Can You Use Ozempic for Quick Weight Loss?
With powerful weight loss drugs like Wegovy soaring in popularity, you’d be forgiven for thinking they offer a quick fix to lose a few pounds. But is that what these drugs are offering? Wegovy, or semaglutide, is approved for weight loss in adults with obesity, as well as some people who are overweight and have weight-related health conditions. At a lower dose, it’s sold under the brand name Ozempic to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar levels — although it is sometimes prescribed off-label for weight loss. Both come from drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
In clinical trials, Wegovy was shown to reduce body weight in people with body mass indexes, or BMIs, of 27 or greater by around 15%over 68 weeks. People on average lost about an eighth of that weight in the first month. But how effective is the drug in people without obesity? And can it help with short-term weight loss?
Dr. Shauna Levy, a specialist in obesity medicine and the medical director of the Tulane Bariatric Center in New Orleans, said that while it wouldn’t be harmful for people without obesity to use the drugs, they’d most likely be sorely disappointed with the results.
Excerpted from NBC News
