In their constant fight against the extra pounds, men and women alike have a very strong ally: Alli, the wonder diet pill from Glaxo that not only allows them to eat as much as they want, but it also helps the body not store extra fat, thus lose weight considerably. Now, Alli has been approved for sale over the counter in the UK, thus becoming the first drug of its kind not to require a prescription.

Alli has been on sale in the US for quite a while now and the results it has returned both in clinical tests and on patients (under medical supervision) have been nothing short of mind-blowing. Whatever they say Alli does, it does – and then some. For instance, clinical tests have showed that, by taking a pill with each meal, slimmers can lose 50 percent more weight than those who rely solely on willpower.

However, in reality, the results can be even more astounding. After six months, dieters on this miracle pill lose an average of almost 5 kilograms, but not few have been the cases when the weight lost was well above 7 kilograms, depending on the type of exercise and dietary plan followed. As noted above, Alli, the half-strength version of the diet drug Xenical that can only be gotten with a prescription, will become the first pill of the kind to be sold over the counter.

Despite the fact that Europe’s health watchdog has already approved the pill, with hopes for it to go on sale in the summer of 2009, Alli does come with some pretty nasty side-effects. Because the extra fat that is ingested is no longer stored, it has to be eliminated in the only natural way possible, meaning, it causes severe diarrhea and flatulence in slimmers. Or, as Glaxo so delicately puts it, dieters will feel “an urgent need to go to the bathroom.” If that’s a downside we can overlook is entirely up to each of us.

Speaking on the issue of taking this wonder pill instead of paying more attention to what it is that we eat and the way it can impact on our body, Gareth Williams, professor of medicine at Bristol University, points that we can get the same results as with the pill with just a little effort on our behalf. “Taking it without medical supervision may achieve an average daily energy deficit of only 100kcal  -  equivalent of leaving a few French fries on a plate or eating an apple instead of ice cream.” he writes in the British Medical Journal.