If you think this story will tell you about an easy way to get rid of the 15 pounds you've piled on since Christmas,

If you think this story will tell you about an easy way to get rid of the 15 pounds you've piled on since Christmas, sorry. The truly obese - that is, those who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more may be able to drop 7% of their weight by taking Xenical or Meridia, drugs that block absoption of fat and cut appetite, respectively. But if your'e merely overwieght, with a BMI of 25 to 30, the only remedy is that same tiresome one you've heard all your life: get your face out of the Quality Street and get your arse on that treadmill. Losing relatively little weight - say going from a BMI of 27 to a BMI of 24 - can confer major helath benefits, including alower risk of diabetes and of certain cancers, oh! yes; and you'll look better too.

NOW HERE'S THE ABOSLUTLEY INTERESTING PART

But in the 2010's, everything maybe different. That's because the study of the human genome is getting researchers excited about the possibility of resetting our genetically controlled fat thermostats. The goal is to get the metabolisms of overweight people - whose genomes may predispose their bodies to store calories as fat - to behave more like those of thin people (oh JOY!!!)

Milennium Pharmeceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts is testing a drug in Britain (where?, where?) that is says does just that: increases the rate at which the body burns fat. French firm Genset hopes to start human trials in 2002 for a similar drug, Famoxin. Meanwhile, Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California, is a testing an injectable form of leptin, a hormone believed to signal the body to reduce its level of fat.

Some researchers are convinced that a virus - yes, a virus can cause obesity. About 30% of obese individuals screened in 200 at the university of Wisconsin at Madison has antibodies to and adenovirus call Ad-36, raising the possibility that you may someday be vaccinated against gaining weight (I'm in the queue baby!!). Oh! happy day!

Until then steer clear of the Cadbury's or you could always buy Biohazard's 'The Virus' (little nod to the management for subliminal advertising, but where better than on our own