How To Use Xenical

How should Xenical be taken?

Follow the directions for using this medicine provided by your doctor, otherwise you will not fully benefit from Xenical.

Xenical should be taken with a well balanced, calorie controlled diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables and contains an average of 30% of the calories from fat. Your daily intake of fat, carbohydrate and protein should be distributed over three meals. This means you will usually take one capsule at breakfast time, one capsule at lunchtime and one capsule at dinnertime. To gain optimal benefit, avoid the intake of food containing fat between meals, such as biscuits, chocolate and savoury snacks.

A patient's total daily food intake will vary based on gender and current weight, but could be around 1,800 to 2,700 calories a day or higher -- significantly more than fad diets which often contain 1,200 or less calories a day. Meals eaten with Xenical can contain up to 30 per cent of calories from fat, consistent with Health Canada's nutrition recommendations when Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating is followed.

Xenical only works in the presence of dietary fat. If you miss a main meal or if you have a meal containing no fat, you do not need to take that particular dose of Xenical. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have not taken your medicine exactly as prescribed. Otherwise, your doctor may think that it was not effective or well tolerated and may change your treatment unnecessarily.

Method and route of administration

Your medicine should be swallowed with water.