The drug is called liraglutide and it is already in use in the treatment of diabetes. Liraglutide helps to lower blood pressure, helps to raise ‘good’ cholesterol levels in the body, and can help prevent diabetes. However slimmers have also said that it also produces a ‘feel-good’ factor when taken regularly.

Danish firm Novo Nordisk are the manufacturers of liraglutide and they are currently in the middle of a large scale slimming trial following 5,000 obese men and women, the results of which should be available in 2013.

Liraglutide tends to be injected from a pen. It is based on a gut hormone that tells the brain it is time to stop eating. Usually, this hormone is quickly broken by the body however the injected drug stays in the body for hours.

Preliminary trials on 550 patients have shown that the drug is better at helping people lose weight than one of the other most popularly GP-prescribed weightloss drugs, orlistat. Of the 550 participants, some were given placebos, some were given orlistat and some were given liraglutide.

28 percent of those on the highest dosage of liraglutide lost at least 10 percent of their body weight – almost three times the number of those achieving the same with orlistat. Those who were given liraglutide were also shown to have lost an average of a stone and a half over six months, around double as those on orlistat. The average women on liraglutide lost three inches from their waistlines over the six month trial period.

Of those who took liraglutide for a further 18 months, their weight loss tended to stay off. However many of those who were taking orlistat found that some of the pounds crept back on.

(Photo Credit: Iwan Beijes)

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Alli is a weightloss drug available without prescription. The drug is also know as Xenical and is only available on prescription. Alli has been on sale in the US for some time but has only been available in countries such as the UK for a few months.

The US Food and Drug Administration have confirmed that the are looking into possible liver damage side effects after 32 reports of liver damage in patients taking Alli and Xenical. Most of the patients came from outside of the US. 27 of the patients were admitted to hospital and six suffered from liver failure.

GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of the dug, have said that there is currently no evidence that Ali causes liver damage and that all overweight and obese people are predisposed to liver related disorders anyway. As the drug works in the gastrointestinal tract, there is also no immediately obvious biological mechanism that would suggest that the drug could adversely affect the liver.

The FDA have confirmed that they have yet to find a link between the pills and liver damage and have advised anyone using the product to continue to use is as directed.

However if you suffer from a fever, dark brown urine or jaundice whilst taking Alli or Xenical, seek medical attention as it could be an indicator of liver problems.

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Over the last few years, there has been a rise in the use of gastric surgery to help people lose weight. Liposuction is also a popular way to lose weight quickly. However both these options sometimes fail to address underlying issues and as many as a fifth of people may put the weight back on.

A new experimental technique in the US may help to tackle obesity through the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS). Deep brain stimulation is already used in the treatment of movement disorders such as Parkinson’s and dystonia however researchers believe that it may also help tackle obesity.

With overweight patients, the DBS targets the hypothalamus, the area of the brain which controls the desire to eat. By stimulating the right area, the patient should feel full and therefore stop eating. This new approach is currently being test in the US.

This new weight-loss procedure is not for the faint-hearted. Patients are given a local anaesthetic and have holes drilled in their skull before electrodes are implanted through these holes. Wires attached to the electrodes are fed across the surface of the brain and under the skin to a tiny battery which is implanted under the collarbone.

Local rather than general anaesthetic is used so that surgeons can guide the electrodes to the right place. During the operation surgeons will ask the patient whether they feel full or not so that they know whether the electrodes have been position correctly or not.

Two patients have had this radical surgery so far and the early indication is that the technique works – so far, both are said to be eating less and losing weight.

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Most women in the UK will have seen control pants before – particularly thanks to the film Bridget Jones. Control pants and other body contouring underwear helps to slim down the figure by compressing problem areas and smoothing the overall silhouette. And now men will be able to buy the same luxury as women.

The new Equmen briefs will retail around £35 – £37. Featuring compression technology, the briefs will aim to help improve posture, give support ‘down under’, and help lift and smooth in all the right places – without help from cosmetic surgery!

Equmen underwear also has a precision-fit pouch which is claimed will help control body temperature and keep moisture levels under control.

This isn’t Equmen’s first foray into the world of control underwear. Earlier this year, the company released their ‘control vests’, commonly dubbed as the ‘girdle for men’. These control vests promised to help slim down the silhouette around the waist line and chest.

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Similar to current procedures, this creates a smaller stomach pouch helping patients feel full more quickly after eating, and also helping them to eat less.

This new form of obesity surgery has already been tested on around 300 patients – 200 in America and 100 in Europe, and initial results from the surgery are said to be promising with European test subjects said to have lost an average of around 45% of their body weight in the 18 months since their obesity surgery. This means that this form of obesity surgery actually has slightly better results than standard stomach stapling.

The final results for this new form of obesity surgery are due in 2010 and if successful, the technique will be submitted for approval by the FDA and other medical boards around the world.

This form of stomach stapling has different risks to the surgery currently performed today. Although these is less risk of infection and blood clots as no cuts are made, there is the risk of the tube perforating the oesophagus.

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It is common knowledge that being overweight increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes however French researchers how now discovered that those extra inches may also decrease lung function making it more difficult to breathe. The study, which analysed 120,000 people, showed that there was a positive independent relationship between lung function impairment and metabolic syndrome, mainly due to abdominal obesity.

Although it is as yet unclear how love handles affect lung function, it is believed that belly fat may impair the natural working of the diaphragm and chest function. Fat tissue is also believed to increase inflammation in the body and therefore this factor may also play a role.

Although a healthy diet and an exercise routine are the best way to lose weight, more drastic methods of weightloss include using gastric bands or having a gastric bypass operation.

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Tobese feet have their excess fat from the toes siphoned away to give a more slender appearance to the toes and foot. Thankfully, there doesn’t appear to be toe liposuction or toe-lifts on the cards quite yet and it seems that although the most dedicated followers of fashion are happy to undergo this surgery, the trend isn’t one which is expected to become popular.

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The alli pill costs is already for sale in some European countries.

Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline has hailed the pill as a significant milestone although they have warned that it is not a magic pill and should be taken alongside eating properly and exercising. Medical studies have shown that slimmers who take one alli pill three times a day in conjunction with their main meals lose around 50 percent more weight than those slimmers who are using dieting alone. The average weight loss after six months of taking the pill is 10lb – the typical amount of weight needed to drop a dress size.

The alli pill works by stopping the body absorbing as much fat from food as it normally would. The fat that would ordinarily be absorbed is passed undigested through the body. The alli pill is similar to the prescription drug Xenical however is only around half it’s strength.

Unfortunately, can also be a number of side effects – unpleasant, but not threatening, side effects may include bloating and wind, and possibly even diarrhoea. The pill may also stop the body absorbing some vitamins.

Concerns have already been raised, with some claiming that the pill is likely to be popular as it is seen as a ‘quick fix’, particularly given that the pill is predicted to be fairly cheap – in the US, where the drug is already on sale, it costs around £1 per day – and widely available from high street chemists, although it is thought that it will only be stocked behind pharmacy counters and not on the shop floor.

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