The treatment is a natural digestive hormone called, oxyntomodulin, that is released in the small intestine and was given to 26 people over the course of 4-weeks.
"The discovery that oxyntomodulin can be effective in reducing weight could be an important step in tackling the rising levels of obesity in society," Professor Steve Bloom told the BBC.
"Volunteers who were given three injections of the treatment each day 30 minutes before meals lost an average of 5 lbs.
A control group that had dummy injections lost about 1 lb.
It is just fooling the brain that you have already had lunch by releasing the appetite hormone before you have actually eaten."
No side effects were reported during the study.
