Orlistat (Xenicol) > Reviews (7)

You may just want to try this. Orlistat has been proclaimed as a wonder drug for us Slimming World and Weight Watchers rejects. Its about time to if you ask me – smokers have had more than enough assistance from drug companies with patches and those daft plastic inhaler things.

I got to the desperation stage where I have been on and tried nearly every diet except the Carol Vorderman one (very strict to say the least but some people I know have tried it and its effective).

The internet came in very useful, because I was worried about what this drug was and the side effects - even though I work in the NHS and could have asked a pharmacist (but some things you don’t want everyone to know about). I don’t mind Ciaoer’s knowing about it though because a lot of people may be wondering about it and how effective it is. I printed off some reports from the net and the medical journals and they all seemed very promising.

The price on the internet for anyone rich enough to pay for it themselves without going to their GP is - wait for it £145 for a months supply (unless I misread the websites and it was 2 months supply – but either way a hell of a lot of money). The NHS prescription for once seems cheap at half the price ... £6.10 for a months supply.

Finally, gathering all my courage, I went to the GP. She was fine – there are some criteria they follow, you have to need to loose a certain amount of weight which is actually variable and its all worked out on the body mass calculation – but really think it may be people who need to loose 3 –4 stones or more. You need to have lost 5lbs in weight in the run up to being prescribed it – don’t ask me why you need to have done this, I don’t know.

You also need to follow a low fat diet whilst taking the drug.

How it works

You take a pill 3 times a day either just before food or within an hour of eating your food.

The Orlistat stops around 30% of fat being digested from the meal you’ve eaten. The fat therefore doesn’t enter your bloodstream and do its damage. It does say however that if you have had a meal with no fat in it you wouldn't need to take a pill for that meal.

Where does the fat go? Can’t think of a nice way of putting it but it isn't digested by the body and goes in its undigested form into your bowel you can guess the rest.

Side effects

Again this bit will tackle certain areas that we don’t mention in public – but you need to know!

If you have too much fat in the diet it can cause according to the instructions stomach ache and maybe diahorrea. Hence why you stick to a low fat diet.

It says stools may become oily and you may visit the toilet more often and some leakage may occur – (I did think oooeeerrrr at this one). My experiences of it

I’ve been taking it for a week now – so think will have to update this opinion often. I’ve followed the low fat diet with no problem at all. I’ve not cut down on food consumption in any way but have been looking at all the labels and sticking to buying food with 4g fat or less per 100g of the food and have still had the odd bag of Walkers French Fries or Crunchies so haven’t deprived myself of anything. The one type of food I’ve steered clear from is anything from the chippy, pizzas or donner kebabs or really greasy foods. At last count I’d lost 5lbs.

Also I haven’t suffered from any of the more unpleasant side effects either. I wouldn’t like to put it to the test though.

Hopefully by the end of 6 months I’ll be a lot happier and maybe Orlistat will be licensed for longer use. The medical trials were carried out over two years with quite good results.