It’s the blockbuster weight loss drug taken by millions of overweight and obese people.But now, scientists in Hong Kong have revealed you may not have to take Ozempic or similar skinny jabs to see the benefits.They found combining extra fruit and vegetables with a new ‘supercharged’ probiotic could see you shed just as much weight as the injection. Synbiotics — a combination of a probiotic and a prebiotic, often sold as a supplement — are believed to balance your gut bacteria, benefitting your gut health, metabolism and even your immune system. Experts have long advised that the live microorganisms that boost ‘good bacteria’ in the gut, found in probiotics, can enhance weight loss. One pack of the daily ‘potent’ tablets from the cookbook author @emthenutritionist, costs £55 for a month’s supply and £135 for three  Instagram-famous nutritionist Emily English or @emthenutritionist, who boasts two million followers, launched her own synbiotic product in AprilThere are a number of theories as to how healthy good bugs fuel weight loss, with some studies suggesting certain probiotics may stop the body absorbing fat.As well as boosting beneficial bacteria levels, prebiotics — a group of nutrients —  are thought to encourage the absorption of bone-strengthening calcium thanks to the way they are digested.The new study showed synbiotics could even lead to faster weight loss, with participants who combined the tablet with extra fruit and veg losing five per cent of their body weight a month quicker than those on Ozempic. And it appears health and wellness influencers are also cottoning on.Instagram-famous nutritionist Emily English or @emthenutritionist, who boasts two million followers, launched her own synbiotic product in April. One pack of the daily ‘potent’ tablets from the cookbook author costs £55 for a month’s supply and £135 for three. However, other symbiotics can be found online, priced from £23.99 for a month’s supply.  Synbiotics — a combination of a probiotic and a prebiotic, often sold as a supplement — are believed to balance your gut bacteria, benefitting your gut health, metabolism and even your immune system. Pictured, synbiotic brand Epetome, sold by Emily EnglishBy contrast, Brits can expect to cough up around £160 on average for a month of Ozempic. In the study, scientists at The Chinese University of Hong Kong tracked 55 overweight and obese adults aged between 21 and 65. One group was given a combination of daily synbiotics and followed an eating plan that included consuming at least two servings of fruit and three of vegetables. Another group was instructed to take the synbiotics alone — once in the morning and again in the evening.The third was put on the medically-supervised fruit and veg eating plan alone. Over a follow up of eight weeks, the scientists found half of those on the combination plan lost more than five per cent of their body weight. They also had ‘significantly lowered’ blood sugar levels, improved cholesterol levels, and ‘significantly lower levels’ of the bacteria megamonas — which has been linked to improving body composition. Just one in five of those on the diet plan alone, meanwhile, saw their weight drop over five per cent. None of those taking just synbiotics reached this goal.   Semaglutide, the powerful ingredient behind Ozempic, spurs weight loss by mimicking the actions of a hormone released in the gut after eating, called GLP-1By comparison, early trials of semaglutide — the powerful ingredient behind Ozempic — found users lost a similar amount of body weight as the combined group, but in three months, as opposed to two.One 2022 study involving 175 patients on the jabs, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, found mean weight loss after three months stood at 14.8lbs (6.7kg), equivalent to 5.9 per cent.A landmark clinical trial of semaglutide, published in 2021, also discovered 86 per cent of participants achieved weight reductions of five per cent or more over 68 weeks. Writing in the journal Nutrients, the researchers said: ‘Synbiotic supplementation plus weight loss diet had more synergistic effects on body weight and BMI.’Only the diet and synbiotics group lost five per cent body weight on average at the end of the intervention, which has the prospect of fulfilling the criterion of clinically significant weight loss if maintained after one year of treatment.’ However, it should be noted that other factors may have contributed to the weight loss, as researchers did not reveal the previous smoking history or diet of the participants.Semaglutide’s slimming effect works entirely differently from that of a symbiotic.It spurs weight loss by mimicking the actions of a hormone released in the gut after eating, called GLP-1.As well as telling the pancreas to make more insulin, the GLP-1 hormone feeds back to the brain and makes users feel full.As a result, semaglutide can stop users from over-eating.But it is not without side effects, with users commonly complaining of nausea, constipation and diarrhoea after taking the medication. Bizarre symptoms, such as hair loss, have also been reported among some patients.Semaglutide has been available on the NHS in the UK since 2019, and in the US since 2017, for type 2 diabetics to manage blood sugar levels. Latest NHS data shows 26 per cent of adults in England are obese and a further 38 per cent are overweight but not obese. In the US an estimated 41.9 per cent of adult population are obese.Despite the jabs being designed to help overweight patients become healthier, there have also been growing concerns about the number of healthy weight patients taking them for cosmetic reasons. Some have even needed emergency room care after taking jabs in a bid to become ‘beach body ready’.