The holy grail of fat loss has always been and will always be a pill. A pill that you can drink and your unwanted weight to disappear. What If I told you this pill exists… well actually an injection.
Semaglutide under the brand names Ozempic and more recently Wygovey. A GLP-1 Analog, its main use was to treat type 2 diabetes but has now become extremely popular due to its weight loss effects with minimal side effects?
Ozempic, Is it a weight loss miracle or a risky gamble. In this blog I'll dive into science and if this may be the answer for you to finally be able to get lean and maybe even see your six-pack.
Over the past years, I have helped hundreds of people lose weight and reach their desired body weight. Interestingly, some of my recent clients have been on Ozempic before working with me, they lost a lot of weight and they lost lean muscle mass, However… Soon after coming off the medication, they quickly started regaining weight.
For this exact reason, I wanted to make this video explaining the potential risks of this anti-diabetic medication, something that many doctors and influencers won’t do.
Ozempic injection has gained enormous popularity lately because of its fast weight loss results without the need of following any diet or exercise plan. I have seen it on Tick Tock, Twitter, Instagram, and popular websites. And let’s be real, we are living in a world where we are easily drawn by the latest trends without considering the potential consequences, and all the misinformation out there isn’t helping.
So, what exactly is Ozempic?
Ozempic is the brand name for Semaglutide, which is a medication originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes.
Ozempic is an analog of a naturally occurring hormone called GLP-1 (Glucagon Like Peptide-1), which means it works by activating the GLP-1 receptors that are mainly located in your brain, gut, and pancreas.
This hormone is naturally made by the cells of your body and here is how it works:
A combination of all of the above will always result in weight loss. You’re simply creating a caloric deficit because you feel full all the time…
In 2017, Ozempic was approved by the FDA to be used for the treatment of type 2 Diabetes, It comes in the form of a needle injection once a week under the skin (subcutaneously). But one of the side effects of this drug happens to be weight loss, as a result, it has gained tremendous popularity on social media and among health professionals.
With Ozempic, eating fewer calories is considered to be the key factor responsible for weight loss because it suppresses your appetite and slows down your food digestion.
Once it became widely popular, a lot of people started using Ozempic off-label, primarily for weight loss.
Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company, is the manufacturer od Ozempic. After all the attention Ozempic got, it rebranded this ant-diabetic injection as Wegovy with a higher dosage, to be prescribed specifically for treating obesity.
The FDA approved Wegovy in June 2021.
Wegovy can now be prescribed for non-diabetic people with BMI>30 kg/m2 or BMI>27 and at least one-weight related co-morbidities like Hypertension and high blood cholesterol.
Now, I know a lot of people have tried it and have seen results shortly after starting the injections, but there are a lot of areas of concern about this ‘Magic pill’. I’ve learned the hard way if something is too good to be true… it usually is…. So what’s the catch
1-No long-term safety data
Wegovy is quite new, we are still learning about this medication, it has been in the market for only two years now, meaning there are very limited studies done on humans and there is yet a lot left to be understood about GLP-1 receptors.
As I mentioned earlier this medication is a GLP-1 analog that acts on the GLP-1 receptor all over your body.
The function of this receptor is still not well understood in the lungs and kidneys. Now, Imagine taking a shot of this injection every week without knowing what long-term effects it may have on your lungs and kidneys
This reminds me of a scenario we all recently went through where we took an injection without knowing its real long-term side effects.
After learning about Wegovy, I wanted to understand what plans these pharmaceutical companies and doctors have for their patients after taking the medication…
A 2022 study funded by Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic and Wegovy was conducted on 327 adults with BMI> 30kg/m2, they received a Wegovy dosage of 2.4mg for 68 weeks.
people who stopped taking Wegovy after 68 weeks of use, regained two-thirds of their lost weight within 1 year. (1).
Which simply means that the weight loss using Wegovy is hard to maintain. Some of my clients have told me that they went right back to all of the cravings, gained all the weight back, and are actually in a worse position compared to when they started.
So It seems what Novo Nordisk is telling us, is that this should be a medication you should take your whole life to sustain these results? So in case you were wondering, a month's course of Wegovy is $1349 dollars, which comes to a total of 8,049 dollars for a 6 month treatment and $16,188 for a year of treatment. Honestly, this seems amazing for Novo Nordisk’s stock price…
This also supports the claim that obesity is a chronic disease that requires long-term management, much like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, life-style changes, and proper nutrition.
So now you may be asking, what are the side effects…
Of course, no medication is without side effects:
When people still stick with their typical American diet, which is very often deficient in protein, vitamins, and minerals, this will lead to losing muscle mass, leaving you with a higher body fat percentage than before, deficient in some vitamins or fat that could disrupt your hormonal balance.
Let me define healthy weight loss for you. The main belief system at Sculpt by Science is a gradual, sustainable reduction in body weight that primarily targets fat stores while minimizing the loss of muscle mass. It also considers the person’s overall well-being and focuses on maintaining or improving health rather than solely aiming for a specific number on the scale.
Personally, I built Sculpt By science to help people, lose the fat tissue and gain the muscle mass sustainably. To live longer, to be energetic, to be able to lay on the beach with confidence. Making this a lifestyle rather than depleting your body of very important muscle mass.
It is the most common side effect that happens in almost 70% of the patients and they tend to be higher when patients are on a higher dosage of Wegovy.
Nausea and Vomiting are the most frequent ones, about 5% to 10% of users get off the injection because of GI discomfort and adverse reactions
Other common side effects are diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, stomach discomfort, headache, and tiredness. These side effects could affect your job or day-to-day tasks, your mood, and daily activities, and in some cases could be potentially dangerous.
This is when social media started to become concerned because of this medication. Ozempic face is a possible side effect among Wegovy users. Which is sagging and wrinkling of the facial skin due to rapid weight loss.
This is almost like an endless cycle, you drop the weight, you lose the face fat and then you gotta put filler back in to plump your face up, which is again not sustainable. But what happens when you go off Wegovy later on? Chances are you will regain the weight and you go through all this just to get back to the starting point.
Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. As I mentioned earlier, Ozempic is originally an anti-diabetic drug that increases insulin secretion. While this side effect is not a common one but again, low blood sugar could happen and in some cases, it can lead to other adverse reactions.
Meaning, inflammation of the pancreas, is again, not a common side effect of Wegovy but it has happened in some clinical trials and it can be potentially dangerous.
Kidney injury is not a frequent side effect and the exact mechanism of how it may affect kidney function is not entirely understood.
Wegovy can lower your blood pressure and decrease blood flow to the kidney and lead to kidney injury. Additionally, the GI symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea could lead to severe dehydration and possibly hurt your kidney if it is not properly managed.
Can you eat as much as you want while being on Wegovy?
Clearly, NO, the main way Wegovy works is by suppressing your appetite and slowing down food digestion, which will make you eat less frequently and consume fewer calories. If you try to eat like before while being on Wegovy, it will lead to extreme nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or constipation. Which makes sense as the injection slows down the food leaving your stomach.
Would I recommend Wegovy for non-diabetic people?
The answer would be NO, I wouldn’t.
It is true that Wegovy has helped many people to lose weight and clinical trials show great results for losing fat. But getting under the needle to turn your health around is never the best option. You don’t want to depend on an injection to control your appetite forever.
Discipline and habit change goes a long way and I am speaking from many years of experience working with overweight clients.
Trust me, it is doable, I have done it, my clients have done it, and you can do it too.