I have been taking Alli for one week and have not exceeded the 15 grams of fat per meal (I am very careful not too) but I have persistent uncomfortable stomach/gastro issues such as gas (and yes, I am afraid to fart sometimes in case of the unwanted side effect, which I have not experienced as of yet).

Here is how I feel at every meal:
bloated/gassy
rumbling in my stomach/gastro area
foul smelling gas and bowel movements
heartburn and I have not heard anyone yet complain about that, but I am getting it and never have before???!

I am a 42 year old male, who is 6'2", 223lbs and lost about 7 pounds over a month ago and so tried to add this on to see if I could drop another 7 in the next month. I do excercise, which gets easier as you get thinner and will see this through a month to see if it makes a meaningful difference, if not, then I cannot put up with this discomfort. I believe in no pain no gain, so they should use the slogan pain = no gain (LOL). Trying to stay upbeat about losing weight and getting healthier.

Paul

I loooove ALLI. There are side effects. Loosing wieght takes time, hard work, and is not easy! Some people have a problem with this but I welcome small daily challenges like unwanted visitors like oils or even solids running down my leg. Its less painfull than running on the treadmill! Some people are afraid of people thinking they smell or are dirty (due to spotting through the paints/mini skirt) but I say your gross if your FAT!

Just Being Real,
Alex

Alli works for me!!! As promised, I have lost a ib/week. It will only work if you commit to low fat cal reduced meals though. Good luck.

It works, at least in short-term.
As for long-term, well we have to wait to see

I have been taking the alli pill for a month. I try and stay within the fat limitations, but sometimes cheat. I have lossed 16 pounds in one month. I get the side effects when I eat more than what is allowed on the fat intake. If you follow the fat intake you will lose weight and not have the side effects. That is just what I have had so far. I think this is a good healthy way to lose weight.

I have been taking alli for about a week now. I have noticed a significant amount of the "oily spotting" as warned by the manufacturer. I even had a embarassing incident where the accumulated oil actually built up enough for a little to run
down my leg all the way to my sock. Unfortuantly I was wearing shorts that day :-(. My domestic partner also has been unable to tolerate sex lately, the oily fluids have a tendancy to cause his condom to break in less than a minute. If I don't start seeing results soon, I will discontiue use. Its side effects are just too drastic.

I have been taking it and it has worked great for me so far.

No, I'm not "tooting" because I'm on Alli.

Following is another post from the old ARNA board on Yahoo, where I discussed the Acomplia results a year ago, in response to a skeptic about Lorcaserin. I think there are some much more effective diet drugs on the horizon.

"You're too pessimistic about ARNA. Everything is proceeding reasonably well, the only current delay is getting the OK from the FDA to move ahead with the APD125 phase 2. Lorcaserin is on track to start phase 3 this year, as are the two partnered programs, as is the anticoagulant program. Sanofi's rimonabant, the weight loss therapy that ought to pose the greatest competition to Lorcaserin, is held up at the FDA and my bet it's a safety issue, given all the publicity regarding Vioxx, Tysabri, and others. I think it's probably the depression signal seen in the the trials. Here's how I think about it....the THC in marijuana is a CB1 agonist, and causes euphoria (the "high") and the "munchies". Rimonabant is a CB1 antagonist and promotes less food intake (weight loss) and apparently depression in some sensitive individuals. In the recent, published study, there was a depression rate of 3% in the patients given 20 mg of rimonabant daily. I think that's too high to be acceptable, although it's possible it will eventually be marketed in the US with a black box warning. Other competition includes the companies developing PYY3-36, AMLN's Symlin + Leptin combination looks exciting in pre-clinical studies, and certainly others as well.

Regarding the current stock price, I'm not worried. The market moves up and down in the short term due to anxieties and enthusiasms of market timers and daytraders and institutions that have to show quarterly results, but long term changes are due to fundamentals and these are more predictable. .... If one were to buy and hold ARNA now, I am fairly confident it would be an excellent decision in the long term."

RE42

BJS,

I've commented on the likelihood of success for an OTC lipase blocker previously....I think people will try it, indeed, a lot of people will try it. However few will stay on the drug because of the side effects. Following is a light-hearted, yet thus-far witheringly accurate commentary I posted on the Yahoo ARNA message board roughly a couple of years ago:

There's no question Xenical can effectively block fat absorption and lead to modest weight loss with long term use. The "but", however (note that I manfully resisted the extra "t"), is that the fat which isn't absorbed passes into the large intestine, where much of it, but not all of it, is cheerfully utilized by bacteria. The bacteria, in turn, make lots of gas. The end result of all this (har) is a lot of gas that smells like spoiled meat. Regular Xenical users are not welcome around the watercooler at work. Now, the stinky gas problem can be ameliorated somewhat with strict adherence to a very low fat diet, but if the patient could do that in the first place, they wouldn't need Xenical. So while there's no doubt OTC Xenical will eventually have some market share, it will be a small, outdoors market share......

RE42