Why is Orlistats/Xenical prescribed?
Orlistat is used with a low-calorie diet to help you lose weight and to maintain your weight after weight loss. Orlistat is used in patients with a certain weight who may also have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or heart disease.

How should Orlistats/Xenical be used?

Orlistat comes as a capsule to take by mouth. It is usually taken three times a day with each main meal that contains fat. Each time you take orlistat, your meal should contain no more than about 30% of calories from fat. Take orlistat during or up to 1 hour after a meal. If a meal is missed or does not have fat, you may skip your dose. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Take orlistat exactly as directed. Do not take more or less of it or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor.

XENICAL is available for oral administration in dark-blue, hard-gelatin capsules, with light-blue imprinting. Each capsule contains 120 mg of the active ingredient, orlistat. The capsules also contain the inactive ingredients microcrystalline cellulose, sodium starch glycolate, sodium lauryl sulfate, povidone, and talc. Each capsule shell contains gelatin, titanium dioxide, and FD&C Blue No.1, with printing of pharmaceutical glaze NF, titanium dioxide, and FD&C Blue No.1 aluminum lake.

Orlistat is a reversible inhibitor of lipases. It exerts its therapeutic activity in the lumen of the stomach and small intestine by forming a covalent bond with the active serine residue site of gastric and pancreatic lipases. The inactivated enzymes are thus unavailable to hydrolyze dietary fat in the form of triglycerides into absorbable free fatty acids and monoglycerides. As undigested triglycerides are not absorbed, the resulting caloric deficit may have a positive effect on weight control. Systemic absorption of the drug is therefore not needed for activity. At the recommended therapeutic dose of 120 mg three times a day, orlistat inhibits dietary fat absorption by approximately 30%.
Weight-Loss Drug Xenical-orlistat Approved In U.S. For Treatment Of Obesity

The drug is the only prescription lipase inhibitor and acts by blocking the absorption of dietary fat by approximately 1/3. Xenical is indicated for obesity management including weight loss and weight maintenance when used in conjunction with a reduced-calorie diet. Xenical is also indicated to reduce the risk for weight regain after prior weight loss.

When compared to diet alone, weight loss with Xenical has resulted in measurable improvements in certain obesity-related conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Xenical orlistat is indicated for obese patients with an initial body mass index (BMI) of greater than or equal to 30 or greater than or equal to 27 in the presence of other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Body mass index (BMI) is the most widely accepted measurement of obesity.