to think you must be mad to take weight loss pills 'Alli'

[mamamea]

You may have seen these. Boots were doing a free go on their weighing machine. Big display of pills adjacent. Also lots of TV advertising featuring somewhat overweight woman jumping for joy. Loadsamoney to be made via these things clearly.

Basically the pills make you shit yourself. Oh and you might lose a little more weight than normal. By means of excreting oily shit. And they cost £55/month.

Some samples:

I Can't Believe I Just All Over Myself!

take alli? get ready for a shit fest!

lol, particularly when yo ucan get something that is slightly stronger, for the price of a prescription.

that stronger stuff sounds delightful: www.topix.com/forum/drug/xenical/TI0BO8Q27S1R7T0FV

mama, these sort of drugs are just a bad bad abad idea. much better to try to lose wieht in a healthy way, with balanced diet, and excercise.

That second link is the funniest thing I've read in a long long time. Thank you for making my day.

You only shit yourself if you eat too much fat, or are too stupid to realise that you are eating too much fat.

These pills teach you how to eat in a healthy way by making you really look at what you are eating and how much and learning what is in your food food - which you obviously have not been doing if you have let yourself get fat.

Used properly they are excellent.

Agree with mrsboogie.

I think you'd have to be desperate to buy these pills BUT a lot of overweight people are desperate to lose weight.

If losing weight with healthy diet / exercise was that easy, there wouldn't be so many overweight people. I'm not saying these tablets are the solution though, but I can understand why people would take them.

When I finally got a Doctor to agree that I was coeliac and stopped eating gluten I stopped having what they kept telling me was IBS.

Now when I smell toast and butter I am not remotely tempted to eat it because of the knowledge of what would happen (basically the same as if you take Xenical). So I can imagine that this would help you to know if you had overdone the fat it would set up a bad association so you don't do it again.

Not shitting myself is a far stronger motivator than a doctor telling me I am doing damage to myself.

Not shitting yourself is indeed a very strong motivator - much stronger than the lure of chocolate or cake or whatever. It helps to break the bad habits because after while even when you haven't taken the pills you're still not really tempted...

I know someone who is on the prescription version of these and she was told by her doctor that she would lose minimum %5 of her bodyweight every month.

So far she hasn't had any of the side effects but that's because she is sh1t scared to eat any fat!! (scuse the pun)

By the way, that second link was hilarious!!

YANBU Taking pills to loose weight is never the answer, I think the claims of helping to re-educate people regards what they should and shouldn't eat are bollocks. You can re-educate yourself simply by reading the ample information out there about healthy eating and then apply those principles to your diet - shouldn't take being scared to crap your pants to make you switch! Yes, eating well and taking exercise can be difficult after a lifetime of over eating but it doesn't mean that this is the answer.

I'm sure that Boots will make a bomb selling this stuff though.

YANBU. What an unpleasant way of supplying motivation.

They can only be sold to people who have a BMI over/under a certain amount. I can't remember specifically how much

Saltire: not very high. Only 28. Anything 18.5-25 is normal, over 30 is obese

YABU - if someone shits themselves it is their own fault! They are not following the diet correctly.

You must maintain a low fat diet and you will have no problems. Anyone who claims that they have done so and still shit themselves is lying.

don't eat high fat foods and you won't have a problem - and you will loose weight faster than with a low fat diet alone.

The threat of a horrible accident in your pants is horribe motivation but clearly "nice" types of motivatation (like looking and feeling better) doesn't work for some people or no -one would be fat.

If you use it properly it absolutely does educate you about eating. I am a reasonably intelligent person who has been trying to lose weight for ages - a yoyo dieter basically. I ate very healthy food but clearly too much of it and was prone to feeling sorry for myself after a few weeks on a diet and would put whatever few pounds I had lost back on in a weekend.

I have been on Xenical for a month, have never had an accident or any side effect and have never had to go hungry. I just have to eat low fat foods and I have broken the habits of having treats and rewards especialy at the weekend. It has shown me that I was fooling myself about how much I was eating before. I have lost nearly a stone in weight which I have not been able to do before despite all my previous efforts and if it carries on it will probably prevent me from developing diabetes as I am high risk.

They give alcoholics something that reacts with alcohol, using your argument bellebelle it should be easier to use willpower alone for alcohol because it's more cut and dried to have none of something.

People like my mum have no idea how much fat is in something, she assumes because a biscuit is "dry" it doesn't have a lot of fat in it. If she had an accident she would learn.

i'm on Xenical and apart from 2 very very very very minor incidents of rectal leakage when farting I have had no probs . YOU ONLY SHIT YOYRSELF IF YOU EAT HIGH FAT FOODS.

Sorry to shout but people think you take the pills and spend the whole day shitting orange fat.

It is meant to sicourage excessive eating of high fat food. I have stuck to low fat and haven't had problems

Liquorice does this too As I discovered once.

Message withdrawn

I don't think you have to be mad, but I think you do have to be quite desperate.

It's not much fun being fat and being treated like a second class citizen

You are correct I think pitchounette it has certainly had an effect on my thinking - instead of feeling deprived because I can't stuff my face with cakes like my work colleagues I feel focussed and glad that I am able to eat without having any accidents.

But people are very misinformed about these drugs - I have seen comments from people saying that it "didn't work unless they ate a spag bol" or whatever and people seem to think it is a mechamisM, for ridding yourself of loads of fat. It isn't. The "punishment factor" is the point of it IMO.

These pills teach you how to eat in a healthy way by making you really look at what you are eating and how much and learning what is in your food food

• which you obviously have not been doing if you have let yourself get fat.

There are ample books/websites out there that do exactly this though. You can educate yourself without needing to take medication to do so.

The true answer is that there is no quick fix, and that it is a lot harder to lose weight than to gain it. But it is not impossible to lose weight without the means of pills.

Neat, huh? No wonder it?s selling so well. That large sector of the public that enjoy having their pants filled with liquefied shit has been seriously under-catered to up until now.

I laughed so much at this one