Researchers conducted a 6-month study to see how the medication lorcaserin affected body composition, blood fats, and muscle hormones in adults with obesity. They randomly assigned 48 adults to take either lorcaserin or a placebo pill twice daily and measured changes over time.
The study found that people taking lorcaserin lost more total body weight and had greater reductions in both total body fat and abdominal fat than those taking the placebo. Their blood also showed lower levels of certain fat-carrying particles called triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. However, the medication did not cause significant changes in hormones that regulate muscle, like myostatin and IGF-1.
It's important to be cautious about these results. The study was small, with only 48 participants, and the researchers did not report exactly how much weight people lost on average. The abstract also did not include information about side effects or how well people tolerated the medication. While the findings suggest lorcaserin may help with weight and fat loss, more research is needed to confirm these effects and understand the full safety profile.