Diabetes drugs and weight loss

27 Jul, 2020

We have actually known for some time that diabetes medicines can some times lower weight in overweight patients. The oldest known example of this is metformin or Glucophage.

Metformin seems to cause weight loss gradually over the first 1 or 2 years of use.  It affects everyone a little differently but the average loss is 4 to 7 pounds in that period of time. Those who eat well and exercise tend to lose the most weight while on metformin.  Metformin is not a approved for use in weight loss but it has been shown to work in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients (with the greatest results in diabetics)

There are four more recently developed diabetic drugs that are actually used for weight loss.  These medicines require refrigerated storage and shipping. These drugs are Byetta and Victoza. People without diabetes shed an average of 7 pounds compared to 6 pounds in diabetics after only 5 months of treatment.  Researches suggest that when combined with a good diet and exercise the results are encouraging enough that patients typically begin to want to improve their lifestyle!  What a great kick start to better health. Additional benefits include a slight lowering of blood pressure and cholesterol.  

Byetta and Victoza work by slowing the movement of food through your gut which can also result in some nausea after large meals but these side effects fade over time and are usually not severe. Some physicians have reported weigh loss of up to 60 pounds with these medicines. That is nothing to sneeze at.

Another diabetes drug called Ozempic made by Novo Nordisk has just reported in May a definite win against obesity in their clinical trials.  The average weight loss with Ozempic was 18.2%.  This could become the biggest new weight loss blockbuster in the market!

Saxenda is currently the worlds top selling anti-obesity drug but the results are not as pronounced at 4.5%.  This medicine is not used to treat diabetes.

For full safety information and side effect profile, please speak with your doctor. If you are looking for a treatment of obesity, a prescription is required for these medicines. If you are ordering these medicines from any pharmacy, be sure that they are able to send the medicine in refrigerated packaging via courier and not regular mail.