Here is a comment from someone who gained 50 pounds while taking various dopamine agonist drugs, that is drugs that directly stimulate dopamine receptors, and enhance dopamine.

Comment: Not all drugs or supplements that increase dopamine cause weight gain, in fact, some cause weight loss. But this person’s experience is still a good one to be aware of.

Someone emailed and asked what I thought of the weight loss supplement Apatrim and if I thought it is effective for weight loss.

Apatrim is Caralluma Fimbriata extract. A summary of the one and only published study is posted here.

The study found that Caralluma Fimbriata extract increased weight loss by 2.2 pounds more than placebo in two months, in other words, it increased weight loss by only 1.1 pounds per month—not much.

Men given 250 mg of forskolin extract containing 10% forskolin (25 mg of forskolin) twice a day lost 9.9 pounds of body fat and increased lean body mass by 8.1 pounds in three months compared to the placebo group which lost 1.1 pounds of body fat and gained 3.5 pounds of lean body mass according to a study from Michael Godard and others from the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences’ Applied Physiology Laboratory at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

“In summary, this study shows that forskolin causes positive changes in body composition in overweight and obese adult men,” the paper concluded.

Here is an update to a previous story of a 43-year-old man who had lost 44 pounds in three months on the experimental drug Qnexa, which is simply a combination of phentermine and Topamax (topriamate).

As of now, which is approximately 4 months, he has lost 50 pounds.

Someone emailed and asked what I thought of the weight loss supplement Lipozene.

Someone emailed this morning and asked what I thought about the weight loss supplement CalTrap?

Sprinkling non-caloric taste-enhancing crystals on food cause men to lose an average of 34.8 pounds, or 16 percent of their body weight in six months, while women lost an average of 29.9 pounds, or 14.4 percent of their body weight versus a weight loss of 2 pounds for the control group according to a study by the always interesting Alan Hirsch, MD at his Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

“The Tastants may have induced weight loss by enhancing the taste of the food, thereby accelerating the onset of sensory-specific satiety, causing participants to feel full faster and eat less,” Dr. Hirsch noted.

These crystals are being sold under the name of SENSA costing $210 for a 6 month supply.

People who had lost an average of 5.9 percent of their body weight in two months while on a diet, felt more full, less hungry and had less of a desire to eat 2 hours after eating dinner when their diet included taking 6 capsules of fish oil per day which contained more than 1300 mg of omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) compared to those who ate a diet containing some seafood, but less than 260 mg of omega-3 fatty acids per day according to a new study from researchers at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.

“However, the use of (omega-3 fish oil capsules) could be useful to increase compliance in weight loss programs including energy restriction,” the authors of the study concluded.

“[T]hey could improve the patients’ compliance to changes in dietary habits required for weight loss and weight loss maintenance.”

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, which has previously been found to prevent obesity in mice on a high-fat diet, prevents precursors to human fat cells from becoming mature fat cells according to new research from the University of Ulm in Ulm, Germany that was presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, USA on June 17th, 2008.

“In this cell-based study, they found that resveratrol inhibited the pre-fat cells from increasing and prevented them from converting into mature fat cells.”

The study used human fat cell precursors, called preadipocytes.

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, hinders fat storage according to a cell-based study from the University of Ulm in Ulm, Germany that was presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, USA on June 17th, 2008.

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, reduces production of certain chemicals in the body called cytokines —interleukins 6 and 8—that are linked to the development of obesity-related disorders, such as diabetes and coronary artery disease according to a cell-based study from the University of Ulm in Ulm, Germany that was presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, USA on June 17th, 2008.

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, stimulates production of a chemical known as adiponectin, which decreases the risk of heart attack according to a cell-based study from the University of Ulm in Ulm, Germany that was presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, USA on June 17th, 2008.

Obesity decreases adiponectin.

