Weight Loss Treatment

The weight loss treatments Orlistat and Xenical prevent your body digesting all of the fat you eat. They thereby reduce the amount of calories you take in from your food. The tablets are not very effective on their own but can help you lose weight quicker, if you stick to a low calorie diet and avoid snacks between meals.

You need to take one tablet with your breakfast, one with your lunch and one with your dinner. Avoid having fatty or otherwise unhealthy snacks between your meals. You don’t need to take a tablet when you eat a meal which does not contain any fat, as the tablets only limit your calorie intake from fat.

You can take the tablets before, during or up to one hour after your meal. Swallow each tablet whole with a drink of water.

Each tablet contains 120mg of orlistat, the active ingredient in Xenical.

When you’re first prescribed Xenical or Orlistat, you’ll be given a 12 week supply. After 12 weeks of taking weight loss tablets you’ll need a new prescription. If you’ve lost 5% of your body weight or more by this time you can continue your diet and treatment. If your weight hasn’t changed or you’ve lost less than 5% of your body weight then you’ll be advised to stop taking Xenical.

Weight loss tablets are a prescription medication and a doctor needs to check whether they’re suitable for you. They’re suitable for patients who are obese and who have a BMI of over 30. In some cases, weight loss tablets are also prescribed to people with a BMI between 28 and 30 if they suffer from certain weight-related conditions, such as cardiovascular problems or diabetes.

You won’t lose weight from taking tablets alone and they’re only suitable for you if you’ll be adhering to a low calorie diet during your treatment.

The most important step to take when you need to lose weight is to change to a healthy and balanced diet. You should eat a varied diet which includes plenty of fruit and vegetables as well as starchy foods such as bread, pasta and rice.It should also include some meat, fish and dairy products.

While you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important that you limit your consumption of fatty and sugary foods, including juices and soft drinks.

The NHS recommends that when trying to lose weight, you should reduce your calorie intake to 600 calories below the amount you need.

How many calories you need to eat in a day depends on several factors, such as your sex, your height and whether you exercise. On average, men need to eat around 2500 calories a day while women need about 2000 calories.

In addition to eating a low calorie diet you need to exercise regularly, ideally for at least three hours a week.

Slimming tablets are only prescribed to people who have a body mass index (BMI) of 28 and higher. The BMI allows you to check whether you’re a healthy weight for your height or whether you’re overweight.

You can calculate it very easily by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres and then dividing the result by your height in metres again.

A person who is 1.75m and weight 70kg for example has the following BMI:

70 kg (weight) divided by 1.75m (height) = 40

40 divided by 1.75m (height) = 22.86 BMI

The BMI indicates whether you're underweight, a normal weight, overweight or obese:

BMI below 18.5 - Underweight

BMI between 18.5 - 24.9 - Normal Weight

BMI score of 25 or more - Overweight

BMI of 30 or more - Obese

In rare cases, people who carry a lot of muscle (for example professional athletes) can have a high BMI even though they're not overweight. In general, though, the BMI gives a good indication of whether you have a healthy weight or whether you should lose weight.

Being overweight increases your risk of many health problems, for example high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes.

Slimming tablets can cause side effects in some patients. More than one in ten users experience headaches, abdominal pain or discomfort and diarrhoea. Wind and oily discharge are also very common, as are low blood sugar levels in diabetics.

Xenical can also cause a number of less common side effects. For a full list of all possible side effects read the patient leaflet which comes with your tablets.

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