“I think they would work for losing weight but the side effects are not worth it (in my opinion). I only took them for five days and my digestive system is still not back to normal nearly 2 weeks after stopping them. Read the leaflet and be prepared.”
Hi Nina
Thank you for leaving your review regarding this product, we love to hear from all of our patients so that we can improve how we provide treatments for all.
It is lovely to see you join our pharmacy and to hear from you on your first order.
Orlistat has no direct effect on the amount of fat in your body but instead works to reduce the amount of fat absorbed from your diet, which over the longer term can help to decrease body fat.
Orlistat binds to enzymes, known as lipases, that occur in your intestine and break down dietary fat into smaller molecules that can be absorbed. By blocking this process, Orlistat helps to prevent some dietary fat from being absorbed that is instead passed out when you have a bowel movement.
The side effects that you refer to are most common at the start of treatment and are most likely to occur after eating a high-fat meal. By restricting your intake of dietary fat to less than 15g per main meal you will decrease the chances of these side effects.
The more of your diet contains fat, the more that is excreted and is a sign of an imbalanced diet.
However, this is essential for taking a long-term and sustained approach to your weight loss journey, which Orlistat is an excellent tool for assisting with.
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 for someone who weighs 75kg.
For optimal results; Orlisat can be taken up to three times daily every day, seven days a week, with or up to one hour after each main meal.
You should take Orlistat with meals containing between 1g - 15g of fat
I did want to note that you should skip taking Orlistat if you:
Eat a meal that is fat-free (such as a salad without dressing)
Skip a meal
Eat a meal with over 15g of fat
For many people, the gastrointestinal side effects of Orlistat mean that if they occasionally want to break their diet and indulge, it is better to skip their dose and not have any adverse consequences
Here are some links that give some inspiration on the ways to build a healthy diet and introduce sustained exercise as the NHS has a wealth of knowledge on their Eat Well platform (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/) and also some useful inspiration for keeping active (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/)
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.
