Today I started Xenical as prescribed my doc. If you have insurance and a BMI over 30 there is a good chance your insurance will pick it up. I've been researching it like crazy and have a hard time finding others who have tried it so I'm posting this for people to follow that are interested. One thing that I didn't find was anyone with bad side effects, only great success stories. One woman even 50 lbs in a little over a month. It's been out for years now and has been proven to be able to use it up to two years straight if needed. It's basically a pill that blocks 1/3 of the fat that you eat from being absorbed into the body. HOWEVER, you are forced to eat a low fat diet because if you don't there is a good chance you will ruin your underwear if you know what I mean. If you eat a fatty meal the extra fat has no where to go but out. People have complained of oily discharge with gas or alot of diarreha, but I also noticed those that have complained are those that took the pill then went out and ate McDonalds. It's not a miracle pill, it's a helper pill. Many people that stayed withing 30grams of fat per meal had no adverse side effects at all. My doctor told me to start it over the weekend because it will take a couple days for my body to get used to it so I will have the runs even if I eat only lettuce and water, but so far so good today. I really love the fact that after I pop a pill, I know that I can't go eat a cupcake unless I want to be trapped in my bathroom. It's a great tool for those will little or no will power like myself. I will keep everyone updated on how I do. Also, if you are going to eat like a 0% fat yogurt for breakfast, you don't even have to waste a pill for that meal (since they are costly). You can also use them for weight maintenance and they don't have any horrible side effects like phen phen which controls the nervous system. This only works with the digestive system. DAY ONE DOWN


1-8-05 Started Xenical 143.5

Day 3 on xenical and no side effects at all! I've trapped myself in my house for the last two days afraid that I will have a bathroom attack, but haven't had any problems at all. I even took it with Toxic **** (Taco Bell) and expected the worse but still everything is okay. I know the whole Taco Bell thing is defeating the purpose, but I'm sort of sneeking and taking this pill without my hubby knowing because of the cost, and he brought Taco Bell home. I've made a pact with a friend to start Weight Watchers again tomorrow, which I tend to do great on. And I promised myself I would hit the treadmill today. So if anyone has any xenical success stories, I could really use the support since I only bought 45 pills ($80) and don't plan on refilling if they aren't working for me.

My doctor prescribed Xenical a couple of years ago and I lost about 60 lbs over a six month period. Don't worry, the side affects will kick in. If I remember right, it took 4-5 days for it to really begin working and that is when you'll have them. Of course, you only have the side effects if you consume an unreasonable amount of fat. I found that it wasn't so much the product that helped me loose weight (it doesn't block enough fat to actually make you loose weight without any other program i.e. diet and exercise). It did, however, keep me honest. Trust me, if you over do the fat and the side effects kick in you will not want to over indulge in too much fat again.
As for the cost, you might consider checking with your insurance company and see if they will cover the cost. Mine did. All it took was a few forms filled out by my doctor verifying my weight and any accompanying medical issues brought on by my weight. After that, I had to report my weight loss to them on a monthly basis. The catch was that I could not gain weight or they would cease coverage. Also, if you gained weight and the coverage stopped I would not qualify for coverage of xenical or any other weight loss supplement for something like 12 months. At any rate, at almost $2 dollars a pill it is probably worth asking.

I tried it for about a month and, believe me, the side effects will kick in and are definitely not worth it. I have a lot to lose and was very careful about what I ate but finally could no longer hack the mess and the surprise oily orange discharge which came without warning.

IMHO, it was definitely not worth the expense or the side effects which seemed to be there no matter how careful I was to avoid fat.

How much do you have to lose, Sugarholic? Weight Watchers is a good plan. I am toying with the idea of starting to go to meetings.

I have never used Xenical but I do take Meridia, it is prescribed by my doctor and I go in once a month for weight check and to go over my food journal, my pills are covered by my insurance so I only pay 20 bucks for one month. I did a lot of research on weight loss and medications before I talked to my doctor about it. I am hypothyroid so first we had to get me started on some thyroid replacement and then I was put on the meridia It does control my appetite without giving me jitters or any side effects.

IMO I wouldn't want to use Xenical because of the side effects, Meridia controls my appetite and helps me lose weight slow and steady. I have a hard time losing weight on my own even when exercising and eating right Meridia proved to be the help I needed. I don't rely on my meds for my weight loss but I do appreciate the help it gives me.

