For people with a serious obesity problem, dieting and exercising may not be enough on their own. Taking a pill that replicates the effects of exercise may be one solution, but scientists from the University of Kansas are developing what could be another – compounds that keep the fat in foods from being absorbed by the body.
Known as micelle sequestrant polymers (MSPs), the compounds capture fat particles called micelles while they’re still in the intestines. Subsequently, instead of being digested, those micelles are passed with the feces.
In lab tests, mice that had ingested MSPs had nine to 10 times the amount of triglycerides in their stools than control animals (triglycerides are the main dietary fat). As there was no evidence of the MSPs themselves being absorbed by the body, the scientists are hopeful that they may be safe for long-term use.
A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Biomacromolecules.
Source: American Chemical Society
The issue is the excessive number of calories in western diets that come from simple carbohydrates (wheat, Corn, Starch, Sugar etc). These are too readily absorbed and sequestered by the human body, to the exclusion of other sources where they are taken in excess.
If you restrict your intake of these food items to a minimum, and increase your intake of fats to compensate, provided you do not already suffer from health issues that preclude this. You will find, provided even moderate exercise, that you will end up loosing weight, not feel so fatigued or so quickly hungry again. Because the breakdown of fats is a metabolic path that requires greater efforts and the natural hunger satisfaction sense is more quickly triggered by fats than by carbs.
We have to stop demonising fats and start looking at the real issue of our corn fed lifestyle.
We've been sold a bill of goods on crap like the "food pyramid"- the more people try to follow the "government guidelines", the more obese they get.
Frustose sugars are processed differently than natural sugar in milk and yet the calories may be comparable the net effect is quite different. Go outside the USA where high fructose sugars are not used and the profile of the population with regard to obesity is quite different.
The fast food diet that is putting the pounds on American adults and children is not high in fat but it is high in carbohydrates and extremely high in processed sugar. A single 12 oz. soft drink has 50% of the recommended daily allowance of sugar.
No science is needed to know that the problem is the sugar intake and obesity is a minor health problem as compared to diabetes and heart disease that are by products of the high doses of sugar being consumed on a daily basis in this country.
When exercise comes into the equation; and whether it's aerobic or anaerobic changes everything. Diet changes things up even moreso. Exercise--to put it in the most basic of explanations, carbs are carbs, fats are fats and proteins...well, protein is everything.
To sum it up... carbs and proteins provide 4 k/calories. Fats are 8 k/calories. That will never change. What you do regarding remaining sedentary or being active is what changes how those are used and in what way.