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Diet week 1 - A little help from alli weight-loss pills

I started a new diet and weight loss programme a week ago. In the last week I've managed to lose over 7 lbs.

I've been trying to lose weight on and off for several years and have tried all manor of different diets / programmes including low fat, low GI, high exercise, eating less food and even Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin weight loss programme with hypnotism CD. I've had some success with all of these, but in the end have given up and put the weight back on again.

The alli weight-loss programme

This time I've enlisted the help of alli.

Alli is a weight-loss pill, recently made available from pharmacists without prescription. It isn't however a magic pill that makes you lose weight. To lose weight means following the alli weight loss programme.

The means doing more exercise and reducing the amount you are eating in terms of calorie and fat content. Doing this on its own is enough to lose weight, but alli claims to increase the weight loss by a further 50%. So if you would have lost 2lbs through the diet programme you will lose an extra lb with the help of alli.

This works by preventing 25% of the fat being absorbed by the body. There are potential side-effects (or treatment effects as alli calls them) which are more likely if eating more than the recommended fat content of 15g-19g per meal (depending upon your current weight and exercise level). Eating more than that recommended fat levels can result in some unpleasant effects (such as sudden need for the toilet and stomach cramps). I did experience these once, which I think may have been related to having a late breakfast and as a result two meals too close to each other. They only lasted for a couple of hours. Enough to deter me from eating too much fat, but not so bad as to put me off taking alli.

When taking alli you also have to take a vitamin supplement in the evening as alli can prevent some of the vitamins in food from being absorbed along with the fat.

Food quantity and choice

For this diet I have invested in a set of digital kitchen scales and I'm weighing out the food that I eat. This is something I did not do with my previous diets and I have certainly noticed that my meal sizes are a lot smaller than I've had before.

I am finding it is quite easy to stay within the fat content, with the help of a lot of low fat products available. I am sometimes going over my calorie target. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing at this stage as it means that I can still reduce my portion sizes in future (it's not such a big shock) and I am doing a lot of exercise to burn some of these calories off.
I am certainly feeling the effects of having less food. I do get times when I'm feeling hungry, but it's not as bad as I thought it may. I'm actually enjoying eating the food a bit more as I'm trying to eat more slowly and savour the food more.

The low fat, low calorie diet is no different to many other diet recommendations. The one thing that is different is that exceeding the fat amount can be unpleasant and as such it adds an extra incentive not to snack or to try and exceed the alloted portions. The alli programme also encourages the food to be shared across 3 meals (plus a snack) across the day. It is not possible to save up fat from one meal to use in another due to the risk of the treatment effects. Saving food for a larger meal is also more likely to encourage overeating at the meal or snacking when hungry before.

I've been recording my food intake over the last week.

Exercise

The other aspect to the programme is to increase the amount of exercise. I've always been fairly active (except for a short period after our first child was born when I didn't make the time) and I've been going swimming regularly before I started this programme. I go swimming for normally 2 to 3 times a week which is something I started over 2 years ago. In fact I've always enjoyed swimming, but it's been a case that I've had long periods that I've been swimming lots and others where I've hardly gone at all.

I've built up my swimming speed over the last couple of years, but I had reached a plateau where I had reached a reasonable ability, but then hadn't been pushing myself to improve. I've used this as an additional incentive to improve. Serendipitously the pool I go to has now split the swimming lane into a slow and fast lane, and swimming in the fast lane has also encouraged me to maintain a faster pace of swimming.

I'm also making more effort to go on the Wii Fit each day as that is a form of exercise that I can do after I've put the kids to bed in the evening. This is helping too. The Wii Fit also helps by giving me a daily progress on my weight loss.

I hear there is a new Wii Fit Plus to be released during 2009, but don't know what extra that adds but it is also available as game only (without Wii fit board)

How to buy alli

Alli is available without prescription from a chemist.

There are some rules before they can sell them such as being over 18, having a BMI of over 28 and not on certain prescription medication (especially those for heart related conditions).

I bought my first pack from Boots Pharmacy, but you will see the advert for alli in the shop windows of many pharmacies at the moment.

When I bought mine I had to have a 15 minutes consultation with a member of staff (although obviously trained in selling alli, I don't think she was actually a qualified pharmacist, although I may be wrong). Before I had the consultation I had to pay to use the in store scales, paying for the more expensive BMI result (75p).

The consultation was actually quite good, she explained the product, how it worked and the possible side-effects. She also related some examples of how other customers had got on with the programme (obviously maintaining patient confidentiality she didn't mention any names etc.). It was far better being explained these face-to-face with the emphasis on the importance of the different aspects than could be gained through reading a booklet.

I think that the pharmacy consultation is less formal and feels more friendly than discussing it with your GP or nurse. Obviously if you have any other health concerns it would be better to go to your GP before starting to take alli anyway.

An alternative is to order online through a registered pharmacy. I don't know how these check the criteria is met, I'm guessing it's some kind of survey that needs to be filled in. For the first time I recommend going to a pharmacist and having the consultation as it was worth attending. I don't know whether a consultation is needed for subsequent purchases (you can take alli for up to 6 months), I'll find out within the next week (unless I buy online?).

How much does alli costs

Alli is not cheap. It costs about £35 for a 2-week supply or £50 for a 4-week supply. You can take them for 6 months which you work out would cost upwards of £300. When you think of the health benefits of losing weight then assuming this does work in the long term it will have been a worthwhile investment in my health as long as it can be maintained.

It's still early days yet, but I'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. It's looking promising so far.

When buying the first course you are given a pack including a booklet describing the programme, a booklet with some recipes and a diet diary. If you want some more information there is a book available The Alli Diet Plan. It's retail price is £15, but it's available in some places for only £9.

The book goes into more details describing the diet plan and techniques to make the most of it. It also includes lots of recipes and some nutritional information based on products available from some supermarkets and other retailers. It also gives advice on determining which food should be chosen when eating out, as some foods can look innocent but have high fat content.

Following my progress

I'm continuing with alli to see if I can continue to lose weight as I have this last week. I'll be tweeting my progress on my personal twitter account (@stewartwatkiss) or you can follow the @firstaidquiz tweets relating to first aid and health topics.

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