Now, I want to give my medication disclaimer to anyone thinking that these meds sound interesting and want to try them without going to their doctor.
It is very important to consult your physician when taking diet meds, there are many people out there who bypass the doctors visit and order these meds off of the internet, this can be very dangerous and even if you may think you are healthy you could suffer serious side effects if not properly monitored while taking these medications. So please if you are contemplating taking meds and ordering them off the internet, think twice because you could endanger your health. Okay I'm off my soapbox now

I need to lose about 20-25 lbs, and I was in the process of having my insurance approve the medication, however my husbands company cancelled our insurance without telling us until about a week later. He's a carpenter and if it rains they don't work, if they don't work and get their full time hours in they cancel us. It sucks because now I have a doctors bill hanging over my head thanks to the "NO WARNING" they gave me. I don't even know if it is legal to cancel and then wait a week to tell us. I would have never gone to the doctors if I didn't know that I didn't have insurance. Anyways, my doc did toy with the idea of other drugs like Meridia, however I have high anxiety because I'm currently going to school to become a nurse, so she decided that Meridia would probably make my anxiety worse. I did start Weight Watchers today with a friend. I have done it before and had excellent success. The effects of the xencial started hitting me last night and this morning, but not to bad. No stomach cramps or mad dashes to the toilet, but I did see the "orange effect." I never really have eaten a high fat diet so I don't know if I will refill my script or not. I know about how much weight I'm capable of losing on WW, so if there really isn't a significant difference with the xenical, I'll probably just stop. Once I start a diet I'm compulsive about it, especially since I'm doing it with a friend. It's when I stop the diet, I fall off the wagon like a drug addict and go crazy. That's why I opted for WW, because I can still eat the foods I crave without feeling like I fell off the wagon and then just letting everything go from there. Thanks for all the feedback!!

Today is day 4 on xenical and day two on Weight Watchers. Oh yeah and I'm starving ha ha. I know I'll adjust in a day or two. Still no bad effects on the xenical, I definately have the orange oily stuff, but no runs or accidents or anything. I only take it with dinner because that is the only meal that I really eat any fat. Breakfast is no fat, and lunch is only about 5 grams of fat, maybe that is why my side effects are so low. I don't know if I'm getting any results from it yet because with WW I can only weigh myself once a week. I'll let you know at the end of the week if I've lost any weight.

I'm just curious what your BMI is? Your doctor must have measured it to put you on a diet med. I'm just wondering because you've got so little to lose. Some doctors just don't care and write scripts like their going out of style KWIM? Have you tried to lose weight on your own? and if so have you had your thryoid function checked? Sorry you are hungry but if you are doing flexpoints you can eat a bunch of veggies for no points!

My BMI in the doctors office was 30, I'm only 4ft 11 and according to their scale I weighed 150, but I was holding my purse, had jeans, two shirts, shoes, and a huge winter coat on. I weighed myself the next day and only weighed 143.5 without all the clothes, putting my BMI at 28, which still should be a little lower to get me out of the overweight category. I do have to admit that I think my doc was being easy on me because I didn't look when I was getting weighed, however when I saw my weight on her chart I started bawling. I am overweight, I look overweight, my knees ache, my back hurts because my boobs are huge, and I really do need to drop some weight. I'm not depending on the xenical, I did start WW again and I have done great on it in the past without diet pills. But I did already pay for them so I might as well use them. Plus I tend to crave things like Taco Bell and Burger King, as a matter of a fact I can't carry any cash at all on me, not even a dollar because I will go and get fast food. Xenical keeps me from doing that because I am scared to death of the side effects I hear about. Plus I am a nursing student and my semester starts again tomorrow, which means I tend to keep my nose in the books and grab whatever I can eat and keep on studying. The xenical will help keep me from doing that and that is another point my doc made. I do have more to lose then just the 18lbs that I have on my weight tracker. However, I find it much easier to set goals that are actually reachable to keep myself from being discouraged. In all actuality I need to be around 110 - 115 to be the weight that is considered healthy for my age and height. I figure if I can hit 125, then I'll set a new goal for 115. I have to use the one day at a time attitude or I tend to get discouraged and fall off the wagon.

