Weight loss is something with which millions of people struggle. As you know, your weight doesn’t just contribute to your physical appearance. Your weight and the amount of fat in your body can help or hurt your body by contributing to either a healthy physique or lead to medical issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Weight loss is not just about restricting calories, which is what most people try to do. Weight loss is really about correcting your nutrition, managing your stress, and for some, working with or around chronic diseases and medical conditions.

What is semaglutide?

Semaglutide is an injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist that’s administered once weekly. It was originally approved in 2017 — at a lower dose under the brand name Ozempic — to help control blood sugar in Type 2 diabetes. People taking Ozempic for blood sugar control also tend to lose weight as an additional benefit.

Because of this, Novo Nordisk studied the medication in people without Type 2 diabetes, but at a higher dose. Now, semaglutide (under the brand name Wegovy) is FDA approved for weight loss. It can be used by adults with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 mg/kg² alone or 27 mg/kg² with at least one weight-related condition (e.g., high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes).

Semaglutide is also approved for chronic weight management in adolescents ages 12 and older. Eligibility is based on having an initial BMI at or above the 95th percentile for sex and age.

Semaglutide should be used in combination with lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and exercise.

How does semaglutide work for weight loss?

GLP-1 is an incretin hormone that plays a role in your appetite and digestion. Incretins — hormones released by your digestive tract — are sent out by your body after you’ve eaten a meal. They help lower your blood sugar by triggering insulin release and blocking sugar production. They also slow down how quickly food leaves your stomach (called gastric emptying).

The result of these actions causes you to feel full — lowering your appetite and causing you to lose weight. Medications like GLP-1 agonists are referred to as incretin mimetics since they “mimic” these effects.

As mentioned above, GLP-1 agonists, like semaglutide, were originally used to treat Type 2 diabetes. This was due to their blood sugar-lowering effects. However, the weight loss side effect has been shown to benefit people without Type 2 diabetes as well.

What do we know about semaglutide side effects?

As introduced earlier, gastrointestinal (GI) side effects tend to happen most frequently when taking this medication. The most common are nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. You may experience these effects more strongly when your healthcare provider increases your dose.

Additional common side effects can include:

Constipation
Stomach pain
Headache
Fatigue
Indigestion
Dizziness
Bloating
Burping

How does semaglutide compare to other weight loss medications?

One of the reasons there’s a lot of buzz around semaglutide is the amount of weight people lost during clinical trials. Typically, we tend to see an average of 5% to 10% weight loss with other medications.

The largest clinical trial studying semaglutide in adults showed an average weight loss of about 15% of initial body weight over 68 weeks (almost 16 months). Over the same length of time in another study, adolescents lost 16% of their initial body weight on average.

Oral weight loss medications tend to be less expensive than the injectable options, but you may not lose as much weight. Let’s review a few of the more popular weight loss medications and how they compare to semaglutide.

The bottom line

Semaglutide is an FDA-approved injectable weight loss medication. Compared to other medications on the market, it may help you lose more weight. It takes a few months to reach the target dose, and you may experience side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. But this is typically managed by slowly increasing your dose over time.

Talk to your healthcare provider to learn more about semaglutide for weight loss. They can recommend the best chronic weight management option for you.

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Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) is an FDA-approved weekly injection used for type 2 diabetes to lower blood sugar. It has also been shown in clinical trials to be useful for weight loss, although it is not FDA-approved as a weight loss drug. Tirzepatide works by activating the GIP and GLP-1 receptors and should be used along with diet and exercise.