Weight loss tablets and leakage

[Nospringflower]

A friend of mine is planning to start taking weight loss tabs tomorrow and is coming to mine to babysit on Tuesday and make our tea while she is here for me coming back. Don't know if she is right but we were thinking that as long as you avoid fatty foods you avoid the problems with diarrhoea and 'leaking' - is that correct?
And, do avocados and so called good fats have the same effect? Trying to think of what we can have for tea. Thanks.

Yes, sticking to a low fat diet will avoid those side effects (I take it you're talking about Alli).

Any fat will do it, 'good' or 'bad'. 'Low fat' foods are fine.

Which pills are they? I assume you mean the Orlistat/Xenical/Ali kind of thing as they are the ones that block fat absorbtion and have the leaky side-affects! Avoiding fatty foods avoids the problems- and my gosh the gas can be horrendous- which means that avoiding fatty foods actually becomes a side-affect too- do it once, realise the ramifications, don't do it again! By Tues she may well have worked it all out and turn down any fatty food there just in case!

They are orlistat-xenical if that makes sense as a type. Thats great that it works as long as you avoid fat - when I told my mum she thought it was a general side effect and said she had read about it in mags and people needing to wear pads etc. Just wondering what you mean Scarf about avoiding fatty foods becoming a side-effect? I really want to support her with this as she has had them a month and hasnt taken them because of worrying about the side effects.

i just mean, if you are on the tablets and really fancy something fatty- choc bar, crisps etc- the knowledge of being on the pills stops you eating. They help with the fat you do eat, but knowing any fat will give you gassy ass, leaky badness and TBH your poo changes, it stops you eating the bad things. So the pills don't need to work on the bad food- you never ate it! But you may have eaten it if not for the pills. Does that even make sense?

I wasn't on them for long, I found a different low fat diet and am doing well, but I do know they changed some of my eating choices. If you eat sensibly they don't need to work, they don't have enough fat to work on. In fact the packaging states that if you have a very low fat meal they won't do anything, and taking two does nothing extra at all. the side affects ONLY kick in if you eat too much fat! No side affects if you eat sensibly. If you take them thinking 'hurrah, cake for breakfast and I won't gain weight!' well then yes, you won't absorb all of the cake-fat but you will suffer! Take them thinking 'I'll have a nice low-fat, low-gi meal' (I love low-gi!) and no side affects!

Thanks for that - it makes sense. I think that will be the main benefit - she has tried lots of things but doesn't have the willpower not to eat fatty things whereas this will give her the willpower. I hadn't really thought of the other thing about it stopping you absorb the fat you do eat . So it sounds like if I got fish with vegetables/salad for yea that would be fine then . Easy!

Yup, really helps the will-power when you actually have immediate consequences rather than a vague 'I'll gain weight/ stop losing'!

So basically this stuff is the fat person equivalent of prescribing an alcoholic antibiotics that make you feel really sick if you drink alcohol. This would be great if it was fat that makes you fat rather than carbs. I've been low carbing for a while and it's the easiest diet to stick to ever. The last month or two I've had a really big appetite due to medication which has made me eat about 3,000 calories a day and be too tired to do any exercise. According to the 3,500 excess calories in equals one pound of fat theory I should have gained about a stone in that time but my weight stayed exactly the same. I know if I'd been eating that many calories including carbohydrates I would have put that much weight on because I have put weight on that quickly in the past.

No, nothing like that at all. the tablets inhibit the absorbtion of fat- use them correctly, there are no side effects at all. You pass out a percentage of the dietary fat instead of absorbing it. The side effects only kick in when you cheat, eat too much. The pills aren't a fix, they are a help alongside a healthy diet- thats the most important thing, else it's like... I don't know, taking nicotene replacement stuff while still smoking the same amount. Won't help you at all! The fact that the knowledge of the side effects help you stay on track is a bonus, not at all the intended outcome of the pills.

I took the pills for a while as they were prescribed, I was told by the GP that I could either use them as intended or to take if I went awry in my healthy dieting plan. As it is, I found a better plan for me and when I get to my goal or closer anyway I will hopefully be using a low carb lifestyle as my maintenance.