For Those Who Simply Can’t Lose The Weight, Taking Alli Orlistat May Help

GPs tell their patients that the most effective and sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off is through a balanced diet and regular physical activity. There’s still considerable resistance to this notion from people who’d rather rely on surgery or drugs like Orlistat 120 mg to deal with their obesity.

“All the Sibutramine in the world is not going to make a dent on our overweight population,” says Wendy Smithson, a physician in Leeds. “Drugs can be an effective part of weight loss treatment, but they cannot be the first choice. People have to eat properly and get physically active. If my patients still have a worrisome BMI months after adopting a healthy lifestyle, ’m willing to discuss other methods for getting those extra kilograms off, but not before then.”

Obesity is a leading cause of premature death in the UK, with complications from excess weight combined with inactivity significantly increasing the risk of Cardiovascular Disease, Cancers, High Blood Pressure, Stroke and Type 2 Diabetes. For individuals who are unable to return to a healthy body weight through traditional methods, what options are there? Surgery is the last resort, but are there drugs that might be effective before something so drastic has to be considered? Online Clinic UK, an online medical resource, has information on several popular medications.

Sibutramine, often found under the brand name of Reductil, is used to assist patients who are unable to lose weight through diet and exercise alone. It works by blocking specific neurotransmitters, effectively tricking patients into feeling full after eating less food than they typically would. There are potential side effects to taking Sibutramine, although in most patients they disappear after roughly a month. Usually prescribed in pill form, standard dosage is 10 mg to 15 mg per day and most physicians recommend taking the drug for no longer than one year at a time.

Orlistat 120 mg is perhaps better known as Xenical, a weight loss drug developed by GlaxoSmithKline.  While many popular weight loss products act as appetite supressants, Orlistat 120 mg inhibits a digestive enzyme (a lipase) which normally breaks down dietary fat; with lipase blocked, a portion of a patient’s dietary fat is not processed and is passed by the body instead. Alli or Alli Orlistat is lower dose version of Orlistat 120 mg; although only available through pharmacies, unlike Orlistat 120 mg, Alli does not require a doctor’s prescription.

While exercise and a balanced diet can help most people to achieve their target BMI, it’s comforting to know there are options less drastic than surgery for those who don’t succeed.