“These tablets made my stomach bloat and didn’t really serve any purpose beyond that. My diet is really good so wasn’t concerned about that but I had begun to gain weight so wanted to shift a few pounds. If you are on a healthy eating diet I can’t see these tablets working as they didn’t for me. Thankfully I only purchased one month supply. Maybe if your diet consists of more fatty in take then you might have better results. But the bloating was very uncomfortable and has taken a few weeks to recover from. Would not recommend.”
Hi Donna,
Thank you for your recent feedback, we love to hear from all of our customers to learn how we can improve our service and range of treatments.
I wanted to let you know that Orlistat works by decreasing the amount of fat from your diet that your body absorbs, which in turn helps with reducing overall calories and aids weight loss.
The expected weight loss is about 10% of your overall weight over 6 months, and when combined with a weight-reducing diet and exercise, this equates to about 1kg in a month, so it is still a slow process and I can see that this is your first order that was received approximately 3 weeks ago.
Should your diet not be particularly high in fat, your weight loss may be slower than someone with a particularly high-fat diet and it is also important for me to note that Orlistat has no effect on other sources of calories, such as carbohydrates, sugars, and alcohol, so make sure you are aware of how many calories you are eating from other sources as well.
One reason why Orlistat may not work is that you may think that you can relax your weight-reducing diet, and the Orlistat will 'do it all'. This is not true. In order to lose weight you still have to eat less and exercise regularly. Orlistat prevents only some of the fat that you eat from being absorbed (just under a third) - if you do not keep to a healthy weight-reducing diet, and you eat more fat (chocolates, cakes, etc), the extra fat that you eat will easily cancel out the effect of the Orlistat.
As with any weight loss treatment, this should always be used in conjunction with a considered exercise programme alongside a healthy diet that considers the main food groups alongside calorie control.
The NHS have a superb guide on how to eat well which you can find out more about here; https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/
Otherwise, we have a guide (https://www.theindependentpharmacy.co.uk/weight-loss/guides/orlistat-diet-plan) which you can read on healthy eating, and also an entire section of advice on weight loss that you are welcome to read https://www.theindependentpharmacy.co.uk/weight-loss#Advice.
We would always advocate using one weight loss program at a time, and build this into a healthy diet with an appropriate amount of exercise.
I do hope that this reassures you that this medication will help you achieve your weight loss goal over time however our support team have contacted you directly to give you a little more advice and direct you to other products which you may find useful.
