Alli and Orlistat

Slimming tablet Alli and Slimming tablet Orlistat, we tell you about Alli and Orlistat, over the counter Alli and prescription Orlistat both slimming tablets.

The slimming tablet Alli is the same as Orlistat but half the strength and will be marketed by GlaxoSmithKline in Britain, it is a 60mg capsule and contains orlistat which prevents your body from absorbing fat from the food that you eat. Orlistat on the other hand is prescription only and is used by doctors to treat obese patients.

Alli has been on sale in the US since June 2007 and will be available in Britain in 2009, the manufacturers say that you can lose up to half as much weight again than by just dieting but independent tests showed that this was only true of obese people although those who were just overweight still benefited from taking the tablets to a lesser degree but (and this is very important) you must follow a strict low fat diet otherwise you will get very bad diarrhoea (all that fat’s got to go somewhere).

John Clarke president of GalaxoSmithKline consumer healthcare is quoted as saying ‘we want to see people achieving a gradual and sustained weight loss by using Alli in tandem with healthy eating, a low-fat diet and increased exercise. We have said all along that this is not a magic pill, if people are looking for a quick fix pill this is not it, but it is a powerful motivator’

Alli cuts down the amount of fat absorbed by your body by around a third but this also means that you only get one third of the vitamins absorbed from your food because many of them are fat soluable, another side effect is ‘oily stools’ because the fat which is not absorbed by your body passes straight through you (which is why you stick to a low fat diet).

GalaxoSmithKline have applied for a licence to sell Alli over the counter in all of the 27 European member states and this is being reviewed by the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) this has now been approved for sale in the UK.

Possible Side Effects

  * loose stools

  * too frequent stools

  * uncontrollable bowel movements

  * gas with an oily discharge