Alli and Crap…
This is a great article taken from T-nation. You can read the rest here: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_diet_nutrition_bodybuilding/a_question_of_nutrition_2
Alli and Crap: Same Dif’
Q: My wife is insisting on trying that Alli weight loss supplement because it’s “FDA approved.” Looks like crap to me. What’s the real deal with Alli?
A: Well, no one ever accused me of being a marriage counselor, and certainly no one ever accused me of being politically correct, so let me not mince words: You’re right and your wife is wrong. Alli is total crap. (Sorry, wife.)
But it does present a “teaching moment” for us. Sales people, including drug manufacturers, love to use percentages because you can be accurate but dishonest at the same time.
Suppose, for example, you have a one in 10 million chance of winning the lottery, and I have a system to sell you that I can guarantee will increase your odds of winning the lottery by 100 percent. What I’ve just done is up your odds from one in 10 million to two in 10 million!
Think of that the next time you read that people taking a weight loss drug lost “43 percent more weight.” Or someone taking a bodybuilding supplement gained 37 percent more muscle. Accurate, but bullshit. Often it means that the control group lost one pound a month and the people taking the drug lost 1.43 pounds.
Alli is actually the non-prescription, lesser-strength version of a drug that’s been around for a while called Xenical. (The generic name is orlistat.) It didn’t work all that well when it was Xenical and full-strength. I’m not sure why changing the name and making the dosage smaller would fix the problem, but hey, what do I know?
Alli is a member of a category of weight loss drugs that might be called “digestive inhibitors.” It blocks some of the fat that you eat from being digested and assimilated. It does this by blocking the digestive enzyme lipase, which breaks down fat.
The result? As much as 30 percent of the fat you eat doesn’t go to your hips. A side effect of the drug is euphemistically called “anal leakage,” which describes what happens to the fat you didn’t digest. Questions, anyone?
How ’bout this one: “What does it do to the fat that’s already on your hips?”
Answer: zip-a-dee-doo-dah.
The first big study to put Xenical on the map was a two-year European study, which showed that patients on Xenical lost between two and three percent more weight than those on a placebo. A second two-year European trial put obese patients on a reduced-calorie diet and gave them 120 mg of Xenical three times a day. At the end of the year they’d lost about nine pounds more than the placebo group.
Read that carefully. Nine pounds a year which translates to three-quarters of a pound a month. A similar study in the US produced one-half pound per month for Xenical users.
People lose weight on Xenical ’scuse me, Alli because it essentially lowers caloric intake automatically. If you, for example, were eating a nice, hefty 2,500 calories a day and 30 percent of them happened to come from fat, you’d normally be taking in 750 fat calories. By taking Xenical with a fatty meal, about one-third of those fat calories aren’t absorbed, so the 750 calories becomes, theoretically, 500 calories.
You’ve “saved” 250 calories while eating the same meal. (Note the operative word: theoretically.) Stick to that plan for a week and you’ve “saved” 250 times seven calories, or a grand total of 1,750 calories, or … let’s see … one-half pound?
Of course you could just cut calories and crappy carbs and skip the Alli, but there isn’t a $150 million marketing budget for that idea.
So is Alli the answer? Hardly. Unless maybe you’re a stockholder in Glaxo.
