Alli Diet Pills

“Alli” is the new buzzword in America. On June 15, Alli became the first FDA-approved diet pill that’s available without a prescription. Despite its high price tag, uncomfortable side effects, and small potential benefits, it’s been flying off the shelves Dieters are eager to try Alli, but is it right for you? Here’s my take.

What is Alli?

Alli is a less potent version of the prescription diet pill, Xenical (orlistat). At half the dosage of the prescription version, experts feel that its potential for abuse and overall risk is low enough to be safe for over-the-counter use. You can expect to pay between $50 and $60 for a 30-day supply of Alli, which can be bought in supermarkets, drug stores, and even online.

How Does Alli Work?

Put simply, Alli is a fat-blocker. You take a pill with each meal. The main ingredient in the pill binds with the digestive enzymes that would normally break down fat from the meal that you consumed. But because Alli attaches to these enzymes, it prevents them from digesting about 1/4 of the fat you just ate, allowing it to pass through the digestive system and out of the body, undigested and unabsorbed. Overall, fewer calories from dietary fat are stored as actual body fat.

Sounds easy, right? There’s more to it than that. Alli isn’t a magic weight loss pill, and its makers don’t claim that it is. They are adamant that daily exercise, a reduced-calorie diet, and a specific diet plan that limits the amount of fat you eat accompany the use of Alli. If you overeat on carbohydrates, protein and/or fat, you will not lose weight by taking Alli.

If you eat more fat than recommended in a single meal (15 grams or less), you’ll experience some pretty embarrassing and serious side effects (see Pros & Cons below), and still might not lose weight by taking Alli. Just like any old weight loss plan, it involves counting and cutting calories, reading food labels, limiting high-fat foods, and exercising regularly. It takes will power, determination and consistency to see results.

What the Research Shows

Modest Results. Studies conducted by the company show that when using the Alli program (pills, diet and exercise) correctly, individuals can lose up to 50% more weight than dieting alone. They compared the Alli program with dieting only (not with dieting AND exercising), so it’s hard to say whether these results come from Alli, the exercise component, or a combination of both.

While 50% more weight sounds like a lot—here’s an example. If you used the Alli program, you could lose 15 pounds instead of 10 pounds in the same amount of time. These results aren’t that dramatic—especially since you have to diet and exercise for it to work. In another study, dieters using the Alli program only lost three more pounds over the course of an entire year than people who dieted and exercised without taking the pill.

Short-Term Benefits.

The modest benefits of Alli aren’t likely to last in the long-term. Alli is marketed for short-term use only, and follow-up suggests that people start to regain weight once they stop taking it.

Generally Safe.

According to a GlaxoSmithKline press release, the safety and efficacy of orlistat, which has been marketed as a prescription drug in the U.S. since 1999, is supported by more than 100 clinical studies. This includes the four-year landmark XENDOS trial, the longest study ever of a weight loss medicine. More than 22 million people in 145 countries have used orlistat.

Not for Everyone.

Alli is for people over the age of 18 who are overweight. It is not for people at a healthy weight, or those trying to lose the last five or 10 pounds.

Pros & Cons

At most, you could lose a few more ounces (1/4 to 1/3 of a pound) per week by using Alli, which is expensive and has some serious side effects. Is it really worth it?

You could lose more weight on the Alli program than from diet and exercise alone. But the amount of additional weight is small. Alli’s manufacturer is up front and honest about the potential side effects, which means that they won’t come on as a surprise to users. Since Alli isn’t a stimulant like other diet pills, it’s not associated with any jitters, changes in energy levels, or insomnia.

But its so-called “treatment effects” are embarrassing and negatively affect one’s quality of life. Alli users experience loose stools, more frequent stools that are hard to control, an urgent need to use the bathroom, and increased gas with oily discharge. In other words, because the fat you are blocking has to go somewhere, you could experience uncontrollable diarrhea.

Alli is expensive. You can expect to pay between $1.50 and $2.00 per day to use Alli. While Alli may help you lose a few extra pounds than lifestyle changes alone, little research exists to show what happens when you stop taking Alli. Experts predict that uses will re-gain the weight lost since the pill is doing the extra work for them.

Although there’s a lot of buzz surrounding it, Alli isn’t a magic weight loss pill. Diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes are a must for this pill to help you lose weight.

My Stance

Experts believe that healthy lifestyle changes are the key to long-term success at weight loss and health improvements. Along with that, our fitness and nutrition experts recommend staying away from quick fixes and other unsafe or questionable practices. When it comes to diet pills, we have always advised against them. And even though Alli is FDA-approved, making it safer than any other diet pill on the market, we do not recommend the use of this product. Here’s why:

Alli’s “treatment effects” can seriously interfere with your daily life and well-being. You may have to take time off work, wear feminine or adult products to protect against accidents, and deal with other digestive woes. Imagine sticking to a fitness routine and everything else in your daily life while worrying about these things.

Alli does interfere with the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. It’s important to take a vitamin/mineral supplement while taking Alli, but that is no guarantee that your body will still get and absorb all the nutrients that it needs—especially those that need fat to be absorbed.

Alli doesn’t care whether the fat you ate was from a Big Mac or a healthy serving of salmon. Even though all types of fat aren’t bad for you, Alli will take both good and bad fats out of the body. Dietitian Becky thinks this issue is “very important,” despite its lack of mention in the press and in the Alli support materials. Healthy fats are important for your overall health, and blocking them can have negative effects.

The diet recommended by Alli is questionable. “I’m not sure I understand the Alli diet,” says Dietitian Becky. It calls for a reduced-calorie diet (based solely on your current weight) and an equal intake of protein, carbohydrates and fat (about 30-33% each). In comparison, most dietitians medically- and research-based recommendations are 10-35% protein, 20-35% fat, and 45-65% carbohydrates, with a calorie level based on your current weight, goal weight, goal date and exercise level. Alli’s diet is low in carbohydrates, the body’s preferred source of fuel, which should make up the bulk of your diet.

According to the Alli diet, a person will take in about 533 calories from fat (59 grams) each day. “That’s really not that low-fat,” says Becky. The Alli pill will result in 25% of those fat grams (15 grams) to be excreted and unused—a total calorie savings of just 135 calories per day. Over the course of a week, the calories you save by excreting that amount of fat will result in about 1/4 to 1/3 of a pound lost. If you consume less than the 30% of fat recommended, your weight loss results will be even smaller—a matter of ounces.

The Bottom Line

Taking a pill doesn’t teach you how to create a healthy lifestyle that you can live with long-term. By making permanent changes to your diet that you can actually stick with, you’re likely to keep the weight off for good. Alli does require some dietary changes, but it isn’t a long-term solution to the battle of the bulge. Dietitian Becky says that you really have to ask yourself if the benefits of Alli outweigh the risks. “Is losing an extra 1/4 pound weekly worth the discomfort, cost, and embarrassment that Alli causes?” she asks. “For some the answer is yes. But for many others, no.”

Save your money and stick with top diets like Nutrisystem or Medifast.