Xenical is a prescription drug designed to help significantly overweight people lose weight. It is a version of Alli, the only diet pill that is approved by the FDA.

According to the manufacturers, Xenical is different from other diet pills because instead of suppressing your appetite or speeding up your metabolism, it blocks about one-third of the fat you eat from being digested. The undigested fat cannot be broken down and is eliminated through your bowel movements.

However, Xenical is not a magic pill.

"Xenical is a weight-loss drug that can have significant side effects and in blocking the absorption of fat to encourage weight loss, may also block the absorption of important vitamins, minerals and healthful fats required by the body," says Marissa Lippert, RD, of Nutrition Counseling & Communications. "Weight-loss drugs are temporary fixes, rather than lasting solutions. It's important to remember that in order to healthfully lose weight and sustain it, fresh food in the appropriate portion sizes should be the primary focus."

The American Heart Association agrees and recommends reduced-calorie diets that typically allow for no more than 30 percent of your daily caloric intake to come from fat.

Possible side effects include uncontrollable bowel movements, gas and oily discharge.

If you think Xenical may be right for you, speak to your doctor.

At That's Fit, we've got great food ideas, exercise plans and more to help you lose weight.

Love handles refer to fat deposited on the sides of the waist. These unsightly bulges are also known as a spare tire or a muffin top, which occurs when excess fat hangs over a person's waistband.

Most people agree that having excess fat around the midsection is undesirable. Research shows that abdominal fat leads to higher risks of heart disease, diabetes and even certain types of cancers. But how do you go about getting rid of love handles?

One way to effectively eliminate love handles is to lose weight by following a reduced-calorie diet and by consistently doing cardiovascular exercise.

As you begin your diet and exercise program, you can disguise your love handles by wearing clothes that fit properly. Avoid too-tight clothing, low-rise jeans and midriff-baring shirts. Opt for pants that go around your natural waist and for women, skirts and dresses that sit at your natural waist.

Check out AOL Health's belly-bloating foods to avoid or eat belly-flattening foods. AOL Health also has sections on how to burn ab fat and ab workouts.

SlimQuick is a weight-loss product that claims to be the first fat-burning aid created especially for the fat-storage issues of a woman's body. The weight-loss formula uses vitamin and herb complexes to "overcome the physiological and hormonal barriers" of losing fat."

Reviews of SlimQuick are mixed. On the positive side, the SlimQuick program advocates an exercise program to accompany the use of the product. One testimonial on the SlimQuick web site said, "I was faithful to the diet and exercise program that was outlined. I have never had such quick and excellent results in any diet program."

But there are dissenters out there, too. "Products like SlimQuick perpetuate the growing trend of misinformation under the guise of 'science.' At best, it offers false promises of health and fitness in a bottle," said Melissa Urban, owner of CrossFit 603. "At worst, it could be dangerous to your health."

Filippa Hamilton, the 23-year-old stunner in the ad, was let go "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract," with Ralph Lauren or -- as her agency was told -- because she was a bit too large to fit into the clothing. Interestingly, they had recently issued a statement on the issue claiming she was "beautiful and healthy" -- is this to suggest that they'd prefer to have skeletal and gaunt models representing their brand over beautiful and healthy ones?

It's hard to have sympathy for a company that perpetuates such an unhealthy body image, and they definitely won't get any from Hamilton. "I think they owe American women an apology, a big apology," she said in the NY Daily News. "I'm very proud of what I look like, and I think a role model should look healthy." Amen, sister.

Click on the video below to see Filippa talk about her weight.

Sadly, many women are not happy in their skin. Katherine Heigl says she'd rather have Nicole Richie's body.

Photo: Getty Images

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Green tea has been heralded for years as a great addition to your diet if you're watching your weight. The evidence for tea as a weight loss companion continues to grow, but this time it's white tea in the spotlight.

The researchers took an extract from white tea and put it in test tube cultures containing human cells called preadipocytes. Preadipocytes are cells which ultimately turn into fat cells. Exposure to the white tea extract helped prevent that from happening. In a related experiment, researchers then applied the same solution of white tea extract to fully-mature fat cells and found that the extract actually stimulated fat burning in those cells, ultimately reducing their fat content.

Remember that an increase in body fat actually involves two processes: The first is an increase in the number of fat cells, and the second is an increase in the size of the fat cells themselves. If you think of fat cells as little sponges, the first process would be like getting more sponges, and the second would be like soaking them with more water. The white tea extract affected both processes.

