Shots may help you lose that pot belly -report

Her team also made NPY into a slow-release pellet. When they placed this pellet under the skin of thin rhesus monkeys, they grew pockets of fat around the pellets. Such treatments may help replace the fat lost in people's faces as they age.

They used a drug made by privately owned Boehringer Ingelheim to do this, and have a license for its use in this way, but Zukowska said her team may look for other drugs that have the same effect. It has not yet been tested in humans.

Zukowska noted that some clinics claim to already offer such treatments, but said they use bile acids that kill tissue and may cause infection. "There isn't anything on the market right now that could be used to melt the fat that is scientifically proven," she said.