Taking Alli for weight loss

Special K

Has anyone here been using Alli to increase weight loss. I'd be interested to know your experience.

Frank the tank

I saw it on sale and it' looks fantastic. You can lose about 40pounds in a simple transaction.

I think just eating and exercising sensibly is good enough, save your money or buy some shiney bits for your bike.

Special K

Well said that man, sensible advice.

I am currently losing weight at around about 800g to 1kg a week. However I have another 23, yes twenty-three, kilos to go. And I am getting impatient.

I read that Alli could increase weightloss by 40%. Thinking about taking it for two months or so, so that my weight drops a further 12kg and gets to the point where I know it is much easier for me to run and do more intense workouts. (Right now the jarring to my knees is painful enough to make me think about not getting out of the saddle on bike rides.)

However, if the pill is a load of cobblers then I won't bother. I don't trust all that's said about Alli on dieting forums...

Anonymous

If you are eating a low fat diet, alli won't help too much. What alli does is prevent some of the fat in food being absorbed...

Al_38

I'm a lightweight rower, so pretty well practiced in weight loss...

We were told from various sources that the most FAT you can lose a week is 0.5kg, with this being roughly a 500Kcal deficit a day. Granted if you have more weight to lose then this figure is inflated a bit. As you get closer to your target, it will become harder to maintain the loss - back to roughly that 0.5kg mark. Anymore is either dehydration and glycogen depletion or muscle.
It is critically important that you eat a proper balanced diet to do this. Have seen plenty of people screw it up dieting too hard. They lose the weight quickly to begin with, then they go into starvation mode. They stop losing weight, feel awful and performance drops. The fat in your diet is particularly important in this process, eating enough (small amounts of good fat) will help to maintain the loss and keep you healthy at the same time. There is also no substitute for fruit and veg, take supplements if you want but make sure you get enough of the fresh stuff.
Personally I find simple sugars immediately after training sessions are really good. They help with the recovery process - i would normally eat a handful of haribo or similar. Then a small amount of protein and carbs a short interval after that, more complex carbs this time though.

Ultimately weight loss is about a lifestyle change, clearly you are doing this. However, the quick fixes rarely seem to work well and in many ways the slow method may be better as you have to sweat to achieve your goals. The sense of satisfaction at the end is much greater

liversedge

Al_38 wrote:

We were told from various sources that the most FAT you can lose a week is 0.5kg,

Any sources for that, it's quite a claim.

squired

I don't think it is a bad thing to try things to aid fat loss, although if you are interested in this product, make sure you read some of the science behind it. Also, check out the many so-called fat burners that are on the market. Two that come to mind are Thermobol and Hot Rox (http://hot-rox.com/). These supplements increase body temperature, so burning additional calories or do things like preventing fat storage and enhancing the pathways to burn fat. There are also many recommendations for things like CLA supplements (see this month's Mens Health).

Alli contains a product (Orlistat) that was only available by prescription until recently. Studies have indicated that it prevents fat uptake, but be warned that you will possibly have issues as a result from this. Have a read of the link below, which gives an idea of how it works, the effectiveness and potential issues:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlistat

kingstongraham

From what I heard when it came out, if you've got the choice of eating sensibly and exercising a bit more, or taking a product that means you'd be advised to wear an adult nappy, I'd go for the former.

Al_38

liversedge wrote:

Al_38 wrote:

We were told from various sources that the most FAT you can lose a week is 0.5kg,

Any sources for that, it's quite a claim.

Somewhere in my room yes... I cant find the exact bits of paper but have a reference to the one I think it is:
'Peak Performance: training and nutritional strategies for sport' by J. Hawley and L Burke
came from the Australian Institute of Sport I think.

Was also told the exact same thing by one of the ex-GB lwts who gave a seminar on nutrition and effective weight loss the previous year. I cant find any details of it though. the essence was that for every gram of glycogen stored in muscles, there are 4 grams of water associated with it. If you are losing more weight than the 0.5kg mark (obviously varies a touch person to person) then you are dehydrating / losing muscle. Dehydrating cause a loss in glycogen stores so you feel more tired and will perform worse.

Pokerface

I dropped 6 stone (about 85 pounds or 38 kg) in the space of 3 months through diet and exercise. Thats' about a pound (.5kg) a day.

ANd have kept it off over the past 1.5 years.

So it IS possible to lose more than .5kg a week.

Al_38

Pokerface wrote:

I dropped 6 stone (about 85 pounds or 38 kg) in the space of 3 months through diet and exercise. Thats' about a pound (.5kg) a day.

ANd have kept it off over the past 1.5 years.

So it IS possible to lose more than .5kg a week.

Theoretically that is a 3500 Kcal deficit a day. Personally I would be very very surprised if that was possible. Unless you literally just drank water for several months, while doing 90mins of solid UT2 a day. Under full training load I burn around 5000-5500 Kcal a day but that is doing 4 hours exercise approximately. Not saying you didnt lose the weight but I very much doubt you maintained 0.5kg a day

Pokerface

Al_38 wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

I dropped 6 stone (about 85 pounds or 38 kg) in the space of 3 months through diet and exercise. Thats' about a pound (.5kg) a day.

ANd have kept it off over the past 1.5 years.

So it IS possible to lose more than .5kg a week.

