'Quick fix' GPs blamed as number of people using diet pills balloons

"Balloons." Just like the people who take them.

Record numbers of overweight men and women are resorting to diet pills, statistics reveal.

Doctors are writing almost 1.5million prescriptions a year for the drugs – 11 times more than a decade ago.

The figures come as obesity is spiralling, from 7 per cent of adults in 1980 to 23 per cent in 2009.

However, it is feared that many GPs are using the pills as a quick fix instead of encouraging patients to focus on healthy eating and exercise.

Just 127,000 prescriptions for obesity pills were handed out in England in 1999 against 1.45million in 2009, according to latest figures from the NHS Information Centre.

The cost to the Health Service has rocketed to almost £47million a year as a result.

Orlistat – which is marketed under the trade name Xenical – is the only anti-obesity pill currently available for GPs to prescribe to seriously overweight patients.

And it is remarkably ineffective.

Orlistat, which came on to the market in 1998, disrupts the absorption of fat in the intestine so that the body excretes it instead.

Users must stick to a low-fat diet or face unpleasant side effects, including bowel problems.

Although doctors argue that issuing pills is only a last resort after obese patients have failed to lose weight by changing their diet and lifestyle, health experts have criticised the findings, arguing that GPs are still turning too quickly to the prescription pad.

Lies.

It is impossible not to lose weight if one eats fewer Calories than one burns.

Money wasted.