Could A Little Oxytocin Jumpstart Your Weight-Loss?

Are you in love? Or have you lost that loving feeling?

If you have, it might benefit your weight loss regimen to find a matchmaker. In other words, oxytocin, perfectly coined the love hormone, can actually boost your weight loss, particularly when it comes to men losing weight.

All the sudden those nachos at the game don't look so sexy anymore, right?

Harvard researchers recently presented a study at the Endocrine Soceity during the annual meeting in San Diego on Sunday. Lead researcher of the university Elizabeth Lawson examined 25 men all around the age of 27--half of whom were obese or overweight.

The participants were given a placebo or were instructed to self-adminster a nasal spray that contained synthetic oxytocin. Shortly after, researchers recorded how much food the men consumed. Afterward, they switched who was given the spray or the placebo and studied any weight loss applications.

Findings revealed that men who received the nasal spray ate about 122 calories less than the others. And they ate less fatty food in general.

"This study suggests that oxytocin may reduce the amount of food that people eat and improve the way that the body handles blood sugar. It will be important to do more studies to find out whether we could use oxytocin to treat obesity and [type 2] diabetes," Dr Lawson said, via Medscape Medical News.

With future studies, researchers hope to continue to study how it might one day be used as an effective tool for treating obesity. They would also like to determine if the results are similar in women.