Weight Loss

Over 20% of people in the UK are medically obese and three quarters are overweight. If you are obese (Body Mass Index >30) you are seriously damaging your health and are at increased risk of arthritis, heart disease and diabetes. Treatments are available to help you achieve your desired weight loss if you are prepared to try.

Causes of Obesity – the need to achieve weight loss

In healthy people, the causes of being obese or overweight and so creating the desire for weight loss are simple: eating too much or taking too little exercise, or probably both. If you regularly consume more calories than you burn off, you will put on weight. Happily the opposite is true - if you burn off more calories than you consume on a regular basis you will lose weight. The way to achieve weight loss is therefore to eat less, do more and best of all, eat less and do more.

Eating low fat or low carbohydrate foods can not provide a short cut to weight loss unless the result is a reduction in calories (which may well be the case). Your body can convert fat to carbohydrates and vice versa so changing the proportion of each in the diet in an attempt to lose weight is meaningless. In otherwise healthy people, it is also untrue that some people have a “slow metabolism” and so are more likely to put on weight.

Being obese can be catastrophic to your health

Obesity can lead to serious health issues including diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. Over 30,000 deaths a year are caused by obesity in England. It has been estimated that obesity costs the NHS £500 million a year. The overall cost to the country is thought to be over £7 billion every year.

Weight Loss Treatments

The best way to guarantee weight loss is to take in fewer calories and do more exercise. In addition to this approach doctors can now prescribe medication that can assist in weight loss.

Xenical (orlistat)

Xenical operates by reducing the ability of the stomach and small intestine to digest and absorb fat in the diet. As a result the calories from fatty foods can not be absorbed and so calorie intake reduces. As a result, weight loss is achieved. In a 4 year official trial, 60% of patients taking xenical in conjunction to a moderate diet achieved weight loss of 5% of their body weight after 12 weeks. 62% of these went on to loose 10% of their body weight in 1 year. In addition the weight loss delayed the development of type 2 diabetes during the study.

Xenical should only be taken if prescribed by a registered doctor. Xenical should not be taken by people suffering with chronic malabsorption syndrome, cholestasis or by breast-feeding women. The use of an additional contraceptive method is recommended to prevent possible failure of oral contraception that could occur in case of severe diarrhoea. Xenical can also interact with other medication such as so it is important to tell your doctor about all medication you are taking when he prescribes xenical.

Xenical can cause side effects. The most common are urgent or increased need to open the bowels, flatulence with discharge, oily discharge and oily or fatty stools. Rarely an allergic reaction can occur. If you feel unwell when taking xenical you should tell your doctor immediately.

The usual dose of xenical is one 120 mg capsule taken with each of the three main meals per day. It can be taken immediately before, during a meal or up to one hour after a meal. It should be taken with a well-balanced, calorie controlled diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables and contains an average of 30% of the calories from fat. Your daily intake of fat, carbohydrate and protein should be distributed over three meals. This means you will usually take one capsule at breakfast time, one capsule at lunch time and one capsule at dinner time. To gain optimal benefit, avoid the intake of food containing fat between meals, such as biscuits, chocolate and savoury snacks. Xenical only works in the presence of dietary fat. Therefore, if you miss a main meal or if you have a meal containing no fat, xenical need not be taken.

If you do not loose at least 5% of your body weight in 12 weeks, then you should stop taking xenical as it is unlikely to work for you.