“Resveratrol has anti-obesity properties by exerting its effects directly on the fat cells,” said Pamela Fischer-Posovszky, PhD, a researchers at Ulm University’s Diabetes and Obesity Unit located in Ulm, Germany who presented findings of a her new study at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, USA on June 17th, 2008.

“Thus, resveratrol might help to prevent development of obesity or might be suited to treating obesity.”

A single dose of resveratrol up to 5,000 mg, a compound found in grapes and red wine that has anti-obesity properties, did not cause any serious side effects when given to humans noted Pamela Fischer-Posovszky, PhD, a researchers at Ulm University’s Diabetes and Obesity Unit located in Ulm, Germany who presented findings of a her new study at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, USA on June 17th, 2008.

However, she also noted that another study “theorized that resveratrol may stimulate the growth of human breast cancer cells, possibly because resveratrol’s chemical structure is similar to a phytoestrogen, an estrogen-like substance found in some plants.”

In England, there were eight times more prescriptions written for diet pills in 2006 than in 1999—1.06 million versus 127,000—as noted in an article on the UK’s Mail Online.

“In 2000, 60% of Australians aged 25 years were reported to be overweight or obese,” according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

”The Diabetes Prevention Program showed that lifestyle intervention reduced the risk for diabetes to a greater extent than the anti-diabetic drug metformin (58% vs. 31%) (Knowler WC et al, 2002),” according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

The lifestyle-modification program had a goal of losing at least a 7 percent of body weight and at engaging in at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week, while the dose of metformin was 850 mg twice a day.

Note: The report mistakenly stated that metformin only reduced the risk by 13%, but the number should have been 31%.

Among Australians 18-years and older, 26 percent of men and 20 percent of women are obese, while and additional 41 percent of men and 54 percent of women are overweight according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

Nearly 4 million out of a total of 15 million Australian adults are obese according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

Among Australians 45- to 64-years-old, 72 percent of men and 58 percent of women are overweight or obese according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

“A simple strategy such as losing [11 pounds] in 5 months has the potential to result in 27% to 34% fewer cardiovascular-related hospital admissions and deaths over the next 20 years,” according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

A new study suggests that eating a low-calorie diet limited to 1240 calories per day that includes a big breakfast containing 610 calories with lots of protein (47 grams), some fat (22 grams) and a moderate amount of carbohydrates (58 grams) causes more weight loss than eating low-calorie diet containing 1085 calories per day that includes a small breakfast (290 calories) with a small amount of protein (12 grams), a small amount of carbohydrates (7 grams), and the same amount of fat (22 grams).

After four months, women on the diet with the low-carb, low-protein breakfast had lost 28 pounds compared to 23 pounds for those on the diet with the big breakfast.

After eight months, women on the diet with the low-carb, low-protein breakfast had lost 44.5 pounds compared to 10 pounds for those on the diet with the big breakfast, having regained 18 pounds.

As a percentage of body weight, those on the low-carb, low-protein breakfast had lost 4.5 percent compared to 21 percent for those on the diet with the big breakfast.

Type 2 diabetes is improved or resolved in 88 percent of people who lose even 30 percent of their excess weight following weight loss surgery according to findings presented on June 18th, 2008 in Washington, DC at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery.

Researchers from New York University School of Medicine followed 50 patients for two years who had undergone gastric band surgery.

People who watch no more than 5 hours of television per week are only half as likely to be obese compared to those who watch 21 hours or more according to a study by Margot Shields and Mark Tremblay at Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistics agency.

“Approximately one-quarter of men (25%) and women (24%) who reported watching television 21 or more hours per week [that is at least 3 hours per day] were classified as obese,” the study noted, compared to 14% of men and 11% of women who reported watching 5 hours per week or less [that is less than one hour per day].

Among people who use the computer 6 hours or more per week, men are 20 percent more likely to be obese, and women are 30 percent more likely to be obese compare to those who use the computer 5 hours or less per week according to a study by Margot Shields and Mark Tremblay at Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistics agency.