Has anyone taken Xenical while low-carbing? Does anyone know about the effects that it could have? I know that when taking xenical you are supposed to eat little fat or you end up spending half your day in the toilet, but since I have reached a plateau I was wondering if cutting the absorbtion of 1/3 of the fat I eat (which is a lot when compared to a regular low-calorie diet) would make a difference... Can anyone help me?

Don't do it.

When you're low-carbing, you need to eat fat to help stoke the ketone-furnace ... it acts like kindling.

Besides the greasy farts and diarrhea, Xenical also inhibits the absorption of the vital fat-soluble vitamins .. A, D, E and K .. as well as essential fatty acids, such as the omega-3's. Our bodies can't manufacture those .. we MUST absorb them from food, and that won't happen if we're ingesting a chemical that prevents them from being absorbed. Omega-3's actually help with the fat-burning process ... inhibiting those nutrients will work against you in the long run.




Doreen

I see... But wouldn't I still be absorbing 2/3 of the fat I eat? I know I'm trying to get the best of both worlds but what if I keep eating mostly fat and proteins and almost no carbs (less than 20 a day) as I am doing now, but then instead of having a ton of fuel (fat eaten) to burn before resorting to my stored fat, my body has access to less fat (from food) and still no acess to carbs. Wouldn't it have to turn to my body fat for fuel sooner/more often? I understand that the side effects of the drug are very unpleasant to say the least, but at this point I'm willing to do almost anything to loose weight. Sorry if I'm being stubborn, but do you think that there could be even the slightest possibility that what I mentioned above could happen? I wouldn't be doing that for life, but just for a while to set things moving again... Thanks for the patience !

I'd highly recommend Xenical. I lost a ton of weight on it, but it wasn't the only factor. I was also drinking literally gallons of water a day and exercising 3-4 times a week. The Xenical probably helped me lose an additional pound and a half a week. But after six months that worked out to over 30 additional pounds lost in addition to the 30 or so I lost with diet/exercise(I was losing about a pound a week before Xenical then doing the exact same diet/exercise lost 2 1/2 pounds a week). It won't drop the weight for you, nor will it skyrocket your rate of loss, but over time, it WILL increase your progress, as long as you don't eat extra "Bad Stuff" because you think you "can". It will help, but you still have to work at it. With that said, give it a try and see what happens. One warning, you might not want to take it if you eat a meal too high in fat(like over 20 grams) because of side effects. I won't elaborate more than using the term orange oil....It's not too bad, but still a little gross. Taken with normal meals, you shouldn't notice any major side effects.

Hope this helps!

Yes, that helps a LOT thanks ! That's exactly what I was thinking. I know it wont ged rid of the pounds for me, but I'm working REALLY hard at it and anything that can help me loose more/faster is more than welcome. When you need to loose more than 100 pounds as I did when I started Atkins you need all the help you can get and frankly, no matter how gross, no side effect is worse than looking in the mirror and not finding yourself behind that fat person looking back at you....Thanks !

OK -- just to leave you TOTALLY confused: I've found that when I get the percentage of fat in my diet as high as possible, I lose weight fastest. I was just looking over my fitday account and it's amazing how closely my weight loss tracks with fat percentage. (In fact, if you're really stalled, Dr A says you can try the "fat fast" -- 90% of calories from fat -- to jump start the process and I've tried it, it works AMAZINGLY well.)

The total number of calories seems to matter much less than the percent from fat. Shrugs.

I wouldn't recommend Xenical on this diet -- what doreen said about eating fat helping your body to BURN its own stored fat is absolutely true. It seems like magic but it's true. Review the book if you doubt me, :-). You actually do NOT absorb dietary fat on this diet -- that's the miracle of it. Xenical is for the old "low fat - hi carb" school of thought.

Hummmm....I know this diet works in surprising ways... I've tried to increase may fat intake to get out of a stall but never had any success in doing so. So I guess the fat intake is not as important a factor for me as it is for rhaazz. The only way I managed to get out of the stall was to pig out - and I mean really pig out, including chocolate cream pie, french fries and cheese quiche - for one day and then get back to Atkins the next day. It took me two days to get back into ketosis but after that it worked like magic again... Go figure... Anyway, I'm willing to give this a try and see what happens....

Hi there

you have started low carbing a little less then 2 month ago and you already have lost 29 pounds! I would not call this a plateau...I call this a wonderful and fast weight loss.

As a diet pill and any kind of pill to lose weight faster junkie..I can only advise you out of life experience...don't touch the stuff. Try to change you lifestyle now to a healthy one..and most important to one you can follow for the rest of your life! Otherwise the weight will come back.

