There are all sorts of radical surgical procedures on offer which can help to guarantee weight loss but these generally take the form of a change which cannot be reversed. You’ll be skinny but you’ll never be able to eat what you want again. There are also all manner of drugs on offer which claim weight loss benefits and with the obesity epidemic on a constant and consistent rise, scientists and medical researchers are pouring a lot of time and money into developing new drugs or re-purposing old ones to a similar aim.
A research team in the USA has been working on a study which involved a type of epilepsy drug which had shown potential in weight loss in the time. The study had three groups of overweight subjects with an average age of around 43. Group one was given a daily dose of 200mg, group two was given a higher dose of 400mg every day and the final group was given a placebo pill. All three groups were given assistance in achieving a healthier lifestyle and the study took place over around five years.
The findings were profound, those who took the higher dose of the drug were shown to have a higher potential of weight loss with 55% of the group losing more than 5% of their original weight. The other two groups were very similar with both scoring around 33% of people losing weight. This means that though the drug was shown to be useful, it’s only useful in the larger dose.