Not everyone wants — or can afford — weekly injections. Alli (orlistat 60mg) is the established tablet alternative: a capsule taken with meals that blocks around a quarter to a third of the fat you eat from being absorbed.
It's less powerful than Mounjaro or Wegovy, but it's dramatically cheaper, needle-free, and genuinely effective when used properly: adding roughly 50% more weight loss than dieting alone in studies.
Orlistat inhibits the enzymes that digest fat in your gut. Undigested fat passes straight through — which means fewer calories absorbed, and also explains the side effects everyone's heard about. Here's the part people miss: those side effects are almost entirely diet-dependent. Keep each meal under about 15g of fat and Alli is usually very well tolerated; eat a greasy takeaway and it will let you know.
Adults with a BMI of 28 or above who want a lower-cost, needle-free option, are willing to follow a reduced-fat diet, and prefer a treatment that reinforces good habits rather than suppressing appetite. It also suits people who can't take GLP-1 medicines for medical reasons — your pharmacist checks this at the consultation.
Take one capsule with each main meal containing fat (skip the dose for fat-free meals). Spread fat evenly across the day, take a multivitamin at bedtime since fat-soluble vitamin absorption drops slightly, and pair it with the food and activity changes that do the real long-term work. At Lyng Pharmacy in West Bromwich, Alli is part of our weight loss clinic, so you get pharmacist check-ins rather than just a box off a shelf.
1 Lyng Lane, West Bromwich B70 7RW · Mon–Fri 8:30am–6pm, Sat 9am–1pm · 0121 500 5756
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