Compounds for the treatment of obesity and methods of use thereof

A pharmaceutical dosage formulation for oral administration of sustained or controlled release of an active agent to a pre-obese, obese, or morbidly obese human, the active agent consisting of celastrol

• wherein the celastrol is present in an amount between 0.005 mg and 1 mg per kg of body weight of the human, which is effective to induce weight loss, reduce the body fat, reduce food intake, improve glucose homeostasis, or combinations thereof, in the pre-obese, obese, or morbidly obese human in the absence of systemic toxicity,
• in a pharmaceutically acceptable oral dosage formulation selected from the group consisting of tablets, capsules, solutions, suspensions, syrups, granules, beads, powders and lozenges.