Harvard Women's Health Watch has issued a report placing some doubts on the the ability of Xenical, the weight loss drug to seriously help in a diet and has asked questions regarding side effects. The FDA is at present looking at the advisory boards recommendation that Orlistat the active compound in Xenical should be made available over the counter and not with a prescription as previously was the case. The new lower dose of Xenical is to be called Alli, but its future is still unclear as some groups oppose the idea that weight loss drugs should be sold without medical advice or prescription.

The arguments that support the over-the-counter use of Orlistat say that with more than 60% of Americans being overweight or suffering from obesity drastic action is called for and the damage that abuse of orlistat can cause is less than the nationwide obesity risk. Harvard Women's Health Watch in its report noted that weight loss is not as simple as taking a pill and that good advice and a healthy diet is needed too. It did concede to the fact however that medication could help to increase the chances of successful weight loss.

The Harvard group said that they were worried about the long term effects of Orlistat and that this was an area where there was not much information available. They also took note of the fact that Xenical can stop the body taking in vitamins and nutrients as well as fat.

In the United States, The National Institutes of Health gives the recommendation that diet drugs should only be used by people who have severe weight problems that are causing health problems. They stress that people must not rely on the drugs alone and that exercise and healthy diets must go hand in hand with weight loss drugs.

In a number of different surveys, people who receive good diet advice have been found to lose much more weight than those who just took diet pills. Harvard Women's Health Watch worry that the weight loss drugs often give off the impression that they will do the hard dieting work for you, but this is not the case and for healthy weight loss effort is required.