New ‘Godzilla’ drug helps lose 24% of body weight

DIETERS can lose almost a quarter of their body weight using a slimming jab seen as the most effective yet.

Trials of the drug – dubbed the ‘Godzilla’ of weight-loss medication – helped patients shed an average of 2 per cent of their weight in less than a year. Unlike other drugs, retatrutide not only suppresses the appetite but also speeds up the metabolism – helping it to outperform hugely popular jabs such as Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro.

According to the results, the obese shed st 3oz on average in just 8 weeks. The outcomes were more stark in women, helping them lose 28.5 per cent of their body weight, against 21.2 per cent for men.

Presenting their findings at the European Obesity Congress in Venice, Ania Jastreboff, director of the Yale Obesity Research Centre, said: ‘The results are striking.

‘In a phase two trial, this degree of weight reduction in this time frame has not been seen.’

Retatrutide targets a hormone known as glucagon that triggers the body to burn more fat.

Professor Alex Miras, an obesity expert at Ulster University, said: ‘It increases energy expenditure – the amount of energy that you burn.

‘So there are two mechanisms; decreasing food intake and increasing energy expenditure. Up until now all of the medications have just focused on reducing food intake.’

Retatrutide is made by the US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.