How does Ozempic work?

Ozempic is a straightforward daily, once every week injection that has the weight loss drug semaglutide and helps you lose weight. It was a drug originally created to aid people with diabetes in controlling glucose levels. However, clinical studies have proven that Ozempic is also a secure and effective treatment for overweight patients in order to assist with weight loss.

How does Ozempic operate?

Ozempic mimics a natural hormone in your body called GLP-1. This hormone is produced by your digestive system as a response to the consumption of food. It affects both the brain and the digestive system to control how full you feel after a meal. It slows the process of emptying of your stomach to other parts of the digestive tract.

GLP-1 also regulates insulin levels in response to eating meals to ensure that your blood sugar levels can be managed (even decreasing your blood sugar level) and decreases your appetite by alerting your brain that you’ve consumed a meal.

Ozempic functions just like this natural hormone that makes you feel fuller for longer, reducing your cravings for more food, enhancing the way your body regulates blood sugar levels as well as the weight loss. This could help patients lose weight.

How to use Ozempic for weight loss

Start with the lowest dose, 0.25mg, and then gradually increase it over 8 months to the 1mg dose. This helps your body adjust to the medication over the initial weeks and lessens the risk of adverse effects, like nausea. Ozempic is a pre-filled injection that looks like a pen, along with needles that are single-use. It takes only 2 minutes to administer and comes with complete instruction.

Simply slide a new needle on your Ozempic pen, select the dose, and then place your pen tightly against the skin of your upper thigh, tummy, or upper arm while you press the button to inject. After that, put the used needle into the sharps container. That’s it!

Can Ozempic be used for weight loss?

Sure, Ozempic may be used in order to aid people in losing weight even though it was originally designed to treat diabetes.

Ozempic isn’t a licensed product by the UK medicines regulator for weight loss specifically, but clinical studies on many patients have proved Ozempic to be safe for weight loss. It’s known to be the most effective drug available for patients who suffer from obesity and want to lose fat in the UK at the moment.

The medication in Ozempic semaglutide, a drug that’s already licensed for weight loss in the UK, USA and European Union The newer versions of the drug aren’t approved for use in the UK yet (that’s why we’re using Ozempic as our drug to lose weight).

We use Ozempic “off-label” this means we’re using it for weight loss, even when it’s licensed for diabetes, because there’s ample evidence from clinical studies that Ozempic is reliable and safe for weight loss as well.

Who is able to benefit from Ozempic to lose weight?

Generally, Ozempic is suitable for those who are either clinically obese or overweight due to a weight-related health issue.

Ozempic can be used for losing weight as part an overall Weight Reset Programme if you’re aged between 18 and 75 and:

you have a body weight index (BMI) of 30 or higher (clinically obese) or
you have an index of body mass 27 or higher (significantly overweight) and you also have a medical condition that is typically caused, or more severe, by excess body weight.

Who isn’t a good candidate for Ozempic’s weight loss?

A majority of people can utilize Ozempic to lose weight safely however, there are certain drugs and medical conditions that might make it unsuitable for you due the greater risk of harm to your health. A few of the reasons why you should not take Ozempic for weight loss (or it may be necessary to give you special advice) are:

an allergy to one of the ingredients;
the diabetes condition and taking insulin or other medications
kidney problems;
certain digestive system problems;
The history of eating disorders;
either breastfeeding or trying to have a child.

Ozempic for diabetes

Ozempic was approved and launched in the year 2019 to treat of patients suffering from diabetes where other medicines did not manage their blood sugar levels enough. This was followed by years of lab tests and human clinical trials to confirm that it’s safe and effective. Ozempic is a treatment for the condition by increasing the amount of insulin released to regulate blood sugar levels. It also has the added benefit of weight loss as well as helping people suffering from diabetes manage their blood sugar better. Find out about the Ozempic cost on this site.

Does Ozempic work for weight loss?

Ozempic has been proven to be effective in weight loss. Ozempic was tested in six key trials (called SUSTAIN 1hich involved 7,215 patients. Patients were treated with Ozempic. The rest were in a placebo group , with no active drug – or sometimes taking another diabetes treatment. Treatment with Ozempic showed significant weight loss up to two years, compared to placebo or other treatment options for diabetes. The results were comparable across race, gender, age and ethnicities.

