The Bottom Line: The Alli Diet Plan is a fat-blocking pill which, when used in conjunction with a low-fat and low-calorie diet, can assist in weight loss with minimal treatment effects.
Staceys1's Full Review: Alli 60 Capsules Starter Kit Weight Loss Aid, 60 C...
Like many people today, I have been on a quest to lose weight. There are diet books, pills, and groups to join, as well as diets that suggest cutting some foods (fats, carbohydrates, etc.) out of your diet completely. Up until this point, I have not been very successful with my weight loss goal, probably because like many other people I get bored eating a limited diet or because I am not always eating at home so that even when I think I am eating a low-calorie or low-fat meal, I really do not know what a restaurant is serving me.
In the Spring of 2007, GlaxoSmithKline began selling Alli™, the first FDA-approved over the counter weight loss pill. Even before the pill was available in stores, I saw television, magazine and internet advertisements for it, all of which directed you to their website at www.myalli.com which fully explains how it works and encourages you to take the "Alli Weight Loss Readiness Quiz."
Alli™ is designed to assist you in losing weight, but it is not a magic pill and users need to take an active role by eating low-calorie and low-fat, taking a mulitvitamin, exercising and using their website to keep yourself motivated and on track.
You may say that if a person can eat a low-calorie, low-fat diet, and exercises on a regular basis, that person should not require the use of a diet pill. From personal experience, I know this not to be true. My metabolism and chemical make-up of my body make it very difficult for me to lose weight. Yes, I will lose weight if I drastically cut calories to under 1000 per day (which is unhealthy), but the repercussion of severe headaches is not worth it even for a few days.
Alli™ assists with weight loss by blocking absorption of up to 25% of the excess fat that you might consume at a meal by its active ingredient, Orlistat. By blocking it, it does not get absorbed into your system, but it has to go somewhere, which is described as a "treatment effect." Treatment effects can be quite unpleasant and are described as "gas with oily spotting, loose stools, and more frequent stools that may be hard to control." Throughout the literature that accompanies this pill, this excess fat that passes through the body is likened to the orangey oil that can be seen on top of pizza. For this reason it is suggested that you plan to begin the Alli™ diet plan over a weekend or when you can be home and close to a bathroom for the first few days.
Treatment effects will occur at different times for different people. The literature suggests that if you eat a meal high in fat, you will see those effects 24-48 hours later. A few weeks ago, I took a pill with a higher fat meal on a Sunday afternoon, and then, since I was going on vacation, stopped taking the pills. More than seventy-two hours after I took the pill, I saw minor treatment effects. The Alli™ website has a message board area where users can compare stories and support each other, and others have reported having treatment effects the same day as they over-indulged in fat. If you decided to begin this weight loss program, I strongly suggest that you stay close to home (or a familiar bathroom) until you know how it will affect you personally. While the treatment effects are a bit unpleasant, I did not experience any stomach pain associated with them.
The one good thing about the threat of a treatment effect is that when I am taking the pill, I do think twice about the fat grams that I am ingesting. Also, the last time we were at a pizzeria, I just could not bring myself to eat a slice of pizza, since the oil on top just reminded me too much of the treatment effects.
To begin this diet, definitely purchase an Alli™ Starter Pack, which comes with a "shuttle" (a plastic case for three pills to carry with you), and various informational booklets such as a guidebook, calorie and fat counter, a daily journal and a healthy eating guide. It also gives you a code to enter online to allow you access to message boards, journals, personalized menus, recipes and an eating out guide.
My personal menu is based on 1800 calories per day and is broken down as such:
Breakfast 400 calories / 12 grams of fat
Lunch 600 calories / 18 grams of fat
Snack #1 calories 100 / 3 grams of fat
Dinner 600 calories / 18 grams of fat
Snack #2 100 calories / 3 grams of fat
Taking an Alli pill with each of the three main meals will block one quarter, or 12 grams of the fat that eaten, so that while 48 grams of fat are being put into my mouth, only 36 are being digested. Unlike other diets with "point programs" fat grams cannot be carried over from one meal to the next as each pill is designed to work only with the meal that is is taken with. While the pill should be taken with each meal, if you forget, you can still benefit provided it is taken within one hour of eating. Additionally, no more than three pills should be taken per day.
The price of Alli™ can depend on where you purchase it. My local warehouse store has a Starter Pack with 150 pills for $69.99, while local drugstores charge that price for 90 pills. The dosage is three pills per day, one with each meal containing fat, so that 90 pills should last for one month or more. If you are having a meal that has a low fat content, such as breakfast of low-fat (or no fat) yogurt, fruit and a low fat granola bar, you may want to skip taking the pill. I had a day where I just was not very hungry so I had a meal-replacement bar, which had a low fat count, for both breakfast and lunch, and I took the Alli™ pill each time. Later that afternoon, I had a pain in my stomach, which I attributed to the fact that there was not much fat for the pills to work on.
In the past I had some weight loss success with the Atkins diet (no carbs), and then with the South Beach diet (limited carbs). Those was fairly easy to stick to while there were foods commercially available that had few carbohydrates in them, such as ice cream. As the craze wore off, these items have been harder and harder to come by in my local stores, and even ordering them online or from a catalog began to be very difficult.
With this plan, you are not completely cutting out fat, but are encouraged to limit the percent of fat that you eat. Suggested menus are included in the Starter Pack's Healthy Eating Guide, but I found that The Alli Diet Plan book (sold separately)gave me additional information and a large variety of healthy recipes to choose from.
Other than treatment effect, I have had to side effects from using the Alli™ diet pill. I really cannot blame the pill for the treatment effects since I do not get them if I limit my fat intake. My husband has begun this plan as well and has seen results, with minimal treatment effects.
While the pills do their job in blocking fat, the idea of taking one with each meal is a constant reminder to watch the food that I am eating. Also, with the threat of a "treament effect" hanging over my head, I am more likely to eat healthier and less apt to eat some type of greasy fast food while I am out somewhere like a Little League field and do not have access to a clean bathroom.
So, did Alli™ work for me? Yes . . .when I stuck with the plan. In my first week of taking the pill, I watched my calorie and fat intake, and experienced some treatment effects, but lost 3 pounds. Then I went on vacation and chose to not take the pills and enjoy myself. The next week I followed the plan and took the pill and lost 2 pounds. I would recommend this plan to anybody who needs some help losing weight - just be sure you know where the closest bathroom is!
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Check with your doctor before beginning the Alli™ diet plan. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding and people who have had organ transplants, gallbladder problems, kidney stones, pancreatitis, or certain allergies should not take this pill. For more information about the specifics of this weight loss aid, vist www.myalli.com)
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