Can a New ‘Wonder Pill’ Help You Lose Weight?

Throughout the years, scientists and manufacturers have designed thousands of weight-loss pills, supplements and devices designed to help obese or overweight people shed pounds. One of the newest and most controversial inventions in terms of weight loss is the capsule that temporarily swells up in your digestive tract, thus making you feel fuller than you actually are. A recent study has been conducted to determine how safe and efficient this revolutionary ‘weight-loss pill’ truly is, and the results are partially available now.

The study was conducted on two different groups of people: one group was given a placebo, while the other one was given the actual pill. While the placebo group only managed to lose approximately 4% of their weight throughout the three-month study, the group that was given the real pill managed to lose approximately 6% of their body weight, thus partially proving the efficacy of this pill.

The study was performed on 128 overweight or obese people who were instructed to take the pill before dinner and lunch, along with 17 ounces of water. Not only were they instructed on how to take the pill, but their diets were also slightly changed, as they were switched to a lower-calorie diet. The chief executive of the pill’s manufacturer claims that the difference between the placebo group and the other group would have been significantly higher if the subjects continued to take the pill for an extended period of time, and if the trial had been longer.

This innovative weight-loss pill was created by Gelesis, a company seeking FDA approval for the product and to start marketing it right away. As Dr. Arne V. Astrup, the head of the Nutrition, Sports and Exercise Department at the University of Copenhagen, claims, this pill can actually be safer and more efficient than many other weight-loss drugs on the market given the fact that it contains no chemicals that influence appetite whatsoever.

Nonetheless, the results of the study are still being debated, and professionals have not yet had time to analyze them properly. That being said, while some weight-loss and nutrition experts claim that this pill can become ‘the next big thing’ in the weight-loss industry, others claim that the slight 2% difference between the placebo group and the group that was actually given the pill is almost irrelevant.