People have been looking for weight loss in a pill for ages. The issue is whether this drug will have any major side effects on certain people, and if it does, whether those side effects are worth the benefits of weight loss. The natural way to lose weight is to simply burn more calories than you consume, thus entering what’s known as a caloric deficit. The importance of “calories in, calories out,” is not emphasized enough in our systems of education, and it is a massive detriment to the population that that’s the case. In the trial, one of the people began gaining weight after the administration of the drug stopped, and that shows how losing weight remains an issue to address outside of medically-supervised drug usage. Additionally, I have to question how much of the weight loss was from the drug when the participants of the trial were also supposedly eating less and doing more exercise.
The drug – semaglutide – hijacks the body’s appetite regulating system in the brain, leading to reduced hunger and calorie intake.
Rachel Batterham, professor of obesity, diabetes and endocrinology who leads the Centre for Obesity Research at UCL and the UCLH Centre for Weight Management, said: “The findings of this study represent a major breakthrough for improving the health of people with obesity.
“Three quarters (75%) of people who received semaglutide 2.4mg lost more than 10% of their body weight and more than one-third lost more than 20%.
The professor, who is one of the principal authors on the paper, added: “No other drug has come close to producing this level of weight loss – this really is a game-changer.
“For the first time, people can achieve through drugs what was only possible through weight-loss surgery.”
The drug will soon be submitted for regulatory approval as a treatment for obesity to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
As well as the drug, participants received individual face-to-face or phone counselling sessions from registered dietitians every four weeks to help them adhere to the reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity.
They also received incentives such as kettle bells or food scales to mark progress and milestones.
A placebo group observed an average weight loss of 2.6kg (0.4 stone) with a reduction in BMI of minus 0.92.
Semaglutide is clinically approved to be used for patients with type 2 diabetes, but they are prescribed a lower dose.