Fat chance of weight loss
July 22, 2010
RESEARCH released last week at
the 11th International Congress on
Obesity in Stockholm, Sweden has
found no evidence that slimming
supplements help with weight loss.
Two studies presented at the
congress found that the
supplements tested were no more
effective than placebo, with one of
the researchers saying that few of
the products had previously been
the subject of clinical trials.
“There are scores of slimming
supplements out there claiming
weight-loss effects through all sorts
of mechanisms of action,” said Dr
Thomas Elrott of the University of
Gottingen in Germany.
“We have so-called fat magnets,
mobilisers and dissolvers, as well as
appetite tamers, metabolism
boosters, carb blockers and so on.
“The market for these is huge,
but unlike for regulated drugs,
effectiveness does not have to be
proven for these to be sold,” he said.
Dr Elrott and his team tested nine
popular supplements bought from
pharmacies in Germany against
placebo in a randomised trial.
Average weight loss was between
1kg and 2kg across seven of the
weight loss products, and averaged
at 1.2kg in the placebo group.
No statistically significant
difference in weight loss was found
for any of the products.
Elrott said it was the first study to
include nine supplements with
different proposed methods of
action “and we found that not a
single product was any more
effective than placebo pills in
producing weight loss over the two
months of the study, regardless of
how it claims to work”.
Another study presented at the
congress involved a systematic review
of all existing clinical trials on a
range of popular slimming supplements,
again finding no evidence that any
of the products worked.
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