Does medication help you lose weight?

There has been a lot of hype in the media at the moment  surrounding the use of medication in weight loss. In particular wegovy and ozempic due to the increase in celebrities turning to these to help them lose weight. 

It hit the world by storm when it was publicised Kim Kardashian used ozempic to aid her recent weight loss, so what is ozempic?

Ozempic is a brand of drug called semiglutide, it was originally licensed to treat diabetes but has since been used to aid weight loss. It is a GLP-1 antagonist. So what exactly is that?

In simple terms GLP is a hormone that is released after you eat, to help regulate you blood sugar. Sometime in type 2 diabetes when a person has become insulin resistant it stops working as effectively. It also has a direct impact on your hunger hormone and delays gastric emptying. It is an injection pen that you inject usually in your stomach once a week. 

So what does all this mean?

In short you feel fuller for longer and it reduces your appetite. This helps to reduce the calories you consume and can often help with snacking.


Will ozempic make me lose weight? 

It certainly helps towards weight loss, but this is only one factor. There needs to be changes made to your lifestyle, looking at the type of foods you eat and when and the amount of exercise you undertake. Making changes to lifestyle will not only help you lose weight but makes these changes for a healthier lifestyle and life long.

Is ozempic and wegovy the same?

Wegovy are essentially the same, they are both semiglutide. Ozempic is the licensed drug used for control of diabetes and Wegovy is the licensed name for weight loss. Due to Wegovy not being available in the UK currently Ozempic is being used off license. 


Will I regain weight after stopping ozempic?

Once you stop taking ozempic, your appetite will return and if you haven’t made sufficient changes to your lifestyle though the foods you eat and the movement you do there is a risk you will fall back into the old ways and regain the weight. Ozempic should be used in addition to making changes to your current lifestyle.  

You should not view taking medication to lose weight a short term goal, but as an aid to help make changes to your lifestyle. 

Medication should never be considered lightly as all medication can have its side effects in the case of ozempic or Wegovy this is likely to be in the way of gastric symptoms, nausea, gastric reflux, diarrhoea, bloating or constipation. There are other side effects that can occur although rare these should be discussed in full with your medical practitioner alongside checking your full history before commencing on any medical weight loss plan. 

You should work along side your practitioner during your treatment to monitor condition, weight loss,  side effects and dosage.