How the pills work. In my opinion. In layman's terms.

I think the pills make you shit some of the food you eat out, before all of the nutrients are absorbed, and that's how some calories aren't "eaten." I say that because, as regular as I normally am in the pooping area of my life, this past few days, I've needed the loo quite quickly after taking two tablets, then eating a meal. As I eat very lightly at lunchtime, and even then, it's usually only fruit and veg, I'm not bothering with pills at that meal. That has the happy side effect of me not needing to use the loo mid afternoon as if I suffered from IBS.

Previously, I've used tablets like this before, that acted only on dietary fat. Orlistat, I think they were called. They were more of a preventive thing. They could cause faecal incontinence if you ate fat while taking them. That was partly the point, to stop you eating fat. (Well, it wasn't the point to make you fart shite. It was more that you knew that's what could happen, so you avoided it.) The body couldn't absorb fat while on the tablets, so it would pooh it out. Farts could become a game of Russian roulette. Danger farts! Great craic. It was oily and bright orange. Yuck in the extreme. But in fairness to Orlistat, it is stated very clearly that if you don't eat fat, you won't have the unpleasant side effects. I only know about them first hand because I deliberately ate something greasy, just to see what would happen.

These aren't quite like that. So far, no danger farts. Going to the loo is just quite immediate after a meal, and the stools can be quite loose. But it's not too bad, and certainly, if it works, then nothing that's not worth putting up with for the result.