In these trials, following an entire year up to 63 percent of patients lost five percent to 10% or more from their weight. Additionally, approximately 27% of patients lost 10% or more of their body weight.

In one study run over two years, Ozempic 1mg and lifestyle interventions (such as changes to diet and exercise) was compared to patients who did not have lifestyle interventions – patients gained an average 4.9kg with Ozempic compared to losing only 0.5kg with the medication.

The STEP-1 drug trial [reference 7] looked at higher doses of semaglutide (up to 2.4mg Ozempic is a supplement as much as 1mg UK currently). Over 83% of the people taking semaglutide lost 5% percent of bodyweight. about 70% saw 10 percent weight loss, while 50 percent experienced a 15percent weight reduction and only a little less than a third experienced 20% weight loss.

What is Ozempic’s role in losing weight?

Ozempic assists you in losing weight through working with your brain and digestive system to make you feel fuller after meals, reduce your cravings for food, and regulate how your body utilizes the sugar it consumes and store fat.

Ozempic is a pharmaceutical drug. While it can be beneficial in helping you begin your weight loss journey, lifestyle modifications and lasting lifestyle changes are necessary to keep the weight off when you stop taking the drug.

How much weight will I lose using Ozempic?

A third of those who use Ozempic for weight loss will lose 10 percent to 15% of body fat. Most people should expect to lose at the minimum of 5% of their starting body weight when using Ozempic for weight loss.

It is known that people lose weight differently, but those who have the most weight reductions are those who have healthcare professionals backing them which makes the lifestyle changes necessary for sustainable change easier. This means addressing eating habits, exercising and applying the behavioral sciences to alter your food habits.

Other health benefits associated with Ozempic

As a result of the way that Ozempic functions to help regulate its sugar, food, and metabolism of fat, some other health benefits were also discovered during drug tests:

Ozempic reduces blood sugar levels in three ways

The pancreas helps release more insulin when your blood sugar levels are high.

Ozempic transmits signals to your pancreas , making it more responsive to changes in your level of blood sugar. This means that if you consume a meal and the blood sugar level rises due to it your pancreas reacts more promptly and release more insulin, which helps to lower and increase blood sugar levels to the optimal level.

Ozempic doesn’t usually result in low blood sugar since it only triggers insulin when blood sugar rises. Studies have demonstrated that this triggers the majority of patients’ overall blood sugar control to be greatly increased – which may lower the risk for developing the disease or suffering from diabetes later in life.

Helps prevent that your liver is storing excessive sugar and fat

If your blood sugar is high for longer than necessary, it causes your liver to convert it into glycogen and store this form of sugar in your muscles and liver. The glycogen can be released when your blood sugar drops to a low level or when you engage in the intensity of your exercise.

However, it can also trigger the liver to accumulate this excess energy in your body as fat. Ozempic in combination with lifestyle changes like increased training, can help to increase blood sugar levels which reduces the chance of this occurring.

The slowing down of food will help you get rid of your stomach

Ozempic signals your stomach that make it empty into the different parts in your system at a slower rate. That means that, as your digestion converts your food into sugars, it powers the cells in your body more efficiently and slowly too. It is a slow and gradual increase in blood sugar, and not big peaks or troughs.

Overall, this improves blood sugar control, and will reduce the risk of developing diabetes as well as the health consequences of the organs of your body.

Ozempic lowers the risk of cardiovascular events

Ozempic is known to decrease the risk of cardiovascular events especially in people who are more at risk of developing kind 2 diabetes. The SUSTAIN-6 trial [link or footnote 6 below] specifically focused on the impact of Ozempic on major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks. For patients suffering from kind 2 diabetes and who already were at a higher risk of heart attack or stroke, the treatment with Ozempic resulted in the rates of death and non-fatal incidents significantly lower in those who received the drug than patients who were treated with placebo.

Ozempic options for weight loss

There are some other medications for weight loss that provide an option to treat those suffering from overweight before pursuing the drastic option to undergo bariatric surgeries. All of these should be evaluated for your individual circumstances and prescribed by a licensed healthcare specialist.

