Orlistat or Sibutramine

my experience with orlistat has been positive, i have been on it nearly 4 months, lost almost 2 stone. don't believe the horror stories you hear about orlistat, so long as you follow the guidelines then its a good experience with no side effects, side effects come only when they are abused. i don't know about sibutramine but orlistat works on a low fat basis with attention to lowering carb intake also, fat is limited to 30g a day with no more than 15g in any one meal, it sounds harder than it is, theres a lot of food out there thats low fat and tasty, not to mention filling!

Hi Brian,

I've used both - lost 1.5 stones on Orlistat and now taking Reductil and lost just over 1/2 stone, I agree with all the Sparkles has said on Orlistat and with Reductil your appetite is supress and you feel fuller quicker - I now am aware of how much I can eat without feeling stuffed, although the side effects are headaches and sleep loss I feel better on these as I was already on a very low fat eating plan.

If you go on wither of them I would advise drinking plenty of water atleast 2 litres a day to combat the headaches and also to exercise - I am just starting a GP gym referral and hope that will help to tone up.

Good luck on whatever cause of action you take.

Jane

My son has been on Sibutramine for 14 months and has lost nearly 8 stones in weight. I have lost 3 stones on the same medication 10mg once daily. The only side effect we both had were sweating and for the first few weeks flushed cheeks.

how does sibutramine work?

I only know about Orlistat – it is a little blue pill that you take 3 times a day. It blocks absorption of about a third of all the fat you eat, which means a third of all the eaten calories from fat don’t stay with you. This has the brilliant effect of enhancing all your good work when on a diet. You still have to diet to get a great effect, but the results are stronger. Dieting with Orlistat is like swimming with flippers. For a woman, combining 1200-1400 calories a day, sticking to 25-30g of fat with no more than 15g in any meal and 4-5 sweaty exercise sessions a week seems to be incredibly effective – I am 6.5 stones down in 9 months.

The scooted-through one third of fat end up in your poo. If you are eating sensibly – say 25-30g of fat a day - then the scooted through third is barely noticeable. If you are tucking into chips, cheese and crisp, then the scooted through third ends up being a lot and you get unpleasant orangey oily poo, or poo-ey leakage. If you don’t eat sensibly with Orlistat then you could have an embarrassing accident. This means that you are far far less likely to break your planned diet than with will power alone, so what sounds on the surface like a terrible if low risk side effect in fact is great as it makes you stick to the straight and narrow. Having followed this forum since February, I have not heard of anyone who has suffered this nasty problem unless they have eaten more than the recommended level of fat – most of us did so once or twice but never again. If you stick with the whole caboodle, you are forced to learn a more sensible approach to eating, supported by the very strong results from sticking to it.

You take the pill with a meal, and it seems anecdotally to take a few days to eliminate from your system. People talk about stopping the day before they know they will have to eat a fatty meal to be on the safe side.

When people start taking it, apart from being a bit worried about accidents until their confidence build, they seem to b ea bit constipated. Drinking a lot of water seems to sort that out.

Occasionally you read a posting from someone who doesn’t seem to think it works for them – they eat lots of fat without anything happening, but there seem to be loads of successes for each failure.

Orlistat is a GP prescribed drug, but the manufacturers sell a half strength overthe counter version called Alli.

Hope this helps – can’t think of anything else, but I am sure others will add on.