It sounds like you've got a good plan going My beef with xenical and this is coming from a person with a history of eating disorders, Xenical seems like a laxative to me, if I were on xenical (and this is just how I would act) I would be like oh yeah lets go get some McDonalds because it won't matter cuz I'm gonna sh!t it all out later anyway. For me it would just breed more bad habits and not teach me portion control or how to eat healthy food, I know that this doesn't apply to everyone taking Xenical but it does apply to some.

I commend you for joining up with WW again that's wonderful! One thing you can make and eat a lot of to fill you up especially in these warmer months is a home made soup, I use water and chicken boullion, then I throw in carrots, onions, peas, green beans, some potatoes, corn, and cauliflower, then I bake a chicken breast and then shred it and throw it in my soup along with some brown rice or wild rice and you can eat a ton of this soup for very little calories or points. If you like sweets I love to make a microwave apple cobbler, I peel an apple and section it, put it in a microwave bowl, add some splenda and cinnamon and microwave for about 1 minute when you pull it out of the microwave crumble a fat free graham cracker on top and it makes a wonderful substitute for the real thing, and if you like your cobbler to have a buttery taste you can give it a spritz of i can't believe its not butter.

I wish you luck and let us know how you progress!

I was on Xenical a couple of years ago and hated it! I ate right and I still had all of the side effects. Every time I had to pass gas, I made sure that I went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet to do it...otherwise I was in trouble. For me, the disgusting side effects, along with that orange, oily liquid, was just not worth it!

Today is day 5 on xenical and 3 on WW. My stomach is adjusting to the WW and I'm not feeling as hungry. Plus I forced myself to job while on the treadmill yesterday. I'm actually excited for Tuesday to hit so that I can weigh myself. One of the hardest things is not weighing myself, I'm a complusive weigher. I've asked my hubby to hide the scale a million times but he hasn't so I just fight the urge now. I still haven't had bad side effects, but then again, I do only use it for dinner and I'm a pretty low fat eater anyways. I really don't even need it because everyone else has me so scared to even fart because of all the horror stories I've been hearing. I did have a couple slices of pizza tonight within my points and popped a pill so tomorrow may be a different story, luckily I have nothing to do and no where to go. I'm going to stop my everyday postings for now unless the bad side effects do hit. Again, I started this xenical thread for those looking for info since I had such a hard time finding info. But I will be back on Tuesday with my weigh in results. Bye for now!!!

[FONT=Arial][COLOR=DarkRed]Hello, I used Xenical 3 years ago. I was very successful, I lost 70 lbs. in 6 months. Yes there are not so pleasant side effects, the gas, the oily discharge and the smell. But, the pill itself cuts absorption of fat, so if you take to much fat at one particular meal, you will definetely fell the effects. I personally took it for 3 months, so that I could get used too eating differently. One thing I did notice is that I became more sensitive too the cold and was freezing more. It is a wonderful means to help change you eating habits and lower the amount of fat that we eat. But I would not recommend taking it for long periods of time.

I'd say that the cold sensitivity probably had more to do with losing a good deal of fat than it did with the Xenical. It's a common occurrence - happened to me too in 1990 when I started working on losing the 115-120 lbs of extra weight I was carrying around. Even though it was summer, I had to wear sweatshirts, sweaters, etc because I was constantly cold!

It's kind of like being used to wearing a heavy coat all the time, then when you lose the body fat - like whales have that layer of protective blubber - it takes a while to get used to NOT having it, but eventually you do get over that 'chilly' feeling.

Well..........I think I'm done with xenical. Today was my weigh in and I lost 3lbs this week YEAH. But I have to give the credit to Weight Watchers and my treadmill. I never really ate fatty enough foods to take the xenical 3 times a day. And I never really experienced any of the bad side effects, even after eating pizza, Taco Bell, and Sweet and Sour Chicken with it. I did see the orange effect after these meals, but I don't really eat these kind of foods anymore anyways. I haven't even taken the pill since my "Day 5 on Xenical" log in because I'm so greedy and didn't want to eat anything fattening because it would have used up to many of my WW points and then I couldn't have a nighttime snack . So to all out there looking for info on how people did on Xenical.....would I recommend it?? Yeah if you are having a hard time cutting out fatty meals and foods, it does seem to work, you'll see that in the toilet. If you can do good on something like Weight Watchers, I recommend that. No cutting out the foods that you love and you get good results. I've been on Weight Watchers before and I know that I would have lost 3lbs this week with or without the Xenical. Good luck to all and thanks for the feedback!!