Question: I ate a take-away pizza over the weekend, but didn’t get any nasty side effects. Are these Xenical tablets working properly?
Answer: Xenical blocks anything over 30% of fats in your diet so if the meal you ate on the weekend contained less than 1/3 of fats then this may explain why you did not experience any side effects. Pizza is a carb-heavy meal and mozzarella is a relatively low fat, high water content cheese compared to cheddar which is about 60% saturated fat. Both we and the pharmacist recommend you do not exceed the 30% fat allowance whilst taking Xenical to avoid unpleasant side effects. 30% is also the recommended amount of fat your body needs for normal function, so eating any more than that is really missing the point of the medication. In fact, most people find that fear of experiencing the gastro-intestinal side effects of the treatment forces them to stick to the low fat diet encouraged. We suggest you try cooking at home as much as possible so you are in control of what is put into your food and can highly recommend the Alli Diet Plan book and Gizzi Erskine's Cook Yourself Thin cookbook range.
