Unless you have been living in cave, chances are you already know what Alli is - the first FDA approved, over-the-counter diet drug. In US, anyone can purchase Alli without MD's prescription. According to the manufacturer, it's recommended that you take the standard prescription dose of 120mg, 3 times daily before meals. Alli may prevent about 30% of dietary fat from being absorbed to the body. Those fats are attached and go into intestine, then pass out through bowel. Alli is now selling like hot cakes over the states. However, is Alli the next magic pill?
Firstly, Alli cannot shed off your already stored body fat. As stated above, its function is to block fat from your diet. The fat will remain in liquid form inside the body and make your stool oily and loose. Consequently, your bowel movement becomes urgent, unpredictable and frequent. The situation may lead to side effects including wet gas, leaking and diarrhea. The manufacturer even advised that you wear dark pant, and bring a change of clothes to work.
Dr. Charles Ganley, FDA's director of nonprescription products, said that "Using this drug alone is unlikely to be beneficial." Alli has to be used with conjunction of low fat, reduced diet and exercise regime. However, the ugly fact is: low fat diets are usually heavy in unhealthy fat. If you are on low fat diet you need to buy low fat foods from supermarkets. Most of these convenient foods are full of trans-fats which will jeopardize your health. In addition, if you block fats from your body, you are also effectively blocking some essential nutrients that come with fat. These essential nutrients, including vitamin D, are critical to your overall health!
Suffice to say, most diet pills do work at initial stage because you tend to get motivated and watch your diet more carefully. There's little proof that Alli will help you to achieve permanent weight loss and good health. In short, Alli is not recommended.
