A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet alli user Cheryl H. as we filmed alli's latest commercial in her house (yes, in her house).  We chose her for the ad after reading the story that she submitted to the real stories section of myalli.com. 

Cheryl works as a pharmacist at a local independent pharmacy, she is married with two teenagers, and volunteers in her community. Like many of us, she juggles a busy schedule and did not want to take something that would reduce her ability to focus.

Being an alli user who is also a pharmacist, she is also able to share her experience with people that come into her pharmacy for help.

"When people come into the pharmacy and ask questions about any medication, it's always easier to talk about their concerns when I have actually had a personal experience with the medication myself. Since I have had personal experience with alli, I know all the ins and outs. I just tell them, if you eat right it's going to work for you, too. It's something that you're going to be able to do to keep the weight off because you change the way you eat. Unlike with other diet medications, Alli motivates you to make the necessary lifestyle changes that will make it possible to keep the weight off."

alli has sold over 2 million starter packages to date (and adding tens of thousands every week). That's a lot of people learning how to eat better (fewer calories in) and get more active (more calories burned).

As Margaret Meade said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." 

I'm following anecdotally (I can't read everything) what the hundreds of thousands of people who started using alli in June have to say about this new and unique combination of a fat blocker and food education program. To date, over 100,000 messages have been left on the official alli message board. Over 5 million unique visitors have visited the product Web site, myalli.com.

In addition, tens of thousands of users are talking to each other about alli in blogs and online discussion groups they've formed themselves. One of the biggest is alli allies on Weight Watchers. See our new blogrolls in the right-hand column for more links to online communities.

Can these two million alli users change the way Americans define meaningful weight loss and how best to go about it? Can a committed group of Americans combat weight loss myths? Is it a revolution yet??

P.S. The screen grab above is from our public service Web site questioneverything.com (short for "question everything about weight loss"), which started the ball rolling before alli launched by providing food education and provocative discussions about weight loss myths.

If you have a question about the alli program, let me know.

N.B. See this new GSK study reporting on product satisfaction from controlled clinical trials.