anyone taking alli?

Yes, but only cos you're afraid to eat anything in case you fart and poo liquid fat everywhere!

Fair enough - does it come with a diet?

It does yes.

You'll be weighed by the pharmacist who'll discuss it's suitability with you. I know lots of people who it's worked fantastically for (well, xenical the prescription version) but at Totty says, it's not for everyone.

I've been taking it for a week, i've not actually managed to weigh myself yet but I've eaten a low fat diet and I think that I must have lost a little. I completely agree with Dave! There is a forum on the Alli website that makes interesting reading.

I had a friend who was on the prescription version, she was too scared to go anywhere incase of leakage. You seem to have to be very strict with your diet.

I bought it the day I started Slimming World, so the pharmacist told me just to follow that diet. I've not had any side effects and I have lost a stone in 6 weeks.

Having said that, I hardly ever take it. The pharmacist said it was a waste of money to take it unless you were eating fat with that meal and, on a low fat diet, I find that's actually quite rare. I take it when I have eaten cheese, but only a few times a week. It strikes me that if you're actually on a low fat diet it's pretty pointless.

I thought it expelled fat so you could lose more than usual on a low fat diet? My friend is taking it and was told that it grabs onto the fat cells and expels them- so in a low fat diet it will grab onto the small amount and expel it through your normal bowel movements. If you eat more fat, it can't do this and just pushes it out wherever it can (which is why she had lard leakage after a pizza) it's supposed to be used with a low fat diet, to help you lose more.

I don't think there any doubt it works- isn't it a lite version of the prescription drug prescibed to people who are morbidly obese?

It's meant to help you lose 50% more than you normally would, so a 2lb loss would become a 3lb loss. I'm seriously tempted and have been looking at it online this morning.

I've been following a fairly low fat diet recently and would happily take any help I can get to lose a bit more.

It's fairly pricey though isn't it? £60+ for a month's worth?

I got it last week from Tesco's. It cost me £40 but I think that it was on special offer, think that its normally about £46. I've not had any adverse effects at all but I do stick to a low fat diet and don't eat any meat.

Well, that IS how it works and, if you get it on prescription, they maybe you would just take it at every meal. But if you're paying £50 per month, how much fat is there in All Bran and fruit? Or jacket potato and beans? 50% of nothing is nothing....

I think if you need it because you are morbidly obese, you really need the stronger version that can only be prescribed. However it's entirely possible that my pharmacist and I are both highly cynical...

Clairy, if you're THAT cynical then why on earth did you buy it in the first place?

WSunS. As I mentioned, morbidly obese people are prescribed the stronger version, and have been for years. Not sure why a pharmacist would be cynical of a prescription medicine, s/he should know how rigeriously it needs to be tested.

I think its a bit strange to stick to a low fat diet then take it when you want something high fat TBH, it seems to be totally against the way the product works. Maybe it doesn't work in those circumstances.

I can sort of see your reasoning Clairy of making your supply of tablets last longer for budget issues if it can be used in a way that you can tag it to a meal e.g. taking it with/just after cheese means it deals with the cheese fat. While 50% of nothing is nothing a low fat doesn't mean no fat as low fat food doesn't mean no fat either. If you were going to eat a no fat diet then there'd be no need for it at all presumably.

I wasn't cynical until I started taking it ?

It's just that if there's no point in taking it when you've eaten very little fat (which makes sense, there will be no fat for it to 'stick' to, so it'll just pass through your system inertly) if you're on a low fat diet then there are fewer chances for you to take it.

I'd appreciate a different perspective though, if it means I will lose weight quicker.

I may be wrong and, believe me, I would like it to work well as it would be a great help. The way the patient leaflet says it works though is that it physically 'sticks' to fat cells and makes some of them pass through undigested, hence the side effects. So I don't think it works like other diet medication as it doesn't get digested by the body. It seems logical to me that if you don't eat much fat it can't work as well.

The diet you suggest above isn't what I do at all: I don't use Alli to enable me to get away with high fat food. But, with the exception of cheese and meat (assuming you haven't trimmed the fat) then my diet does indeed include little fat (although lots of carbs, but I don't believe it helps with those).

Again, I would love to be proven wrong. It just doesn't seem to make sense in the way I thought it would.

Great if you can do it Clairy, but the majority of people will find it hard to stick to a diet that is almost entirely fat-free for any length of time.

So I'd imagine the drug works in the sense that while you're restricting your calories you will still be eating some fat and the drug is restricting absorption of that.

If you say low-fat is 5% or less of calories per item of food, and the drug works on that, that's still a significant proportion of calories over time that you're not taking it.

