In a nation with over 160,000 fast food chains, 24-hour drive-thrus, and saturated fat-laden foods, it can be a never-ending struggle to avoid the temptation of fatty foods and lose weight. With weight-loss supplements, fad diets, and fat-burning doodads, people will drop the pounds temporarily but gain the weight back.

However, there may be a simpler and much healthier way to keep the fat off for good. According to a recent study published in the journal PLoS ONE, getting high — living in high altitudes, that is — can suppress hunger by increasing leptin and other hormones involved in appetite control, curbing obesity risk by nearly half, The Medical Daily reported.

Losing weight by merely heading for the hills may hold some truth. Altitude could be more of a friend than a foe when it comes to dropping the pounds. Typically, people who reside in high altitudes — above sea level — are known to be healthy and thin. 

In the most recent study, a team of American researchers sought to investigate whether long-term residence at high altitude actually confers benefits in humans when it comes to losing weight. The study analyzed about 100,000 U.S. Army and Air Force servicemen and women, all with at least two years of service, from January 2006 to December 2012. During that time period, they moved between assignments at high altitude (1.2 miles above sea level or higher) and low altitude (0.6 miles or lower). All the participants had an overweight but not obese body mass index (BMI) equal to or less than 25, but no greater than 30.

The findings revealed overweight people serving at high altitudes had a 41 percent lower risk of progressing to obesity than those serving at low altitudes.