An 'Exercise Pill' Just Cleared Its First Human Test

Ground control to Major Tom

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

"just"

The jargon term "exercise mimetic" is really badly named. It means only that it mimics some of the effects of exercise -- in this case, appetite suppressant.

So the term does distinguish it from the GLP-1 drugs, which target endpoints that aren't triggered by exercise. But it's otherwise really confusing, because appetite suppression is not what most people think of as a key effect of exercise. (I think most people don't even realize that exercise has an appetite suppression effect at all.)