too little to provide the best of basic function for your body. The negative effects of that will wage war from things ranging from your hair and skin to your HDL levels.

To add one more insult to injury. Because you can't absorb the fat and you don't get all the calories from the fat you are taking in, you already low calorie diet, becomes even lower. Low calories diets as we have learned lead to weight re-gain, hormone dysfunction and unhappy bodies.
'

It seems that many people forget that Alli is a drug. I've seen many posts where people disregard it as a drug becaue 'it only effects your digestive system'. Last time I checked, that was a major system. Alli is still a relatively new drug and it would seem to me that tampering with your digestive system on a daily basis(which is really what it boils down to) COULD be harmful later in the future.

My question is this...if you're using Alli successfully, then that means you're following a low fat/low calorie diet already (on your own, bravo!). Do you really need a drug (or the idea of a potentially smelly accident) to help keep you on the right track? The extra 3 pounds a month of weight loss that Alli provides is probably not worth it. If you can do it with Alli, you can do it without it. I'm a firm believer in doing things naturally...not using drugs/medicines for things that my body can do on it's own. I'm not bashing Alli users, so don't return snarky posts about how wrong I am. I'd just like to provide a different opinion for users who may be considering Alli.

It won't let me post the link to the article I referenced because of the post count, but message me if You'd like it.

I wonder why someone would seemingly join the 3FC website just to rip on people in a support thread (since at the time you posted this, it was your first post). If you actually read the posts here, you'll see that we are intelligent women who know how to do research on our own, and have thought through the consequences and benefits of every weight loss plan.

Thighs Be Gone~ Yes I believe at least one was impacted and even though I was deathly phobic of any kind of dentist I honestly feel sooo much better now then before I got them out. So I definately recommend getting it taking care of sooner than later before any real bad pain like I was having starts up.


Cassidyyy~ Ok I'm going to try and say this as nicely as I can. Please research a plan completely before posting somthing like this. The plan does not tell you to follow a SUPER low fat diet, just lower then what you were eating before. It only cuts out about 1/4 of the fat you eat and the plan gives you a target of fat grams per meal you are supposed to try and reach.

For my weight and height I fall into the 1800 calorie a day category with a fat gram target of 19 per meal. So even with Alli blocking 1/4 of that fat I'm still getting 14.25 grams of fat per meal which is plenty to absorb vitamins and just to be safe you take a vitamin at night too. You're right Alli is a drug and people should not just jump into using it without reading up on it first. That being said I hope that they are reading the correct information.

If every person had the will power to eat a perfectly clean and healthy diet and work out every day of their lives then no one would be over weight, Alli would have never been created, 3fatchicks would not be here, and the world would have never got to know that wonderful miracle food called "The Krispy Kreme"! (lol had to throw in a joke there!) The point is most people don't have the will power to follow a good diet plan EVERY day and that's where Alli steps in and helps.

Pick and choose whatever plan you want, just research everything first.

In addition to what GypsyLove has said I would like to address the issue about Orlistat being a drug. The issue here is that this drug is not metabolised by the body so does not affect your other organs; liver, kidneys, nervous system for example which most drugs need to do to work. The research I've done also tells me it wrong to say Orlistat is a fat blocker. What it actually does is reduce the production of fat processing enzymes in the gut. It does not stop them but reduces them. So some of the normal processing of fats does occur, just less than would be normal.

And as to addressing the point of 'if you can follow a low-fat diet why bother', well we can all be a little impatient and want to see good results so why not. I've been taking orlistat for 19 months now and I've got to the point where I only lose 3-4 lbs a month. I do believe that if it were not for the drug I wouldn't have lost over such a long time. I've lost lots of weight in the past but never as much as I have now.

Kitty