Research
Energy balance
Orlistat is effective in promoting weight loss in patients who have undergone Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) and have plateaued, but its use is not recommended after malabsorptive surgeries.
If you had gastric banding and your weight loss has stopped, Orlistat might help. It is an oral pill taken with meals that blocks fat absorption. It can lead to significant weight loss, but you must strictly limit fat in your diet to avoid unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects like diarrhea. It is not suitable for patients who had malabsorptive surgery.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
This study has demonstrated an 8-month weight loss of 8 ± 3 kg in the orlistat group versus 3 ± 2 kg in the placebo group (p < 0.01), with a TWL of 8.2% in the orlistat group... On the other hand, its use after malabsorptive surgery has not been tested and it therefore cannot be recommended after this type of operation.
Why this rating
Based on a single small pair-matched study (n=38); no large RCTs cited for post-surgical use.
Source
Pharmacotherapy as an Augmentation to Bariatric Surgery for Obesity
L Horvath et al. · Drugs · 2024
DOI 10.1007/s40265-024-02029-0
narrative_reviewCited 17×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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