You did not gain this weight over night..give it time...Exercise..drink lots of water and eat right..this is the ONLY way

Mischa

(dieted over 30years of my life! )

Hi Ana! Nice to see another Brazilian around here.

If your experience with the pig out gave you those results, you could try doing a refeed when you stop getting results - the Reversal Diet described in the book.

Don't use Xenical - the weight goes back on in the end anyway - you can't take it forever (even if you are a billionaire, which would help!!) My theory is that LC "trains" the body into a new way of burning fuel for energy and Xenical might make it "lazier" in the learning process.

This is to Breadlover:

Not to discourage your presence here - I invite you to stick around and learn, but according to your profile you have not read any LC books, you are not following any LC plan, yet you give advice on an LC Board--why?

why would you want to stop your body from absorbing fat. I thought it was the fat (good fats mind you) that made this whole thing work in the first place? Doesn't the omega fats in these LC diets stimulate fat loss? if so why would you want to stop it?

Even if you did choose to take Xenical and follow a low-fat diet, they only promise a 10% weight reductioin in 6 months, and yes, they do state that the weight comes back on for most people when the drug is stopped.

For you, that's only 24 lbs in 6 months. The weight doesn't fall off on its own .. you still have to follow a strict low-fat diet. And how many hundreds of $$$ and how many emergency trips to the ladies' room, ruined underwear and embarrassing social mishaps?? You could EASILY lose that same amount in 3 or 4 months with a clean (no cheating) low-carb diet .. the weight won't come back on (unless you go back to eating high-carb junk), your body will be much healthier, and the money you save can buy some beautiful new clothes in a smaller size.


Doreen

Ok, I appreciate everyone's comments, but I guess I need some more help. I've read the book and I thought I understood how low-carbing worked in my body, but maybe I'm wrong and, if so, could anyone correct me? Well, as far as I understood, when you deprive your body of carbs (its preferred fuel) it turns to fat for energy, right ? Fat is not as readily available as carbs and it takes the body a whole lot more energy just to USE the fat than it does to use carbs. Right? Now comes my doubt: doesn't the body use FIRST the fat from food and THEN the fat stored in our bodies? Wouldn't proof of that be the fact that my ketosis sticks turn extra purple right after I eat a meal with lots of fat? I mean, isn't that purple stick prove that my metabolism is processing all that fat I just ate? If so, I concluded that only after using ALL of the fat I ate my body would turn to my stored body fat, which is the fat that I really want burned, after all. Based on that I thought that maybe if I still followed my regular low-carb plan (around 20 gr. per day), but reduced by 1/3 the fat from food that my body has access to (which is what Xenical promises to do), then my body would be forced to turn to my own stored fat sooner and use it longer, since it still had no carbs to use and the fat from food would be reduced. I know you need fat in order to make a low-carb plan work, but I would still have 2/3 of the fat I eat left untouched, which I believe would make up for the omega fats and minerals I need... I would still be following the low-carb plan very strictly as I've being doing for the past two months (except for a reverse diet day to overcome a past stall), drinking all the water I've been drinking, exercising as often as possible (which I have to confess is not a lot with 3 year old twins and one 5 month old baby and a business to run)...Anyway, sorry for all the babbling and maybe I got this whole thing completely wrong, but I thank you all for you support and patience.

People - Xenical is for *low fat* dieters only. LC plans are moderate-to-high in fat. Totally contraindicated!

>>"Fat is not as readily available as carbs and it takes the body a whole lot more energy just to USE the fat than it does to use carbs. Right?"

I don't know if that's true, but it's irrelevant if you're hardly eating any carbs.

>>"Now comes my doubt: doesn't the body use FIRST the fat from food and THEN the fat stored in our bodies? "

Yes, but you'd have to be eating something like 1500-2500 calories worth of fat in order for your body to spare its own stores. That's a tall order! You'd be so stuffed, you'd be sick.

>>"Wouldn't proof of that be the fact that my ketosis sticks turn extra purple right after I eat a meal with lots of fat?"

The "depth" of the shade of purple is meaningless because the concentration of ketones is altered by how much water you drink. Dark purple means you aren't drinking enough water - not that you're burning more fat. It's kinda like a pregnancy test - either you are, or you aren't.

Please don't mess around with the Xenical unless you want to do a *low fat* - and not low carb - diet. It will make you very ill. It would be like taking Antabuse and then drinking a case of beer. Not good.