[SoulSurvivor]

I wrote about this in another thread but my theory about alli is that it's not necessarily going to make you lose masses of weight but psychologically and physically train you to eat a low fat diet. My best friend started taking them a month ago and her experience just totally put me off taking them. We are both members of Slimming World and on the same eating plan where we dont use oil, remove fat and generally eat foods that make you feel full for longer. A few weeks ago we decided to make a curry, removed all the fat and skin from the chicken, didnt use oil.... and yet on her way home on the tube she leaked oil she was so embarrassed that she ran home!!
I don't think I could deal with that, I mean I'm losing by eating the same foods as her, and losing the same amount. However I totally understand why other people might take it just for the discipline and to start them off, or keep them on track every now and again if they know they can't get out of a situation where they have to eat more saturated foods.

x

[Trudiha]

Originally Posted by SoulSurvivor

A few weeks ago we decided to make a curry, removed all the fat and skin from the chicken, didnt use oil.... and yet on her way home on the tube she leaked oil she was so embarrassed that she ran home!!

No offence to you or your friend but it simply doesn't work that way. Firstly, it takes days for anything to work it's way through your digestive tract, there are some exception to this rule but chicken isn't one of them and secondly it only stops you metabolising some of the fat you eat, so no fat (or very little fat) would mean no oil to leak, it can't make fat or make anything else into fat.

Your friend probably had an 'off plan' meal a couple of days before that caught up with her on her way home from your place and rather than working out where it was that she went wrong, she's blamed the last thing she's eaten.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to take this drug, I think that we all have to weigh up the risks and make our own choices but I think that stories like this just scare people away from something that *could* be helpful to them.

[ThicknPretty]

I considered taking Alli when they first starting advertising it, but when I did some research, it turned me off completely. Flexibility is key in my diet now. If I want to eat something, I allow for it and then I can. I don't then have to worry about having an accident!! I understand that for some people, it keeps them firmly on track and on plan out of fear for the consequences. But...do we really need THAT kind of consequence to prevent us from eating too much fat??

Wouldn't work for me but I'm glad that some who have taken it have had success.

[belezura]

Amen to Trudiha post.
I take Alli only on weekends and the effects of it only starts around Wednesday. The pill doesn't start to work right in the next few hours after the meal.
I only take it weekends because that is the only time I eat lots of fat - and yes, I am aware of the side effects and totally prepared to deal with it.

[SoulSurvivor]

I'm not trying to scare people off, I was just sharing a story... maybe it wasn't the curry maybe it was. As far as I know, she didn't go off plan on her first week but maybe it's a mistake.. all I was trying to get across was the fact that you can have some really embarrassing treatment effects. I don't care if it was another meal.. who the **** wants to sit on the tube with a backside full of oil? That's just plain nasty.

[TheTigz]

Originally Posted by xxfoofoolafluffxx

im currently on orlistat, the stronger version of alli. I initially had a sore stomach and terrible toilet habits with them.... but there was a good reason for that, i hadnt adjusted my fat intake enough. the whole point of these, as well as alli, is to stop your body absorbing a portion of the fat you intake, so with alli i think its 1/4 of the fat they block, and orlistat blocks 1/3 of the fat. if your fat intake is too high you WILL get stomach cramps and gas, and you WILL pass orange stools - this is the fat passing through that your body isnt absorning. The answer to this? eat a low fat diet with them and you wont experience the bad side effects. in some instances you can experience incontinence ( when breaking wind ) but that only tends to be if youve eaten something seriously high fat! i suspect that previous posters on this thread may have been eatin a little too much fat in their diet and thats why they were sufferin the cramp and stomach disturbances. Technically though if you think about it, if you can eat a low enough fat diet, then you dont need the tablets, though i think its a psychological thing with me.

I'm very pleased these have worked for you, however I take exception to you saying previous posters didn't drop their fat intake enough. I did. And my diet was catalogued and recorded everyday for my GP. The reason I had to record it and why it didn't work for me is it clashed with my medication. I have to take pain pills that make me constipated and combined with Orlistat caused my stomach cramps and gas. My GP suspected this might be the case before she even put me on them, but I am willing to try anything.

I guess my best advice to anyone who is thinking about Alli or Orlistat is speak to your GP first.