Is the orlistat working for me?

You don't need to see the oil to know it's working.....do you mean you haven't been to the loo when oil was present or do you mean your bowels haven't opened in a week? If you mean the latter you must feel awful...suggest you drink a lot of water to remedy this.

You only get the oil if you have eaten too much fat. The drug works whether you have side effects or not.

When I started I was a bit bunged up too, just keep going.

I suffer with constipation anyhow, as i have IBS, and i take co-codamol regularly, so i have not been to the loo full stop, neither have i experienced any oily stools. but weighed myself this morning and i have actually lost 3lb this week not 1.5, im amazed!!! so it still works whether oily stools or not then???? or is it just the change in diet that is working if you do not have ioly stools???

Try and drink lots of water...that will trigger the bowel and then you will feel so much better and perhaps weigh less as well. Are you eating enough fibre....perhaps with IBS ( I have no experience of this however) that is not possible? If you can't take much fibre then drink lots of water.

Your body will eventually come back to whatever is normal for you. It just takes a little time to get accustomed to any drug so be patient.

If you are keeping below 1500 calories per day and sticking to between 25 - 30 grams of fat per day and taking three tablets, one with each meal, then the drug will work....give it time.

This is all good advice. I think the ideal is to stick under 30g a day fat ceiling and you will not have any nasty side effects - just the good one of losing weight quicker.

If you do overdo the fat, that is when you will get oilier poos etc. In 6 months I have only had 1 nasty event, and 2 noticably different poos, all of which I could attribute to overdoign the fat way beyond the 30g a day rule.

RR