Question about orlistat (alli)

[Genecks]

After reading about and being told some information about a weightloss drug called "alli," a question was posed to me. I'm not too sure how to answer it, so I'm thinking some of you might be able to tackle it:

 

The amount of fat calories a person can consume is different for people. How many grams of fat can one Alli pill stop from being absorbed? One person can eat 4 grams of fat at one meal and have 1 gram (25%) of fat blocked from digestion. Can another person can eat 12 grams of fat at one meal and have 25% (3 grams) not absorbed? If so, how does one Alli pill know how much fat to block? To block 1 gram of fat, or 3 grams of fat?

[foodchain]

After reading about and being told some information about a weightloss drug called "alli," a question was posed to me. I'm not too sure how to answer it, so I'm thinking some of you might be able to tackle it:

 

The amount of fat calories a person can consume is different for people. How many grams of fat can one Alli pill stop from being absorbed? One person can eat 4 grams of fat at one meal and have 1 gram (25%) of fat blocked from digestion. Can another person can eat 12 grams of fat at one meal and have 25% (3 grams) not absorbed? If so, how does one Alli pill know how much fat to block? To block 1 gram of fat, or 3 grams of fat?

 

 

Well, I don’t know much about the pill in question. I know that basically the design of a drug usually has to account for delivery. How this pill does such as in incorporate into an organism in a manner to be present in an environment which would allow for its function to carry out. The relationship of the substance and the organism can vary case to case as you said also. I am sure that for a populous a general set of bounds exist for the ideal case individual to individual giving say a certain diet and other environmental variables that may or may not have been taken into account.

 

Lastly it will basically resort to the amount or presence of the substance in relation to its function, such as to absorb fat, which I am sure has a timeframe. Then again as you pointed out I am a person that can sit and eat ice cream really without gaining weight. Its being discovered in some industry that regular models of genetics alone is not enough for adequate development and effects with designer drugs.

[John Cuthber]

Orlistat works by blocking the enzyme in the gut that digests the fat. Broadly, if you were to block 25% of the enzyme then only 75% as much fat would be digested (and therefore absorbed).

Since, for any given person, the amount of enzyme is pretty much fixed the amount of drug needed to block it is also fixed.

The problem with orlistat (and others like it) is that the undigested fats can cause problems. They are generally liquid at body temperature and the lower end of the gut is not comfortable with, or good at, holding back liquids.

[Revenged]

Orlistat is a pancreatic lipase inhibitor...

 

You are supposed to have a low fat diet if you take this pill - because undigested fats have a lot of bad side effects...

 

They are generally liquid at body temperature and the lower end of the gut is not comfortable with, or good at, holding back liquids.

 

 

Inducing diarrhoea with orlistat or inducing diuresis with laxatives...

 

Pretty lame science really...

 

That's all these 'weight loss' drugs do...

 

In reality it's not much better than bulimia...