Anyone taken 'Alli'?

[Disenchanted3]

Did you shit yourself?

I've lost 8 lbs in the last 3 weeks and saw Alli half price in a pharmacy. I read the booklet and it said if you are on a low fat diet then this can help you loose another 1lb for every 2 you loose yourself.

Does it work? Am on low fat diet & excersicing, but am genuinly scared of the side effects!!

[Pineapplechunks]

I've not taken it myself but if you google orlistat or alli side effects you'll discover lots of people do poo themselves.

Not really something I relish. I'd rather be a bit chubby than pooey.

[TheFirstLady]

I started yesterday. No side-effects yet - I'll let you know if any occur
I am hoping that by keeping my fat consumption below 12g per meal I should be able to avoid the side-effects completely, apparently they are mainly owing to people consuming too much fat. I've been following a low fat diet since the beginning of November and lost 17lbs by New Year - but have not lost a single pound in the entire month of January so I decided to see if Alli would restart the process for me. One major benefit, I reckon, is that it makes you very very careful to stay within your fat grams.

[rumpleteaser]

hiya, I just dug up this thread in the search bar as I am just starting Alli... havent't shat myself as yet... firstlady how did you get on with it?

[Naetha]

I've taken this for four months now, but had to stop.

I found it worked great - I had minimal side effects (squidgy poos, nothing uncontrollable, occasionally you'd have to hold a fart in in case it was a wet one, but very very rarely). It increased my rate of weight loss by a bit, but not a huge amount.

I've had to stop because I was getting liver problems as a side effect of taking it. This is however, very rare, and I can't imagine most people would get this. (I think this is about a 1 in 1000 side effect, rather than flatulance and diarrhoea which is more like 1 in 10).

It's worth it to boost your own weight loss, but it's not cheap, so just not an option for me long term.

If you don't get bad side effects, I could see it being useful for when you do have a high fat meal. I was mainly using it when I had take aways or meals out. The rest of the time my diet was naturally low-fat anyway.

[rumpleteaser]

Thanks for responding, hope the problems with your liver are not long term. It is a bit scary. Good luck with your weight loss.

I will stick with it for a while and see what happens, I am in constant fear of farting! It does help with willpower I think - I'm actually scared of chocolate!
I've also got a Wii Fit to get into some kind of exercise routine!

Anyone else still interested in this thread and have good or bad experiences they wanna share?

[Molly499]

I've taken it in fits and starts but not with any regularity and the only issues have been wind! I have found that it helps but would be too scared to take more than two pills a day.

The best thing about it is that it makes you fear eating the naughty stuff so probably helps in that respect.

[rumpleteaser]

Yeh I'm hoping that will still work ok as I'm not taking the 3 pills a day. The prescription ones are double the strength, I can't imagine taking 3 of those a day.. yuk!

I will update weightloss after a few weeks!

[going]

Are any of you still taking this?

Have just started and would be interested to hear how you are gettting on!

[MurderMostOrrid]

Hiya all hope i can join this thread

going- i just started taking 120g Xenical/orlistat this monday past.

I am now on day 5...it was going ok, with no dodgy side effects until weds (day 3) when i ate a processed lasagna...i am still suffering for it, and the jeans i wore that day will need to go to some nuclear toxic disposal incinerator or the like lol...

Although given that i started on monday at 17st 3 and after weighing this morning am 16st 13, it seems to be doing the job...not sure if its because of the pill or because i am really watching what i eat now to avoid the expolsive diahorroea as experienced on day 3 lol.

I have to say that as a yo-yo dieter who has less than zero will power, who is intrinsically quite lazy, has an unhealthy addiction to meringue and banana splits and who has tried every diet going...i am finally hopeful!

Not because i am deluded enough to think that just carrying on with the cake, choc and chips diet i have recently been practicing and taking some 'miracle' pill will make me the Pre-preg size of 14 that i used to be overnight...i am aware no amount of fat-loss pills in the world will counteract eating fried mars bars lol- but because by taking this pill there is finally a consequence to my actions.

For so long i have just binge eaten as must as i can stuff in my hamster face, and with no mom or BF or responsible adult to rugby tackle me away from the sweets and chocolate aisle at tesco, there has never been an immediate noticable consequence...i just stick at the horrid size 20 that i am currently.

