Most weight loss pills are 'scams' says professor

A leading public health expert has suggested that most of the 1,000 weight loss products on sale in Australia are scams.

Dr Ken Harvey, an Adjunct Associate Professor in La Trobe University's school of public health, says claims that diet pills can help people lose weight fast after bingeing are "crazy and dangerous".

Online firm undoit.com.au claims its pills remove fat and carbs from food. For example, it claims someone could eat a Big Mac and fries and take five pills to undo it. A biscuit could be undone with one pill.

However, Dr Harvey suggests "it's crazy, dangerous stuff and very appealing if you like your Big Mac and fries. But there's no evidence it works and it"s really dangerous from a public health point of view."

Dr Harvey believes that many products on the market "certainly rip people off ", were straight-out scams, or diverted people away from weight loss programs that actually work.

Dr Harvey said some of them might have fibre that can make people feel more full, while others relied on diuretics or laxatives, but that "none of them are worth money", adding "by and large none of them are really worth the money and none have good scientific evidence to substantiate their claims.

"They're just scams (and) there's real harm in terms of turning people away from more evidence-based (care) ... we've got an obesity epidemic on our hands."

Last year, Dr Harvey complained to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) about former NSW Liberal Leader Kerry Chikarovski's range of Suprexxa weight loss products (pictured), sold by her company Chika Health.

The TGA recently said it could find no evidence for the company's claims that Supprexxa Fat Burner Max capsules and Metabolism Kick oral spray work. They gave Chika Health 20 working days to respond before a kit that contains the two products is cancelled from its list of sanctioned products.

The undoit website says Dr Harvey's claims are "simply wrong" and points to clinical studies done using the same ingredients, although none of them are specifically about undoit pills.

Dr Harvey wants the TGA to stop sanctioning products that do not work.