About to start orlistat and nervous

Treatment and medication
1

Hi all,

I had a quick browse through this the night before i visited the nurse and was grateful to be forearmed with a bit of information!

My practice nurse has been really supportive about my weight, which is the first time anybody has since i was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries 10 years ago. I don't know if anybody here had pcos but it is the cause of my weight gain (as well as being greedy sometimes lol) and makes it really hard to lose weight. I also have a hip problem which makes exercise difficult. Both would be improved by some weight loss.

Nurse explained a low fat diet to me - she stated 50g fat per day and agreed with what i'd read here about no more than 15g in any one meal. I said i'd read 30g max per day on here and she says between 30-50 is good and that i will soon discover my own limits... thanks to the unpleasant side effects!

I'm starting the tabs tomorrow because I'm off work and worried about said side effects .. i work crazy shifts and what will be most difficult is that when i'm on a late, we have a habit of bringing in one anothers tea, usually something nice and cake lol ... i'm not keen on telling anybody about the orlistat so am going to struggle there...

I've been checking the fat content of allsorts of things and been surprised that many of my usual meals will fall below the 15g, such as my cereal and milk and coffee i have every morning - that's a relief because i find drastic diet changes really difficult with my skewiff routine.

Also shocked at how much fat by comparison to the 15g guideline some things have, like cheese :o that's a big nono!

Nurse did say that if there was a special occasion or for a treat i was eating out, if i didnt take the orlistat with that meal and try to make wiser menu choices, i should be ok side effect and weightloss wise, if it was occasionally...

I'm going to save this page because i found plenty of useful info here the other night and hope to find more

2

Good luck on your weight loss journey.

3

I'm not sure your nurse nurse has been incorrect in the total amount of FULL fat you can have a day. I believe most people on here have been advised that it is only 30g's of FULL fat or you will get the side affects.

Correct on the 15g's total at anyone sitting.

I personally split my fat content like this;

Breakfast upto 5g's

Lunch upto 10g's

Tea upto 15g's.

If I don't go over, which I don't usually, at those sittings then I can have little treats like snack a jacks, go aheads, baked crisps.

4

thanks for the advice, i'm going to stay under 30 today, day 1 ... :shock:

5

Good luck! It is a bit scary at first . . . . I was completely paranoid about having the hideous side effects but I've been taking Orlistat for 9 months now and haven't had any nasty side effects at all :D

If I go out for a meal and have any doubt at all that it is not 15g or under of fat then I don't take a tablet - I don't think it's worth the risk.

I have lost 72 lbs so far and feel fantastic.

I really hope you do well, I think the answer is to keep going even if you have a bad day (or days!) just put it behind you and carry on. The advice on here is really useful too.

Best wishes

Andrea

6

thanks andrea - good to know you didn't have a problem and well done on that weight loss!

i do love to eat out as a social thing so i do think i will be skipping the odd pill ... just hope it doesn't catch up with me though!

but for now i'm concentrating on coming up with meals with less fat