Now there is a very visable, almost immediate and disgusting consequence to the binging, and for the first time in ages, i'm actually having to take responsibility for what i eat...and if fall off the wagon...well i'm sure explosive diahorroea, oily flattulance and stomach cramps will get me right back on.

How are you finding it going xxx

p.s- sorry for the long self-indulgant waffling post lol xxx

[going]

MurderMostOrrid Are you me??? So much of what you have written could have come from me!

I haven't had any nasty side effects but from what I have read if you stick below 15 grams of fat per meal and eat nothing over 5 grams per 100 grams of fat then you should be fine. I only started on tuesday but it really has kept me away from the biscuits/cakes etc - certainly forcing me to have will power. Also it's quite important to do something like calorie counting. Orlistat (am also taking the prescription strength one) doesn't work for some people because they are still eating too much food and taking more calories than they need - it's possible to eat a very large amount of pasta, bread rice etc and over eat without the orlistat causing any symptoms.

Good to have found someone else taking it!

[MurderMostOrrid]

going - Well on the rubbish side it sucks that we have to take these pills for a kick up the bum to do what we already know we need to do but dont have the willpower to do...but on the plus side at least you know you're not alone in it and that there are others having the same struggles and experiences.

Thanks for the tips re what to eat, have actually been trying to keep to 1700 cals per day (failing dismally so far lol)but it is slowly coming down - have got it down from about 3500- yes you read it right lol- to about 2600 per day so far, i know its way too much still, but as they say "Rome wasnt build in a day" and my personal favorate "slowly, slowly, catchy monkey!" lmao

Have also been trawling the www in general to find out what foods are best and lowest fat, cos after weds the 'trial and error' method isnt working for me lol- cant think of anything worse than what happened the other day happening on a night out or at a party or something .

Also found that my doctor was really useless and didnt give me any guidance at all except to cut calories to 1500 per day and excercise more. Did you find this with yours?

I felt like saying thanks for that Dr state the obvious! If i could cut the calories that much and excercise more then i wouldnt need the bloody pills lol.

[idobelieveinfairies]

Murder-you have lost a stone in 5 days??? Have i read that right?? Gosh!

With Alli, do you have to go to the chemist and get weighed etc when you first buy it??

Since i have started watching what i eat and excercising more my appetie has decreased a lot, is there a certain number of calories you have to eat per day do you know?

[kkey21]

I used Alli whilst on a very low fat diet and exercising and never had an 'accident' but equally didn't loose any weight either! Fairly near to 'normal' weight so maybe its not as effective!

[VivaLeBeaver]

I've been taking it since Monday. Not shat myself, I'm always constipated and no change there. 1st poo in 5 days this morning (tmi).

Haven't lost any weight there so not very impressed.

[idobelieveinfairies]

The scales hate me Viva....i never get much weight loss according to them, but i know i have lost as clothes are a lot looser..i would even say i might be a clothes size down after 2 weeks. Perhaps week 3 will show a dramatic weight loss on the scales? I don't know- i am due on my period soon so i know the pounds will show up on the scales too, i put on about half a stone. I am going to keep away for a while and go with the clothes fitting better theory!

[MurderMostOrrid]

idobelieveinfairies, just had to re-read it myself to make sure i put the right thing ..."17st 3 to 16st 13 in 5 days is what i wrote, and yes thats what i've lost...although how much of that is to do with the 'lasagna incident' i dont know lol.

I'm not taking the shop bought Alli- mine was Xenical 120gm on prescription from the doctor which i believe is double the dosage of the commercial brand Alli, but yes he did have to weight me and check my BMI.

My doctor said that ideally i should cut my calorie intake to 1500, the guideline 'normal' amount being 2000 approx, but given that i have to come down from about 3500 i'm struggling to do that and just cutting it gradually, cos if i tried to do it immediately, i'd self-sabotage like i have in the past

[MurderMostOrrid]

Perhaps because i've got so much weight to lose and because my diet was so bad and high in fat initially, its working better for me? I guess a fat binding pill isnt going to be quite so effective if you already have a low fat healthy diet?

