A newbie needs some advice

Treatment and medication
1

Hi everyone, I started orlistat yesterday after getting a prescription last week although the doc didn't exactly explain much. I have done diets like slimming world in the past which i found easy to follow but i'm struggling with this to be honest as i'm not used to looking up calories, weighing stuff and finding out the fat gram content.

I am a bit confused as to how to do it. Is it that you don't eat more than 30g of fat a day? I read that no more than 30% of the calorie intake should be from fat but i've got the fat content in grams and not a percentage. I went to a site which worked out my BMR and know that I should be aiming for no more than 1200 calories a day, a bit more when I get my butt in gear and do some more exercise (I'm getting the wii fit out later after dusting it down!). I had no side effects whatsoever yesterday, I ate about 17g fat and 1011 calories....although i have to figure into that also half a courgette, half a carrot and half a red pepper which i had with my main meal and couldn't find a suitable online resource for info on those plus another 5g for the sesame oil that they were stir fried in.....i know i was under for both calories and fat grams though.

Would love to know if i'm on the right track and also if you know any decent resources online for low and no fat foods and calorie guides. Thanks.

2

No more than 15g fat in any one meal, no more than 30g fat per day. Thats total fat, not saturated.

I don't bother counting calories, the tablets work on fat consumption and its common sense to head for lower cal foods obviously so i purely count fat grams only.

I'd highly recommend ditching the oil, use some low fat spray instead.

You could drink a cup or 2 of green tea daily to boost your metabolism and its been suggested that eating a small apple after a meal helps to break down fat.

Exercise is key, ideally some high impact cardio 3+ times a week but depending on circumstances thats not always possible.

Good luck!

3

Cheers for that, will concentrate on the fat grams...i suppose if you use that then the calories will look after themselves as long as i'm mindful. Will give the green tea a go and read about the apple so have started that today. If i'm careful with the other oils I don't mind using a little in cooking...the way I see it is that if i'm using sesame oil it's usually to do vegetables and stir fries with healthy stuff in it which is virtually fat free whereas the spray oils I really can't do as I hate the taste. I'm more likely to stick to it if i'm not miserable about it.

Last night had a really lush tea of tuna steak, griddle panned with ribbons of carrot, courgette and some diced red pepper with some sweet chilli sauce (only 0.1g fat for 30ml and 67 calories) potato wedges and brocolli.....i couldn't eat it all!

As for exercise, i've just done an hour on the wii fit so feeling really positive now. Going to do half hour tomorrow plus quarter of an hour on the bike and some small weights to do my arms.....it's one of the areas that i most want to sort out apart from the obvious.

4

I'm the same as Sparkles, only look at the fat content of foods and stick to the limits. Also I try and make sure that any foods I buy are no more than 5g's of total fat per 100g's. which makes life a bit easier.

Good luck and you will find things easier as you go along

5

hi there

im in the same boat as you, ive been on them for a week now, im trying not to weigh myself before i go back to the gp in must over 2 weeks so im not sure how much ive lost, if anything.... but i am struggling with the fat content, my gp also did not advisee of this and i only discovered it from this forum, she advised to follow weightwatchers (something i did before) and take the pills, i have a husband and 4 young sons and im really struggling to juggle everything, i have experienced the runs almost everyday, very unpleasant, but.......... what i dont understand is if you are following a low diet anyway what difference do the tablets ACTUALLY make as youd be losing anyway, my gp said the weight loss would be quicker on the orlistat but from some peoples profiles they are losing 1 to 2lb per week, which is great dont get me wrong but id be hoping for this loss anyway following a low fat diet, i guess a loss is a loss either way, i dont want to get disheartened as i have a lot to lose?

6

Hi there,

I have been on the tablets for 5 weeks now. In the first week I lost 6lbs! I think it was a shock to the system to be fair.

The best way to work these tablets I have found is the following:

I do not eat more that 15 grams of fat in a day - anymore than that and I seem to get the horrible side effects.

Things that I eat:-

Salad, chicken, king prawns white fish, fish sticks, veg, rice, pasta, soups, fruit, pitta breads, stir frys and Walkers Baked range of crisps.

If you need a sweet kick I eat marshmallows as they are fat free. If I want a pudding Creme Caramel (1g of fat) or lemon / orange sorbet (0g fat), Pink and Whites (marshmallow in wafers) (0g fat)

Go shopping to morrisons that have the lowest fat content bread of anywhere 0.3g per slice!!! They sell a large pot of Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup which is 3g's of fat for the whole tub and it is very nice. They sell fresh pasta that is rather low for a meal and also their pasta sauces are rather good too. The Baked range of Walkers are about 2g's for a pack.

Sainsbury's sell extremely low fat Cumberland sausages 1.3g per sausage. Flora do the lowest fat content spread but you can't cook with it.

Normal potatoes have no fat in the but sweet potatoes do.

Never to do I look at calories, only fat content.

My boyfriend has been eating the same as me and he has lost half a stone too! I have now lost over 1 stone in 5 weeks which is very encouraging.

I also enrolled through my iphone onto Sparkpeople Diet Tracker and put everything that i ate in there, this way you can see how much you are eating and it totals up the balance of all your calories / grams of carbs, protein and fat etc. Very good website. You can also do it on the internet - it's not just for the iphone.

Stick with the tablets, they do teach you a better way to eat. I lost a stone and a half last year and when i came off them I could taste the fat in normal food, it was horrid - took along time to get back into eating some normal foods.

Ask you local curry house to make you a curry with no fat in it at all, ours did and the curry was fabulous and there was no fat in it at all, I tested it to see!

7

the key rule to follow is no more than 30g fat per day with no more than 15g fat in any one meal. i personally wouldnt recommend following weightwatchers as such, theres a number of their foods which don't fit into the fat intake guideline so eating your points allowance could possibly take you over the fat intake allowance.

thats not to say dont eat any ww foods, there are plenty that can be incorporated into a healthy balanced meal but make sure you check the packets for fat content.

the idea of these tablets is they remove 1/3 of the fat you have eaten, that 1/3 doesn't get absorbed which wouldnt happen on a lowfat only diet, basically for every 2lbs you'd loose without the tablets you'd loose an extra 1lb with.

8

wow, thanks for the encouragement guys, i think i know what ive been doing wrong! i will follow your words of wisdom!

9

KellyDW - be very careful eating such a low amount of fat daily, remember these tablets remove 1/3 automatically so your body is only getting 10g a day. Your body does still need some level of fat, you find in the coming weeks that your body may struggle in some aspects.

Also if you stay on such a low fat regieme for too long, you'll quickly gain weight when you start eating a 'normal' amount - a non dieting woman should consume around 70g fat a day.

If you're having side effects whilst under 30g a day I would speak to the doctor about it.

10

Some great info there kelly, thanks a lot. Surprised that you’re only having 15g fat per day though…but I guess the side effects kick in with different people at different levels. I’ve had no side effects at all yet, although with only being 2 days in I’m not counting my chickens just yet. Like the idea about marshmallows though. I will take a look at the website you recommended though.

11

Really it's just common sense. If you eat fatty foods you will have BAD sideaffects, if you don't, you won't.

Most foods come with the fat content of 100g writen on them, just divide by 100 to find how much 1g is then times by much your portion of that food weighs.

Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda do really nice low fat ready meals that are rarely more than 8g of fat.

I Google 'fat content of' usually find what I'm looking for.

I know it's a pain, but it is worth it.

I've been on Orlistat for 3 months and lost 2 stone thats 28lds, that's like a whole leg full of fat gone.

When I've hit a rough patch, I look at my kids. That gives me the kick up the butt I need.

If I can do it so can you