Hello...

This may be lengthy, so I apologize in advance for the tedious details. I will try to be as brief as possible.

I am in the Army (National Guard) and have been deemed by regulations that I am "overfat". I am very strong...I constantly exceed the standards in the Army Physical Fitness Test (244 out of 300 last time)...but none of that matters.

I am also on depoprovera in order to control excruciating cramps. I know that this can cause some weight gain due to the hormone. I won't go off of it though because I am unable to function for about a week out of the month if I'm not on it. I literally want to die, it hurts so much.

So, in order to reduce my waist and hip circumferences, I am considering taking Alli (or Xenical...my doctor will write a prescription for it if I want to try it).

I have read the information about the side-effects of Alli. My question is this: Does Alli work *because* of the side-effects? It seems to me that if you're petrified of having uncontrolled, unexpected bowel movements that that alone would force you (in fear of that happening) to eat a low-fat diet. Is that how it works?

Another thing I don't understand (and I'm probably just stupid...seriously, I'll admit that if that's what the problem is) is if you already are eating a low-fat diet as you should, how would the product work? I thought it was supposed to block absorption of fat from the food that you eat. If you eat very little fat as it is, it seems like it wouldn't really help you lose that much since you're not taking in much fat anyway.

I don't get it...I really want to understand because I need help with this dropping bodyfat. I started eating salads for lunch (healthy ones -- spinach instead of lettuce with tomotoes, cucumbers, and a light dressing) and lost about 20 pounds on it and then stopped losing at that point. After I stopped seeing progress, I got sick of eating that all the time and started eating a little more variety (a little lean turkey meat, etc.) and gained a little back.

For now, I'm going to start drinking a lot more water and cut out caffiene altogether. (I only drink tea and water as it is, but will cut out the tea...)

If someone could explain the answers to my questions above, I'd really appreciate it. I'm sorry if they are stupid questions...I have read a couple of websites with information about Ally and those questions keep bugging me.

Thanks for any help on this...I really want to believe it will help. Thanks also for reading all of this, if you've made it that far.

BTW, I'm 5'1", 168# and very muscular...16" neck. I just have abdominal fat. My gluts are big because I used to bicycle all the time while I was in college and they got pretty muscular. I need to reduce both -- waist and hips -- in order to past the (flawed, inaccurate) bodyfat "tape" test the Army has adopted recently.