Oh, if it was only that simple.

I can understand the excitement. I can understand the need. You tell me that you've got a pill that will let me eat whatever I want with little or no waistline-expanding consequences and I'll do two things immediately: 1.) place a jumbo order and 2.) call my broker to buy shares in the company making it.

Or at least that's what I would've done when I still believed in Santa.

The New York Times article announcing that the FDA had approved Orlistat, a "fat-blocking, anti-obesity" drug by Hoffman-LaRoche, was greeted with enthusiasm by many segments of the public. They continue to hope, understandably, that modern science will soon provide the technology to make losing fat easier than undertaking a major lifestyle overhaul. But if you read the reports a little more carefully, you might want to think twice before running out and searching for a doc who will prescribe it.

Orlistat, which will appear in the next few weeks under the trade name Xenical, works in the GI tract by blocking the action of a fat-digesting enzyme. About one third of the fat someone eats will, instead of being digested, accumulate in the intestines and be excreted.

Now that you know how it works, the first problem with using Orlistat (Xenical) for fat reduction should be immediately apparent: It does nothing to the fat you've already accumulated. Orlistat works only on "incoming" fat in the diet -- preventing, I will repeat, only a percentage of it from going to your hips. At best, it would decrease slightly the consequences of continuous bad eating.