Theoretically that is a 3500 Kcal deficit a day. Personally I would be very very surprised if that was possible. Unless you literally just drank water for several months, while doing 90mins of solid UT2 a day. Under full training load I burn around 5000-5500 Kcal a day but that is doing 4 hours exercise approximately. Not saying you didnt lose the weight but I very much doubt you maintained 0.5kg a day

It's not a straight, simple calculation. But I can assure you that I indeed DID lose the weight and over the stated period of time. I was on my bike for many, many hours a day though and was using various supplements to boost my metabolism.


Article from the local paper:

Al_38

Bloody hell... fair play. Still cant believe that rate of weight loss - it takes me most of a month to shift from training weight to race weight. And that is only about 1.5kg of fat to lose. Know enough people who spent 8 months dieting to lose 10kg

Alex_Simmons/RST

Good on you for getting on the bike. As a fellow amputee cyclist, that's very cool to see. I too put on a lot of weight when I was sedentary following amputation, didn't have prosthetic or couldn't walk/ride.

Once I was able to train I was much better and am about 20kg lighter now.

When obese you can lose weight faster.

When not obese, but merely overweight, then the sustainable rate drops.

The reference to 0.5kg/week is a sensible upper limit for sustainable weight loss and is aimed at those who are already reasonably athletic and not obese.

Pokerface

Yes - when you are 'obese' it's easier to lose weight than when you are trying to shed the last few pounds.

Losing the first 60 pounds was 'easy'. The last 20 was the hardest. And I've been trying to lose more since then with no luck. Probably due to the enormous amount of food I now eat. :shock:

Anonymous

Pokerface wrote:

Al_38 wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

I dropped 6 stone (about 85 pounds or 38 kg) in the space of 3 months through diet and exercise. Thats' about a pound (.5kg) a day.

ANd have kept it off over the past 1.5 years.

So it IS possible to lose more than .5kg a week.

Theoretically that is a 3500 Kcal deficit a day. Personally I would be very very surprised if that was possible. Unless you literally just drank water for several months, while doing 90mins of solid UT2 a day. Under full training load I burn around 5000-5500 Kcal a day but that is doing 4 hours exercise approximately. Not saying you didnt lose the weight but I very much doubt you maintained 0.5kg a day

It's not a straight, simple calculation. But I can assure you that I indeed DID lose the weight and over the stated period of time. I was on my bike for many, many hours a day though and was using various supplements to boost my metabolism.


Article from the local paper:

Chapeau!!!!

Special K

It's true what they say about the rate of weight loss being high when you are fat. I cannot believe how quickly the weight is dropping off at the moment.

Special K

Can anyone recommend any other supplements to help weight loss that aren't quite so wierd as Alli

I think CLa has been mentioned - anything else that you've actually used which has actually helped (alongside exercise etc).

I have high cholesterol (inherited as well as aggravated by obesity). Other than anything which is problematic for cholesterol, I will try anything.

Your suggestions as ever, are appreciated.

squired

As I mentioned above, have a look at things like Thermobol and Hot Rox Extreme. Do a search for websites selling exercise supplements (one I've used before is Body Active Online). At Body Active you can look through a whole range of weight loss supplements and reviews on them - no doubt many other websites also do the same. If you find any that look particularly interesting check for more reviews elsewhere.

Some of the fat loss supplements can make you a bit jittery and have you feeling a little odd as you get used to them. I remember trying a product last summer from Isatori (Isolean lx-7, or something like that). I felt very strange and couldn't concentrate for a brief period.

I don't have much excess weight - I just use these supplements occasionally to melt any excess fat from a period of weight training, so can't really comment on which would suit you best.

Alex_Simmons/RST

I should add, that for anyone who is competing or intending to compete, they should be very careful about using such supplements as they can contain substances on the WADA prohibited list. Not generally performance enhancers directly, but masking agents.

Ollieda

At the risk of getting put down due to my diet I'll say this about weight loss.

First a little background story:

When I first came to uni I was weighing in at over 21 stone and not really realising how big I was until I (unsurprisingly) failed a selection weekend for the University Officer Training Corps, basically Territorial Army units built around uni timings with the intention of developing future army officers.

Annoyed I didn't get in I then went on to lose 6 stone in 6 months, and still being a bit of a lazy fat kid I did it with minimal exercise and mainly due to daily calorie intake of around 500Kcal. I felt great after that and started doing more exercise, getting fit and losing more weight until I broke my ankle in June 08 whilst training with the army, being a bit of a plonker I carried on training (at the time the NHS had told me it was just a sprain) on my ankle till around September when things just got worse.

My ankle got to the point where any activity other than swimming cycling was really painful so my physical exercise dropped massively and soon the weight came back. After a few months of floundering around in the pool trying to swim (I never learnt at school) I gave up and tried the bike out.....I liked that, so I started cycling.

Now to my point. By January this year I had worked up to 19 stone, since then I've been eating around 1000 - 1500kcal on a more "student" diet of what ever is available but I'm exercising a lot more than what I did back in 2006 when I came to uni. Now 6 months later I've made it to 18 stone and don't really feel that much fitter.

So can anyone explain how after crash dieting for 6 months of 500kcal/day then doing a bit of exercise I was fitter then now when I'm dieting at a much slower rate and doing more stable, regular exercise?