Weight loss medications have been promising in dropping a lot of excess weight and lowering the risk of several life-threatening diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, and even cancers.
This article will tackle the differences between Wegovy vs Ozempic — two of the leading popular weight loss medications on the market.
How Wegovy & Ozempic Work
Wegovy is an injectable prescription medication for adults to help with weight management and facilitate weight loss for people who have a BMI index of 30 or higher, a body mass index of 27 or higher, and those with certain weight-related medical conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol levels, or type 2 diabetes.
One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that patients who used Wegovy lost weight by 15% after regularly using it once a week for 16 months, while another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that people who medicated with Wegovy for over 20 weeks lost about 11% of their body fat.
Ozempic, on the other hand, is also an injectable prescription medicine used to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes and reduce the risk of major cardiovascular conditions like heart attacks, strokes, or death in adults with type 2 diabetes with known heart disease.
A clinical trial program called SUSTAIN-3 consisted of eight trials that evaluated the safety of Ozempic® in adults with Type 2 diabetics at high risk of cardiovascular illnesses and enrolled more than 8,000 adult patients with Type 2 diabetes and included a two-year cardiovascular outcomes trial. The trials revealed that medicating with Ozempic resulted in lower blood sugar levels and weight loss.
Semaglutide – Their Common Factor
Wegovy and Ozempic are the two generic names that Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk uses to market the injectable form of semaglutide.
Semaglutide is a naturally-occurring hormone in the body that works by targetting the amygdala, the specific area of the brain regulating appetite and food intake. It reduces appetite and increases the feeling of satiety (being full), helping you lose weight more easily and effectively. It also helps the pancreas release the right amount of insulin when blood sugar levels are high and can reduce the rate of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, who are particularly at high risk for such conditions.
Being made from the same hormone, both Wegovy and Ozempic tend to cause similar side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. They also interact with other medications like topical steroids, corticosteroids, diuretics, and certain antibiotics.
So how are they different from each other?
Differences Between Wegovy & Ozempic
If you’re mulling over Wegovy vs Ozempic for weight loss, here are some things you should remember about differentiating these two:
Purpose
Wegovy is mainly used for chronic weight management and helps with weight loss, while Ozempic treats patients with type 2 diabetes and prevents the risk of major cardiovascular conditions like strokes, heart attacks, or deaths in adults with a history of heart disease.
However, Ozempic can still aid in weight loss; while not mainly intended as a weight-loss drug but is not licensed for weight loss in people who do not have type 2 diabetes. Wegovy is also shown to help patients with type 2 diabetes, a weight-related condition.
Dosage
The dosage is also an important factor in differentiating these two semaglutide-based medications.
For Ozempic, it only comes in 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, and 1 mg pens and is increased slowly to a maximum of 1mg weekly. This makes following the clinically proven weight loss dose schedule for semaglutide exceedingly difficult to manage. In some cases, the 0.5-mg dosage may be unable to manage your blood sugar well enough after 4 weeks.
On the other hand, Wegovy’s dosages come in 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg, and 2.4 mg as its maintenance dose, making its dosage higher than Ozempic’s. The dosage is increased gradually over 5 months with 5 different colored pens for each higher amount, which help lessen its side effects as the body adapts to the medication.
Concentration
Wegovy has a slightly higher dose of semaglutide per mL in pen than Ozempic. Injecting a smaller mL amount could change how the body would absorb the medicine and may be less painful as only a lesser amount of the medicine would be pushed into the injection area.
Takeaway
Semaglutide-based medications like Wegovy and Ozempic can help people struggling with obesity or excess weight avoid health problems like high blood cholesterol, heart disease, and cancers and help them lose weight. They also help patients with type 2 patients manage their symptoms.
Regardless of which medication you’ll pick, it’s important to note that taking weight-loss medications should never substitute habits like eating a healthy diet and regular exercise and should all be part of the program. It’s also wise to consult your doctor to determine whether either medication will suit your health needs and help avoid any adverse health effects.
Disclaimer: this article does not constitute or replace medical advice. If you have an emergency or a serious medical question, please contact a medical professional or call 911 immediately. To see our full medical disclaimer, visit our Terms of Use page.
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