Photo: Bauer-Griffin

Kevin Federline has gone from K-Fed to K-Too-Well-Fed. The former back-up dancer has been out of shape for a while, but recent pictures on TMZ show that he's passed the out-of-shape phase and has completely Brandoed.

According to TMZ, Federline will take part in the next "Celebrity Fit Club," where he'll be joined by Bobby Brown, Nicole Eggert and Shar Jackson (you know, the other lady with whom he has children). And if you're dying to see what happens when the pompously-plump Federline encounters the famously-outspoken Brown, you're not alone.

Vh1's "Celebrity Fit Club" has featured such stars as plus-size model Mia Tyler, singer Carnie Wilson and actors Daniel Baldwin, Gary Busey and Bruce Vilanch. Keep up on the latest "Celebrity Fit Club" news with AOL Television.

Photo: sleepyneko, Flickr

Tough day at the office? Nothing a pint of Häagen-Dazs chocolate-chocolate chip can't fix, right? Think again. A new study suggests that foods high in saturated fat can trick our bodies into eating more -- and that the effect may last for up to three days.

The UT Southwestern Medical Center study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, found that fat from certain foods heads straight to the brain. The fat molecules, in turn, prompt the brain to send signals to the body's cells to ignore appetite-suppressing signals from insulin and leptin, hormones involved in food intake and body-weight regulation.

We already know that saturated fat raises cholesterol levels and increases our risk of heart disease, but these findings indicate that fat intake also disrupts weight-regulating hormone activity. Palmitic acid, a saturated fat found in beef, butter, cheese and milk, appears to be the worst offender.

Photo: Bekathwia, Flickr

If you're trying to lose a few pounds, trading your regular soda for the diet version could be doing more harm than good. True, swapping a can of Coke Zero for the regular kind slices 139 calories from your daily intake, but research from the University of Liverpool in England suggests that your body processes artificial, calorie-free sweeteners the same way it does regular sugar.

Just as your taste buds can't differentiate between regular and artificial sweeteners (aside that chemically aftertaste), the receptors in your intestines aren't able to tell the difference either. Once the intestines sense sweetness, they seek out glucose to absorb. So even though that Equal is calorie-free -- your body may still take calories from somewhere else if these receptors are activated.

"Artificial sweeteners can also activate the glucose sensor and increase the capacity of the intestine to absorb more sugar," Soraya Shirazi-Beechey, lead author of the study and a professor of Molecular Physiology and Biochemistry at Liverpool University, tells the Daily Mail. "If someone wants to lose weight, I don't think artificial sweeteners are going to help," she says. "My recommendation is to eat natural foods, but to eat less of them."

It's unclear from Shirazi-Beechey's research whether the amount of glucose absorbed after sensing an artificial sweetener would equal the calorie-equivalent of a regular soda.

Photo: Steven M 61, Flickr

While well-intentioned do-gooders like us usually spend our time touting the shear greatness of wholesome and fresh food, we just have to tell you about a concoction that's so mind-bogglingly unhealthy, you can't help but be kind of in awe of it: Deep-fried butter. That's right, pure fat fried in fat. It's possibly the least healthy thing ever invented (hey, at least this calorie shocker has protein) -- in fact, the only thing I can think of that would be worse would be deep-fried butter wrapped in bacon and smothered in Velveeta. Do not try this at home, people.

Deep fried butter is the brain child of Abel Gonzales Jr., and it's vying for the top prize at the Big Tex Choice Awards, which showcases la creme de la creme (so to speak) of the fair food at the Texas State Fair. Just where did he get the idea? A love of buttered toast led him to the natural conclusion that his favorite staple would be much better deep fried (isn't everything?). The dish is made with frozen balls of whipped butter -- each about the size of a golf ball -- which are then covered in dough and deep fried. They can be injected with flavor, sprinkled with sugar -- or enjoyed in their natural, artery-clogging state.

But in case you're thinking this is your food dream come true, please heed the (totally obvious) warning of its inventor, who cautions that this should be just an occasional indulgence. "[The fair] is a special time of the year where you want something good. You work it off for the next few weeks eating salads," he says. Though if you actually want to burn this off, we think it will take more than a few salads -- a quick jog to Buenos Aires sounds about right.

Curious about other fair foods, like the funnel cake? A whopping 760 calories in this one.

Photo: Darren Hester, Flickr

For years, fat carried around the abdominal area has been regarded as the detrimental by-product of our fast-food consuming, activity-loathing society -- and not just because it looks awful hanging over the edge of your low-cut jeans. Belly fat is just plain bad for your health. In fact, it's the worst kind of fat to have. Or so we thought.