Rybelsus

Rybelsus is a tablet form of semaglutide (the ingredient in Ozempic) that must be taken regularly, rather than the weekly injection. It is not currently licensed to treat obesity in the UK. While it has been proven to be effective for weight loss, studies [Reference 8 below] showed that it was about 30-40 percent less effective at weight loss than Ozempic.

Wegovy

Wegovy is a high-dose infusion of semaglutide (the same active ingredient that is used in Ozempic) and has been shown to work better for losing weight than Ozempic in studies due to the higher dose [reference 7reference 7. It’s been approved for its safety and effectiveness in weight loss by the medicines regulators throughout the USA, UK and EU. It is expected to be launched on the USA in 2021. However, it isn’t currently available in the UK at the time of writing.

Metformin

Metformin is a drug that has been used to treat diabetes for a number of years. It aids your body produce and utilize insulin more efficiently. It has been proven to have some beneficial effects for weight loss and body mass in some clinical trials, but the outcomes and adverse effects can be very variable and unpredictably. This implies that metformin will not be the most suitable choice for reliable and safe weight loss treatment.

Trulicity

Trulicity contains dulaglutide and is administered weekly, just like Ozempic. It performs in a similar way to Ozempic . It has broadly similar results for weight loss in a few studies, however there’s less data available for weight loss than there is for Ozempic. It’s currently approved in the UK for the treatment of diabetes however, it’s not licensed as a weight-loss drug.

Saxenda

Saxenda contains liraglutide, which functions in the same manner in the same way as semaglutide (the ingredient in Ozempic) however, it requires injection every day since the drug has a shorter duration of action. Saxenda is approved for weight loss in UK however, research results from a clinical trial on weight loss have shown that Saxenda is slightly less efficient than Ozempic.

Orlistat

Orlistat is a prescription medication that inhibits certain enzymes that reside in your digestive tract that normally work for breaking down fat in the food you consume and allows them to enter your bloodstream. By blocking these enzymes, you absorb fewer calories from the fats you eat, and this will result in weight loss.

Orlistat is significantly less efficient than Ozempic and patients often experience uncomfortable digestive system side-effects (include mild to moderate digestion discomfort) that can lead to people stopping treatment prior to achieving results in weight loss.

Other diabetes medications that could cause weight loss

Certain other diabetes-related medications, such as ones that boost your sugar intake absorbed from your body via your kidneys ‘ urinary tract (e.g. canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, empagliflozin) have been shown to lead to slight weight loss. However the weight loss outcomes are too small to consider this particularly effective.

Can Ozempic cause extreme weight loss?

It’s not usually. The majority of weight loss is an unhealthy form of weight loss.

Due to the fact that Ozempic functions to mimic a hormone that is present in your body, GLP-1 (rather than older drugs which concentrate on suppressing appetite) excessive or inappropriate weight loss has not been observed in clinical tests. Ozempic assists you in losing weight at a sustainable rate.

What is the dose of Ozempic to lose weight?

The Ozempic dose to lose weight begins at 0.25mg and gradually increases to 1mg over the course of a couple of weeks. This allows your body time to gradually adjust tho its effects and decreases the likelihood and severity of adverse side effects after beginning treatment.

Ozempic starting dose

Ozempic therapy for losing weight begins at 0.25mg every week. The treatment is at a lower dose for the first 4 weeks of treatment whilst your body gets used to the medication.

Ozempic maintenance dose

Once you’ve started on the Ozempic low dose, you’ll gradually increase the dose to 0.5mg for another four weeks before moving to the weekly 1mg maintenance dose for the rest of your treatment plan – when everything is working according to the plan. It’s possible to increase the dosage beyond 1mg should you healthcare professional team and your clinical prescriber think the dosage appropriate for you.

Before taking Ozempic

Before using Ozempic it’s important to always go through the information leaflet provided by the manufacturer that comes inside the package prior to beginning the first dose. Be aware that since we use Ozempic “off-label” and not on the label, the leaflet discusses a lot of how to use it to treat patients who suffer from diabetes. This is acceptable since the method you actually take Ozempic injections is similar.

The leaflet comes with full instructions including pictures on how to use the pen properly for storage and dispose of your pens, and what adverse effects to look out for.