The most common side effects of semaglutide are nausea and vomiting. These side effects are usually mild and go away after a few days or weeks of treatment. Other possible side effects include diarrhea, constipation, headache, dizziness, fatigue, and low blood sugar levels.
Your blood sugar levels should start to fully decline within the first week after you start using Ozempic (semaglutide) at your regular maintenance dose. However, the full effects can take 8 weeks or longer, as this is a long-acting medication that is injected only once per week.
Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea are the most common semaglutide side effects. But they usually subside after a few weeks of using the medication. Although rare, serious side effects are possible. Some may require immediate medical attention, like pancreatitis and allergic reactions.
Check with your doctor right away if you have gaseous stomach pain, indigestion, recurrent fever, severe nausea or vomiting, stomach fullness, or yellow eyes or skin. These may be symptoms of gallbladder problems (eg, cholelithiasis, cholecystitis). This medicine may cause diabetic retinopathy.
Drug interactions with semaglutide, when you take it with other medications, can cause hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. And this can cause drowsiness, restless sleep, shakiness, and feeling weak and tired.
The newly-approved weight loss medication should be used with an effective weight loss program that uses a low-calorie diet and physical exercise. Once the body gets used to the drug, patients can expect weight loss results within the first 4 weeks of taking medication.
Semaglutide improves body composition by helping patients lose weight and reduce excess fat, including stubborn belly fat. It also increases the proportion of lean body mass. In general, the more weight you lose with semaglutide, the greater the improvements you'll see in your overall body composition across all areas.
The Semaglutide Treatment Effect in People With Obesity (STEP) trials have shown the efficacy of semaglutide for the treatment of obesity. In large RCTs, patients receiving semaglutide, 2.4 mg, lost a mean of 6% of their weight by week 12 and 12% of their weight by week 28.
Based on the results of our weight management program, our patients have lost an average of 7.7 pounds in only 4 weeks on the lowest, introductory dose of semaglutide!
Semaglutide lowers body weight by reducing appetite and hunger, increasing satiety, reducing food cravings, altering food preferences and reducing energy intake.
Do Semaglutide Side Effects Disappear? The side effects of Semaglutide may be temporary. As mentioned, the most common side effects include feeling tired, itchy skin, and diarrhea.
There is no evidence to suggest whether morning or night is better for administration of semaglutide. It should be taken subcutaneously once weekly, on the same day each week, at any time of day, with or without meals.
Move as Much as You Can
But getting in more movement while on Semaglutide can help you achieve better results — and keep those results after you've lost the weight. The best way to get more movement in is to start walking more. You can even use a step counter on your phone or watch to keep track of how you're doing.
Semaglutide trial results showed overweight or obese adults receiving weekly semaglutide had a medium weight loss of 14.9% at 68 weeks. In this same study, nearly 70% of participants were able to achieve a 10% weight loss threshold by taking semaglutide.
It is important you discuss your alcohol use with your doctor while taking Wegovy; your provider may recommend avoiding alcohol completely. While not well studied in humans, animal models of alcohol addiction have shown that the active compound in Wegovy (semaglutide) reduced alcohol intake.
While semaglutide doesn't provide immediate weight loss, it works quickly. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that after just four weeks of taking semaglutide, patients experienced more than a 2% reduction in body weight.
Why a person is not losing weight while taking Wegovy® could be for many reasons. Age, amount of regular exercise, dietary habits, and other medical conditions that impact weight can play a role in why someone may not be losing weight despite taking a weight loss medication like Wegovy.
This medicine should come with a Medication Guide. Read and follow these instructions carefully. Ask your doctor if you have any questions. Take this medicine at least 30 minutes before the first food, drink, or other oral medicines of the day with a sip of plain water only (no more than 4 ounces).
Several semaglutide patients on social media said they experienced unexpected diarrhea that was so sudden and forceful, it caused them to poop their pants in public. Some users also said that persistence flatulence could turn into diarrhea without warning, according to one Reddit thread.
Ozempic (semaglutide) is a once-weekly injection that helps treat Type 2 diabetes. You should inject it on the same day each week, at any time of the day. It can be taken with or without food. Ozempic comes as a pen injector that's similar to insulin pens.