The drug called, Alli, works by reducing the amount of fat your body soaks up from your diet. It is recommended to be taken at the beginning of each meal, but more than three times a day.</p> <p>The diet capsule works by blocking the enzymes in your intestines from breaking down about 25% of the dietary fat in the food you eat. The undigested fats don’t get used by the body and go through unused naturally. Therefore your body can’t store the fat as body fat.

Toronto  - On Wednesday, the first FDA approved over-the-counter diet pill became available at some stories, according to media reports.

The drug called, Alli, works by reducing the amount of fat your body soaks up from your diet. It is recommended to be taken at the beginning of each meal, but more than three times a day.

The diet capsule works by blocking the enzymes in your intestines from breaking down about 25% of the dietary fat in the food you eat. The undigested fats don’t get used by the body and go through unused naturally. Therefore your body can’t store the fat as body fat.

Alli has been shown to be very effective in clinical trials. Between 35% and 54% of test subjects showed a 5% or greater reduction in body mass, but not all of the mass was necessarily body fat. After test subjects stopped taking it they regained up to 35% of the body weight they had lost while using Alli.

Another, and possibly greater, effect from Alli usage is a lower probability of diabetes. During test trials, there was a very significant 37% decrease in the occurrence of type 2 diabetes.

Alli is a combination of a diet pill and a fat reduction strategy to help you succeed better than dieting alone. It is meant as a part of an overall weight loss plan used with a low fat, lower calorie diet together with an exercise program.

Some of the main benefits of Alli:

● Body fat reduction
● Lowered chance of type 2 diabetes
● Combination of a pill and informational support
● First over the counter FDA approved weight loss pill
However not everyone agrees that Alli is all it’s cracked up to be.
Some experts note that in order to see any significant effects fromt he pill, you still need to eat a low fat diet and stick to a regular exercise regime.

“An increase in having to go to the bathroom, more frequent stools, also loose stools maybe some gas that might cause discomfort and those are all things related to the fat intake so as you lower your fat intake those side effects will go away,” Director of Pharmacy at Sacred Heart Hospital John VanDe Voort said.

He adds that although Alli is not a quick fix, the pill can still offer people serious about weight loss, a jump start.