Xenical

Xenical At Work

If you consume a huge amount of fat or calories, the excess is stored as fat by the body resulting in weight gain. When you eat fat, your body breaks it down into its simplest components so that it can be absorbed. Enzymes in your intestinal tract, called lipases, help digest (or break down) fat. When you take xenical with meals, xenical attaches to the lipases and blocks them from breaking down some of the fat you have eaten. The undigested fat cannot be absorbed and is eliminated in your bowel movements. By working this way, xenical helps block about 30% of the fat eaten in food from being absorbed by your body.

For those of you who would like to know about xenical mechanism of action in details, here is a comprehensive explanation given in medical terms. Orlistat (the active ingredient of xenical) 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%.