Tests of the new diet drug Acomplia show that users lost 10 percent or more of their body weight and kept that weight off for two years. The drug impedes the sensation of hunger by suppressing the part of the brain that responds to pleasure from food. It also helped some users quit smoking. Much of the weight loss on Acomplia was from around the waist, which researchers say is positive, since waist fat has been tied to increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

• The experimental diet drug Acomplia helps keep off unwanted pounds for up to two years, new research shows.
• After two years of treatment, patients in the study maintained a 16-pound weight loss.
• More than a third of patients taking the drug lost 10% of their body weight.
• This new research is the fourth positive study of the drug, showing that Acomplia can take off pounds and help people stop smoking.Acomplia can take off pounds and help people stop smoking.
• “We can now say that we have robust data that can be replicated that shows [Acomplia] helps people lose weight and maintain that weight loss,shows [Acomplia] helps people lose weight and maintain that weight loss,” says Van Gaal, who is a professor of diabetology, metabolism, and clinical nutrition at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
• Participants in the study were randomly selected to take either low-dose Acomplia (5 mg), high-dose Acomplia (20 mg), or a placebo.
• Additionally, all patients were told to reduce their daily caloric intake by 600 calories.
• After two years, the patients taking 20 mg lost an average of 16 pounds and kept the weight off.
• Perhaps even more encouraging, says Van Gaal, is that the patients taking Acomplia dropped inches from their waist, which is especially significant since expanding waistlines are associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.expanding waistlines are associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.
• The average waist reduction was 3 inches for patients taking 20 mg and 1.3 inches for those on the lower dose.
• After the first year of treatment, 39% of patients taking high-dose Acomplia were able to reach a goal of losing 10% of their weight.

In early clinical trials, Acomplia is looking promising. But with only 3,000+ people tested so far, it’s far from being approved by the FDA. And even as effective as Acomplia appears to be in early tests, much of the hype is overblown: daily walking or cardiovascular exercise results in far more weight loss. So does giving up the consumption of soft drinks or refined carbohydrates like white flour or added sugars. There are far more effective ways to lose weight and keep it off than popping a diet pill.

Yet the idea of a diet pill is seductive. It’s something that doesn’t require any exertion whatsoever, and that makes it a perfect fit for many Americans, who seem increasingly unwilling to actually take any action in order to achieve lasting results. What they want is a magic weight loss pill. And so far, Acomplia looks like the closest solution we’ve seen yet.

The real test, of course, will come when the potential side effects are fully examined. Will the drug be the next Vioxx or Fen-Phen? Unfortunately, we can no longer trust the drug safety review process of the FDA, meaning that even FDA approval is no guarantee that the drug is safe. We’ll only know the answer to that question after a few million people start taking the pills. No doubt, obese Americans will be lining up to volunteer as guinea pigs for this one: weight loss with no effort? Sign me up!