According to a new study, false beliefs about weight loss drugs could be causing people to gain weight rather than lose it!

“Weight management remedies that promise to reduce the risks of being overweight may undermine consumer motivation to engage in health-supportive behaviours,” write authors Lisa E. Bolton (Pennsylvania State University), Amit Bhattacharjee (Dartmouth College) and Americus Reed, II (University of Pennsylvania). “Put simply, why put effort into living a healthy lifestyle when a weight management remedy can take care of the problem?”

People think it’s safe to eat more

Study participants were each given free access to a bowl of chocolate cookies, with one group advised ahead of time about a new, powerful, fat-fighting pill.

The group that believed in the existence of the new pill ate significantly more cookies per person – some participants consuming as many as 30. An additional test showed that the more fattening the cookie, the more the participants would overeat, as long as they expected to be able to take the weight loss pill.

The study warned that the very people who need to reduce weight the most and are desperately reaching for weight loss pills are unfortunately the ones most likely to then dangerously increase their consumption of unhealthy foods.