Hi Rheannan
Thank you for your recent feedback, we love to hear from all of our customers and how we can improve our service and range of treatments.
Orlistat is one of our very popular products, scoring 4.7 out of 5 from 600 reviews - with many patients experiencing excellent results.
I wanted to let you know that Orlistat works by decreasing the amount of fat from your diet that your body absorbs, this 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, when combined with a weight-reducing diet and exercise, this equates to about 1kg in a month if you are 75kg, so it is still a slow process and I can see that this is your first order that was placed approximately 1 month ago.
Orlistat also 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.
Should your diet not be particularly high in fat, your weight loss may be slower than someone with a particularly high-fat diet.
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 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.
Hi Julie
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Firstly I am very sorry to hear that you have experienced this when taking Orlistat and wanted to apologise for any discomfort caused.
I called you earlier this morning to discuss this with you but unfortunately was unable to reach you and left a voicemail with my details.
This is certainly a very unusual reaction to this treatment which is usually very well tolerated. We care about all of our patients health and wellbeing and want to help you, especially as this is the first that we have heard of your experience.
Given the nature of your comments, our clinical lead would like to review your symptoms and help by providing you with some personalised advice on what we do next. Our support team have contacted you directly to find out more and will help work with you to resolve this satisfactorily.
