GlaxoSmithKline executive, Steve Burton thinks so. He's out there marketing Alli, GSK's new OTC weight loss drug. Not only are they throwing a special "sneak peak" party in NYC's Union Square, but they're also giving away a book full of advice about Alli... and its special brand of side effects. From the Alli book, "Are You Losing It?":
"You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of your treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work. "There's nothing to be ashamed about. Even GSK VP Steve Burton admitted to having "one experience like that." Oily rectal spotting, you are just the price we must pay for thinness. Well, that... and $1 a day. —MEGHANN MARCO
On The Money [CNBC]
]]>The reason I think this will probably work nicely is the same reason why weight watchers is successful.
Weight Watchers doesn't work because they give you some magic formula you can figure out on your own. It works because it guilts your ass into eating less because you have to get up on the scale in front of everyone (though your weight is never divulged during this time).
Now you'll eat healthy so you don't "touch cloth" every time you pass gas.
]]>And I'd definitely rather keep my spare tire than ever wear black jeans ever again.
]]>First ya, yeap that's Alli. I originally thought it was some chemical derivative of Olestra as well, but its not. Wikipedia actually has some good info on the chemical structures if you want to know.
But I gotta ask, what's to say you wouldn't have lost the weight by eating healthy anyways? The only benefit I can think of is aversion therapy. Kinda like the drugs that make you sick when you drink alcohol. And there's a few things to consider from a nutritional perspective. Some vitamins the body needs are only fat soluble. That's how they are used to get into the body.
I'm associated with, but didn't write, these and they these articles and they sum up what is wrong, IMO, in taking a lifestyle pill such as this.
]]>Or they'll just wear diapers. Do they make them that big?
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Weight loss, all weight loss, works on the basic principle of "eat less, exercise more".
Fake fats (Olestra), "fat-trapping" pills, and other things really work best as a nasty sort of Pavlovian conditioning against eating too much fatty food. Will "WOW" chips give you a bad case of the squirts? If you eat half a bag they will! But you really shouldn't be eating a half-bag of potato chips anyway, should you?
I put these 'weight loss' tools in the same category as the use of Antibuse for alcoholics: create negative consequences for negative behavior to condition new behavior patterns.
]]>Oops, I Crapped My Pants!
]]>And wouldn't "Anal Leakage" be a great name for a band?!?
]]>Maybe they are in league with the Depends people!
]]>The secret is to eat healthy, then you don't have any problems. Now, go to McDonald's and get a big mac with a super size fry, and you'll be visiting the toilet a while later.
Eventually you get in the habit of eating healthy, you get motivated when you see your weight go down, and you learn what you can and cannot eat. Eventually you go off it and you keep eating regularly and exercising.
Now, you could lose the same amount of weight without this drug, it just helps you lose the weight faster. This is not a miracle pill, if you eat bad, you won't lose any weight, and you'll shit a lot.
]]>Well that was a descent lunch up till then..
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