Dr Amir Khan opened up about the importance of sleep in regards to weight and a new injection that could be offered on the NHS to help stabilise hunger hormones.
Joining hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, he spoke about an injection called semaglutide, which is administered weekly and mimics a hormone naturally produced in the gut and decreases hunger.
While it is not a new drug, it is being looked at for approval for use in the NHS for weight loss.
He said: "There's an injection that everyone's talking about called semaglutide, it's from a family of drugs called GLP-1. It's a once weekly injection and it mimics a hormone that naturally produced in your gut and it slows down the movement of food through your gut, decreasing your appetite and decreases your hunger as well.
"So it helps lose weight by suppressing all of those things. It's not a new drug - we've been using it for quite some time to manage issues like Type 2 diabetes. It helps control blood sugars as well, but it's now being looked at for approval for use in the NHS for weight loss. So it's perhaps for people who are struggling with their weight to look forward to.
"Lots of people struggle with their weight for lots of different reasons. And it's not about movement or treatment - other illnesses like chronic pain can help prevent people from [gaining] weight."
Dr Amir went on to speak about the health benefits of sleep.
He explained: "With regards to sleep, I'm a big fan of the health benefits of sleep. It does so many good things but one of the things it does do is that it suppresses your hunger hormone ghrelin and it helps keep you full by promoting a hormone called leptin.
"So good amounts of sleep will help suppress hunger and reduce your appetite and getting more sleep prevents snacking, that kind of thing, and helps lose weight that way too."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