Too be honest, I do find it hard to see why anyone who isn't at immediate risk of health problems would want to take it?

I'm not trying to be rude, I really mean, personally I can not grasp it, it doesn't mean its wrong

For me, loosing weight is part of a life style change, which means, although on the whole I am eating loads less fat in my diet, there are the times when I want a meal out, or a nice takeaway.

In the last 9 months I have lost 4 stone, still have 3-4 stone to loose, and it is coming off around 1.5lbs a week on average, sometimes more, sometimes less.

If I had taken these tablets, I wouldn't be able to enjoy my odd chinese takeaway, or a nice leggara pizza from pizza express etc, without worrying about the side effects, so to me it doesn't compute why anyone would want to use them if they aren't at immediate risk and they can loose weight using a normal change in lifestyle, could someone who has done it shed some light on it for me, so I don't carry on taking such a, well, ignorant view

I apologise if I am coming over as critical, that's not my intention at all, I am just knackered. I would love it to work. I am no angel or evangelist about dieting, I was just saying that I was confused about how helpful it actually was. Not that I thought it was rubbish.

Oh I know what I mean. I hope I haven't made anyone feel bad.

Am I getting this right - it grabs onto the fat and you *** it straight through, undigested, and therefore lose weight? But then you are forced to eat a low fat diet or you *** yourself? Is this how it works?

I prefer being half a stone lighter than I am currently, but I'm not sure this kind of thing is for me ?

I *think* if you are eating a low fat diet it absorbs the fat through your normal digestive output, however if you have anything "too" fatty it can't do that, so it can leak out, nice eh

There is no point in taking Ali if your diet is very low fat & in fact you do need some fat for it to work. If your diet is too low in fat & you take it you will not be getting the fat your body needs to function.

Basically your weight & fitness level set the calorie and fat levels they want you to achieve for each meal. It is in the starter guide that can be found on the website.

http://www.alli.co.uk/firstteam/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=1244 explains how it works and why you need to reach fat goals.

It is worth looking on the website for anyone considering it to help you make your mind up either way. I know my nurse wishes they could prescibe Alli as it is half the strength of the prescription drug.

What shiny said!

I'm in two minds about the lifestyle changes argument. Yes, in a ideal world we would do that. But clearly people don't as the nation is just getting fatter and fatter. in fact, if it were that easy there wouldn't be any weight to lose. This will help you lose weight- faster than you would by diet and exercise alone. I think this is a kind of half way lifestyle change- you should be eating low fat for it to work so if you continue doing that how much more lifestyle change can you make?

I wonder if its healthier to be on something like this for life rather than obese? I mean finance aside.

Mind you the friend I refer to plays sports at a high level and is probably only obese in the way Rugby players are. She does have an extremley bizarre attitude to food though.

I'm not sure I'd want to take it as I've heard it doesn't discriminate between good fats and bad fats and just sweeps them all through!

There's a world of difference between eating 20g of saturated fats and 20g of Omega 3 fats. Because I've got very dry skin I need all the essential fats I can get.

However it is the idea of orange leakage that completely puts me off!

I've been tempted by it, especially as I'm supposed to cut out pretty much all the fat from my diet because of the problems I have with gallstones. I only knew bits and pieces about how it worked so I thought it might help with my gallstones because there would be less fat, so my gallbladder would spasm less and therefore they'd be less pain but in fact, if you're prone to forming them like me then it can actually increase the number of gallstones you "make" which is only going to mean more pain!

So that's something to watch out for too.

Hyacinth-I see your argument, but it is highly unlikely that someone would stay on a non prescription pill for life, and therefore, if they haven't changed their mindset and lifestyle, they will pile the pounds back on anyway, and doing that a few times can be quite bad for your health

Rather than throwing pills at people they need to get to the root cause as to why people are overweight and sort that

Yes of course, to stay slim anyone has to maintain a balance between diet and exercise.

What I think Alli and similar treatments offer is a faster weight loss than can be achieved on a low-fat diet alone. But as others have explained, if you don't follow a low-fat diet while taking it, you will have dire consequences, so you are reforming your eating habits while you're taking it. It's not like say the Cambridge diet where you are losing weight fast and then have to learn how to eat healthily, which I think is much less likely to result in long-term weight stability.

I don't think anyone would suggest remaining on it as a way of maintaing weight.

I don't think it's something I would ever take but I can see why some people will find the faster weightloss attractive, especially if they have a lot to lose - and faster to your healthy weight is no bad thing - and find the risk of side affects an extra boost for maintaining their low-fat diet.