I haven’t been too good tracking my “side effects” of taking Alli, mostly because there haven’t been any. None. Nada. Zip.

I’ve been taking Alli for 9 days now. During that time I’ve lost 4 pounds. The only real effort I’ve made, besides remembering to take my pills and a multi-vitamin at bedtime, is watching my fat intake closely.

That’s the trick to avoiding the side effects: don’t eat like you used to. It’s not a magic pill. It doesn’t solve your hunger or speed up your metabolism or vacuum the carpet for you. It simply prevents your body from absorbing up to half the fat of a meal.

It’s the “up to” part that’s important: the more fat you take in, the more Alli will have to block your intestines from absorbing. That excess is doing to be leaving your body the same way the rest of your food does. (Ahem.) In that sense, taking Alli before meals forces you to keep your fat intake down or suffer the embarrassing consequences.

Sure, I could lose weight by eating low fat without taking Alli. But Alli makes it happen twice as fast by blocking half of the low amount of fat that I’m eating. Plus, knowing that I’ve taken that pill makes me decline the butter that my husband and kids put on their vegetables, along with second helpings and dessert.

In that sense, having taken an Alli before a meal is like having a guaranteed shield between me and straying from my diet. Which is just the type of ally I need in this thing.