Yes if you go to the GP, they can give you a tablet which helps prevent you absorbing fat/oils. However if you then eat too much fats/oils it will give most people the squirts.
I'm somewhat insulin-resistant due to PCOS (look it up if you like but not important here), and so I take a tablet called Metformin usually given to type II diabetics. As far as I gather, it sortof announces the presence of insulin to the body, so instead of just packing down a lot of my energy intake into fat cells, it actually does what it's supposed to do, and converts it into energy.
Until now I had been getting bigger (and bigger and bigger) ever since I was about 15 (when the last phase of puberty hit me and all the puppy fat fell off), despite being fairly active and well-behaved with food. It led to a massive guilt-complex over food which I am finally shaking off...
ANYWAY I was going to say that Metformin apparently also reduces fat and sugar intake in the intestines, meaning that if I eat a big bar of choc or something really fatty (choc spread is evil!), then I pay for it within a few hours as, er, it all drains out of me. Basically as the body can't absorb it in one big lump like that, in order to keep the fluids balanced, it can't pull out the liquid either (osmosis innit? Something like that). So probably the same phenomenon. It's a good incentive not to chow down on huge quantities of cheese or chocolate!
Another thing is that I am insanely lucky to:
1) Live close enough to work to cycle to and from daily, it's just far enough that it gives me that magic 1/2-hour of exercise per day, and the way home is uphill so it gets the heart pumping.
2) Have found a hobby which is a fantastic workout - I dance. Swing jive specifically - but I always get hot-and-bothered during classes and social dances, I don't drink much as it's hard to dance well when tipsy, and I do it between 2 and 4 times a week (not including jigging about in the kitchen in my socks).
I have lost about a stone-and-a-half since August (though looks like more, increases in muscle and losses in body fat taken into account) and am steadily going downwards, hoping to meet my ideal weight by Hallowe'en next year
