Examples of ultra-processed foods include sodas, deli meats, packaged chips, cookies, and cakes. Eating ultra-processed foods while taking Saxenda will not cause an adverse food-medication interaction, but it may increase the risk of gastrointestinal side effects of the medication, including nausea.
Excessive amounts of alcohol. Any food high in saturated fats. Fizzy type drinks that are high in sugar. Avoid energy drinks or sweetened caffeinated drinks.
Sugary drinks
Sugar-sweetened drinks like soda, sweetened fruit juices, and sports drinks contain large amounts of sugar and calories. Sipping on these drinks throughout the day may add more calories to your daily count than you realize, preventing Saxenda from supporting weight loss.
If you are experiencing acid reflux as a side effect from taking Saxenda, you may want to avoid or reduce your intake of common food triggers such as caffeine, alcohol, peppermint, spicy foods and acidic foods.
Foods to avoid while on Saxenda® to reduce side effects
Take these tips from the Calibrate medical team for a spin: Avoid fried, greasy, or fatty foods and foods high in sugar: These tend to be the toughest for your body to digest and the most likely to cause nausea while taking a GLP-1 medication.
To get the best results out of Saxenda®, you'll need to be eating a reduced calorie diet and increase the amount of exercise you're getting. This will give you the best chance of losing weight and keeping weight off.
Exercise. Another reason you may be gaining weight on Saxenda is you need more physical activity. Using medication alone is not enough, and getting enough exercise is essential to achieve weight loss results. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests 150 minutes of physical activity each week.
Several factors could be at play if you're taking Saxenda and not losing weight, including: Diet—Saxenda is approved in conjunction with a low-calorie diet, so if you haven't adjusted your diet accordingly, that could work against the weight loss you might otherwise be achieving.
Take your medicine each day at any time that is convenient for you, with or without food. Inject your dose under the skin (this is called subcutaneous injection) in your stomach area (abdomen), upper leg (thigh), or upper arm as instructed by your health care provider. Do not inject into a vein or muscle.
Does Saxenda (liraglutide) burn fat? While the process of losing weight involves decreasing the size of fat cells, Saxenda® is not considered a “fat burner.” Saxenda is an FDA-approved weight loss medication that is categorized as a GLP1 receptor agonist.
Saxenda comes in a 3ml pre-filled injection pen. When you first start Saxenda, a single pen will last 17 days and the first full pack of five pens will last six weeks. When you take Saxenda you need to gradually increase your dose in 0.6mg intervals, until you reach what is called the maintenance dose at 3mg daily.
It takes time to lose weight with Saxenda. In adults, it may take about 8 weeks before you start to see a significant weight loss (at least 5%) with Saxenda. In the first 2 to 4 weeks you may lose about 2% to 4% of your weight.
Loss of fluid and dehydration When starting treatment with Saxenda®, you may lose body fluid or become dehydrated. This may be due to feeling sick (nausea), being sick (vomiting) and diarrhoea. It is important to avoid dehydration by drinking plenty of fluids.
Alcohol with Saxenda
This includes nausea, dizziness, and headache. If you have diabetes, alcohol can lower your blood sugar. Alcohol can also lead to dehydration, which can increase the risk of kidney failure. Drinking alcohol during treatment with Saxenda may worsen these side effects.
In conclusion, if you're not losing weight on Saxenda, it's important to talk to a healthcare professional. There may be several reasons for this, including the medication not being the right fit for your needs, not following the recommended guidelines for diet and exercise or weight loss being a slow process.
The most common side effects of Saxenda® in adults include nausea, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, injection site reaction, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), headache, tiredness (fatigue), dizziness, stomach pain, and change in enzyme (lipase) levels in your blood.
Wegovy® is a more effective drug than Saxenda®. As demonstrated above, semaglutide (the active ingredient in Wegovy®) leads to more clinically significant weight loss and blood sugar reductions than liraglutide (the active ingredient in Saxenda®).
Common side effects of Saxenda®
Weakness. A change to your sense of taste. Feeling dizzy. Stomach problems such as indigestion, discomfort, heartburn, feeling bloated, wind and belching, dry mouth, and gastritis (this is inflammation in the lining of the stomach)
The researchers found that people who lost the most weight while taking semaglutide tended to then regain the most after stopping it, although they still retained a larger reduction from baseline than participants who had lost less weight during the treatment period.
Some people start seeing results from Saxenda in the first two to four weeks. You may lose about 2%—4% of your body weight. However, during clinical trials, people taking Saxenda saw a significant weight loss of at least 5% after eight weeks of treatment.
Liraglutide is a substance similar to a hormone called GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1). GLP-1 hormone helps you to feel less hungry and more full after eating. Saxenda mimics the effect of GLP-1. As your appetite is suppressed, you will feel more full which can help you eat less overall.
Saxenda is administered once daily. How much Saxenda do I need and how long should I stay on it? Saxenda is a pre-filled injection pen. Once you begin your Saxenda course, a single pen should last around 16 days and five pens should last around six weeks.
Ozempic® is more effective for weight loss and blood sugar improvements than Saxenda®. Studies have also shown that Ozempic® leads to fewer side effects and adverse events than Saxenda® with people tolerating Ozempic® better.