Recent findings from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are suggesting that our obsession with belly fat is misguided -- it's actually the fat that's collected in the liver that we should be concerned with. "Visceral (abdominal) fat tracks closely with liver fat," lead author Dr. Samuel Klein says in a press release. "We have found that excess fat in the liver, not visceral fat, is a key marker of metabolic dysfunction. Visceral fat might simply be an innocent bystander that is associated with liver fat."

The bad news? Unlike belly fat, you can't really tell if your liver is fatty (well, not in a mirror, anyway.) But there is good news. "Fatty liver disease is completely reversible," says Klein. "Even two days of calorie restriction can cause a large reduction in liver fat and improvement in liver insulin sensitivity." So what are you waiting for? Help that liver of yours slim down.

Can make-up help? Find out if lip balm can lead to weight loss.

Photo: Darren Hester, Flickr

Some weight loss drugs help you slim down but may cost you your health -- and other products don't even work at all. But there is some promise in a new drug in development that can not only help you lose weight, but can also help treat serious complications of obesity, specifically diabetes and high cholesterol. In recent studies on mice, fatostatin, as it is currently known, led to weight loss of 12 percent, reduction in blood sugar levels of 70 percent, reversal of diabetes and lower cholesterol. According to the findings from Chemistry & Biology, "Fatostatin blocked increases in body weight, blood glucose, and hepatic (liver) fat accumulation in (genetically) obese mice, even under uncontrolled food intake."

As for how it works? In a nutshell, Fatostatin stops the body from producing fat -- it's released as energy instead. It works by effectively 'turning off' proteins that help control fat synthesis.

OK, it's one thing to help mice lose weight -- past experience has proved that what works on a mouse doesn't always work on a human. So can it do the same for us? "I am very, very optimistic," lead author Sahil Wakil tells MSNBC. So are we -- but I'm hoping most of us are taking steps to change our lives today instead of holding out for a so-called miracle drug that's years away.

Wondering how to slim down? Find out how Phylicia Rashad did it.

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You know those super annoying people who seem to eat endless amounts of junk and never gain an ounce? The ones who swear up and down that they don't work out and don't watch what they eat and yet they effortlessly slide into size 4 jeans every day. Well, as it turns out, a few of them might just be telling the truth. Recent studies have found that there's an enzyme at least partially responsible for making you fat, and some people just don't have it. Lucky jerks.

According to research at the University of California at San Francisco, the enzyme MGAT2 -- found in your intestines -- determines how our food is metabolized; it can either be turned into energy or stored as fat. And studies on mice found that when they were missing MGAT2, they didn't gain either, regardless of how much they ate. That's not all -- the absence of the enzyme also prevented them from developing obesity-related disorders like diabetes.

Still, it'll be a long time until this kind of research can be applied to humans, so in the meantime, make sure you keep eating healthy and exercising.

If you're needing to slim down in a hurry, why not try the Skinny Jeans Workout?

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Retailers would like to help us remain in a state of denial about our ever-expanding waistlines. They'd like us not to notice how fat we're actually getting.

We don't like facing up to the fact that we're becoming fatter by the minute, and most of us don't particularly like buying "fat clothes." We'd prefer not to notice that those size 8 dresses that used to fit no longer do, or that when we try on those 32-inch waist jeans that used to fit so well, they now feel like they were made for just one of our legs. When that happens, we just don't buy as much. Retailers noticed -- and they have a solution. They changed the sizes.

"In recent years," writes Elizabeth Landau on CNN.com, "brands from the luxury names to the mass retail chains have scaled down the size labels on their clothing," which means "you may actually be a size 14, and, according to whatever particular store you're in, you come out a size 10," says Natalie Nixon, associate professor of fashion industry management at Philadelphia University. Why? Simple. It makes the consumer -- you and me -- feel good.

Photo: bethography - meltingmama, Flickr

It's not news that obesity in the United States has become a serious issue. Not only is it damaging on a personal level, but on a national one. For example, obesity has cost the state of California alone an estimated $41 billion yearly in health care and other factors. And, a study found spending on obesity-related conditions has doubled over the past 10 years and now accounts for 9.1 percent of medical spending.

In fact, it's a big enough problem that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is holding its inaugural Weight of the Nation Conference on Obesity Prevention and Control. The conference began yesterday and will go through tomorrow, and you can keep up with it on Twitter by following @CDC_eHealth or searching #won09.

It's certainly going to be interesting to see what decisions and legislation ultimately come out of this conference -- acknowledging the gravity of the situation is certainly a step in the right direction. But what will the next step be?

Your body needs a healthy amount of fat daily. But choose wisely and don't overdo it