[going]

MurderMostOrrid I'd already lost about 1 stone before the dr gave me the pills. I always start well on a diet and then just give up and put it back on. This time I really wanted to do it and when I realised my motivation was disapearing and I put on 1lb I asked my gp for help. I was already following a low fat diet and going for long cycle rides - the only extra advice she gave me was to make sure my foods are low GI so I stay fuller for longer but I was already on that path too. I know what I need to do just needed some help sticking to it! My meals are generally quite healthy, it's the cake, biscuits crpisps etc that I eat between meals that are not. SHe has also refered me to a dietician but I'm not sure how long I have to wait to see her.

This book and this one are really good. All the meals are low fat and the ones I have tried taste pretty good too!

[going]

idobelieveinfairies I am going to try not to weigh myslef - the dr will weigh me at my next appointment in four weeks time. Sometimes I feel I have lost weight as my clothes are looser but the scales don't match , other times I feel like I haven't lost weight and I have! I also read that it can take a couple of weeks for the weight loss to start with Orlistat. I'm on between 1200 - 1400 calories a day and managing fine with it - I do have to record everything I eat to keep on track!

[MurderMostOrrid]

Afternoon all. How have all of your weekends gone?

I have weighed myself today and am now 16st 9.25lbs...obviously the .25 matters hugely lol.

I did have a mini-binge between saturday night and sunday afternoon - around 3500's worth in fact(probably more),including but not limited to; chinese crispy seaweed, 3 spare ribs, 4 slices prawn toast, a bag of prawn crackers, a curly wurly, full fat ranch dressing, a bacon mcroll, 1/2 large bag of cheesy dorito's, 2 chocolate choux buns, a krispy kreme donut...all washed down with what must be half a litre of vodka and diet coke!!!

Let me tell you, although you probably dont need telling, that CHINESE is a hooooge NO NO whilst taking Xenical, as is all the other junk i ate over the course of the weekend and sunday night and most of today was spent paying for it.

A hard lesson to learn, but a valuable, well needed one, to remind me that the very short frenzied deranged almost bi-polar feeling of satisfaction after a binge is very quickly replaced by the horrid discomfort the action of the Xenical brings and the feeling of stupidy, regret and deflation that comes with it. Most definately will think twice before bingeing again.

On the plus side i know that even after all the binge eating and drinking, i have fortunately, in spite of my self-sabotage, still lost weight- 3.75lbs since friday. So although i know that Xenical doesnt work for some people, it's definately working for me on both a physical and mental level.

Back to being good this week though and going to aim for between 1500 and 1700 cals per day.

Hope you're all going ok with yours xxx

[MurderMostOrrid]

Hi all- wondering if everyone is getting on okay?

So far using the orlistat i have done down to 16st from 17st 3lbs in about 2 months/10 weeks ish.

Have had a couple of 'accidents' with particularly fatty foods, but otherwise seem to be on track.

[idobelieveinfairies]

Hi murder, you are doing really well!!

I had been eating healthy and cutting down on my daily calorie count and doing lots of walking for 2 weeks..and then came half term..and lots of birthdays with party food and cake, so it all went downhill. But back to healthy eating again (but been slack on the excercise).

I was amazed to see i had still kept of the 7lb that i had lost in the 2 weeks, and then a further 2lb off last week without the excercise. I did have a few light Red Bulls though, i wonder if this is why!?!

Been good this week so far too! Down a jean size too. It all seems tobe disappearing from my tummy, and i need to lose it from my chest and back more!!!!..Ahh well never mind.

[JessHelicopter]

Hello! know this is a super old thread but actually i wanted to know if anyone (who was taking it) kept the weight off or lasted long term with the orlistat? i've just started taking it and am terrified of the side effects. i am on weight watchers pro points but both today and yesterday i've had to go over my points with carbs just to stop the low blood sugar dizziness. :/ i guess that evens out at some point....? has anyone had an "accident" eating less 15g fat (or less) in one go?

[vivianwestwood]

Alli is a horrible product. I only lost a small amount of weight, and even then, the stomach discomfort was not even close to worth it. There are much better alternatives out there. I switched over to the Lady Soma Detox and started dropping weight like crazy..and my stomach feels much better. Alli is a joke.