How Does Ozempic Work for Weight Loss?
Introduction
Obesity is a chronic health condition that influences body weight and composition. Better insights into how the body breaks down and stores food have upended conventional thinking about how people’s weight is determined. Various hormones and anatomical processes influence how the body converts food into energy during digestion.
Ozempic is a prescription medication that helps patients lose weight by controlling their appetite and impacting how the body uses the food they eat. While its role as a weight loss intervention is new, the medication is well-researched and FDA-approved for managing type-2 diabetes.
Surging demand and widespread news coverage has left many people curious about this medication. This article will explain how Ozempic facilitates weight loss and explore its effectiveness, timeline, and safety. Learning as much as possible about the medication will help you determine if it may be right for you and, if so, initiate a conversation with a qualified doctor.
How Does Ozempic Cause Weight Loss?
The body breaks food down during digestion and converts the calories into the energy needed for all the biological processes that keep us functional. When the body has more calories than it needs, it stores the excess energy as fat for later use.
These metabolic processes are complex, interconnected, and influenced by many genetic and external factors. When Ozempic enters the bloodstream, it mimics the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone released in the digestive tract.
GLP-1 tells the brain that the stomach is full, suppressing appetite. The medication also slows digestion, leaving food in your stomach longer. This delay sustains the feelings of fullness to lower intake.
An essential part of weight loss is using more calories than you consume. As Ozempic lowers the calories entering the body, you begin burning fat for energy to compensate for the gap in calories. Exercise widens this margin, accelerating weight loss.
GLP-1 also influences the digestive processes dictating how food is used and stored. This effect can help change the baseline weight your body targets. Ozempic is valuable for patients with chronic obesity whose bodies do not respond to diet and exercise alone.
Is Ozempic Effective at Treating Obesity?
Ozempic is a brand name form of the drug semaglutide. When it entered the market, Ozempic was used to treat type-2 diabetes by helping patients produce and use insulin more effectively. Doctors quickly discovered the medication helped with weight loss.
Now, physicians prescribe it off-label as a treatment for obesity. One double-blind trial involving 1,961 patients found that a weekly 2.4 mg dose of semaglutide led to a 15% reduction in body weight after 68 weeks. Combining Ozempic with diet and exercise effectively helps patients lose and keep weight off.
How Quickly Does Ozempic Work for Weight Loss?
The pace of weight loss varies from person to person based on their starting weight and dose of Ozempic. Doctors typically start patients on low doses of the medication for four weeks to gauge the side effects and help them adjust to the drug. In most cases, once patients reach the optimal level of Ozempic, weight loss becomes rapid depending on the extent of the caloric deficit.
Regardless of your weight loss goals, following your doctor's dosing and frequency recommendations is critical for safely attaining the best results.
How Long Should You Take Ozempic For?
Doctors consider Ozempic safe to take long-term. The medication mimics the effects of hormones the body naturally produces. Studies have shown people commonly regain weight after stopping semaglutide.
This possibility makes it essential to supplement your long-term Ozempic treatment with a balanced diet and exercise. These steps will help sustain the necessary caloric deficit for weight loss and maintenance while fortifying your overall health and wellness.
Is Ozempic Safe?
Yes. Ozempic is currently FDA-approved as a type-2 diabetes treatment. This designation means it has undergone rigorous clinical trials concerning effectiveness and safety.
While Ozempic is not yet FDA-approved as a weight loss treatment, Wegovy, another form of semaglutide, received FDA approval in 2021. Doctors are confident enough in Ozempic's effectiveness and safety to prescribe it off-label, a common practice for medications that have not yet been FDA-approved for specific uses.
All interventions carry risks and side effects. Consulting a qualified doctor about Ozempic, fully disclosing your health history, and following treatment instructions helps minimize risk. The most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and constipation. For some patients, side effects fade the longer they take Ozempic.
More significant side effects include hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, which can lead to confusion, fatigue, dizziness, and weakness. It's essential to contact your doctor if you experience any of these effects so you can reassess your dosage and the frequency with which you’re taking the drug.
Less common but critical risks include pancreatitis, vision changes, gallbladder problems, kidney damage, and thyroid cancer. These conditions are rare and, in general, more likely to occur in those with pre-existing health conditions that contraindicate Ozempic. Being forthright about such conditions with your doctor will ensure Ozempic is safe for you to use.
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- https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/ozempic-for-weight-loss-does-it-work-and-what-do-experts-recommend/2023/07
- https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183
- https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ozempic-for-weight-loss-experts-answer-common-questions#How-long-does-it-take-to-lose-weight-on-semaglutide?
July 19, 2023
Written By
Jake Peter
Fact-checked By
Dr. Avidon Appel
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