Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Sh*t is about to hit the fan...literally

The FDA has done it! They have approved the over the counter sale of the weight loss pill Xenical. The drug is being sold under the name Alli. Please understand that Alli, Xenical, Orlistat (what ever you want to call it) is NOT the miracle pill.

Do you remember olestra? Companies put it in potato chips for a while because it was a fat that couldn't be absorbed. Products containing olestra become unpopular really quick becasue if you aren't absorbing the fat it still has to go somewhere thus diarrhea became a common symptom of potato chip eaters.

Alli works the same way but instead of eating chips you will take a pill. It will run you about $2 a day. Imagine paying $2 a day for diarrhea?

One study on the 60-milligram dose of orlistat that GlaxoSmithKline plans to make ended with 46 percent of participants losing at least 5 percent of their body weight over six months, compared to 26 percent of those taking a placebo.

So the people using the pill lost 5% of their bodyweight in 6 months. That's terrible. That means if you weight 200lbs you'll lose 10lbs in 6 months! Just commit 12 weeks to Alwyn Cosgrove's Afterburn II and you'll probably lose almost double that! Double the weight loss in half the time. That's what I'm talking about.

I really think this diet pill is going to be a flop. Initially it might be popular but the side effects are just nasty. The fact that it is 1/2 as potent as the prescription version isn't that meaningful because people will just double the dosage when they find that out.

The real answer to weight loss is solid nutrition and weight training. Not a fat blocking pill.

Here's a story on from CNBC

1 comment:

tinyorangepig said...

Interesting article....I had to do a little research, and I found the manufacturer's website, http://www.myalli.com and they say that the side effects are preventable if you stick with a reduced calorie, low fat diet. So the sh*t might not hit the fan, if you keep yourself in check. Plus they tell all visitors that it is not right for everyone. We will see if the American public is interested in a FDA approved pill when it hits the shelves this summer.