If you’re interested, here are some stats from the approval studies for semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound), so you can see how fast participants lost weight over the course of the studies.
In the semaglutide study, participants weighed ~105kg/230lbs at the start and lost about 500g/1lb per week for the first 20 weeks, then it started to level out slowly. (You can skip to figure 1.)
In the tirzepatide study, participants started around 94kg/207lbs and lost about 400g/0.9lbs per week for 24 weeks until the weight loss slowed down. (Reference figure 2).
(These studies aren’t directly comparable to each other since they had different study populations, but this should give you a ballpark idea of how fast people on these meds lose weight on average.)
Are there any stats on weight gain after stopping the medication? From my surroundings almost everyone gained the weight again when they stopped. Just the ones who really put in effort to also do sport and change their general diet.
I got mounjaro for a friend and she’s loosing weight but I’m scared she’s just throwing money out of the window because as soon as she stops she’ll put the weight back on. She is bipolar and pretty bad with all of her goals. And she really doesn’t have the money to spend so much on medication which will just cause a temporary weight loss :-/
You are mostly right that the weight comes back on, but at least in the time frame studied (up to a year after stopping) a not-insignificant amount of weight stayed off.
For semaglutide, participants lost ~10kg/22lbs over 20 weeks during the run-in period, then when switched to the placebo gained back ~5kg/11lbs over the next 48 weeks. Participants who stayed on semaglutide lost even more weight, leveling out around 20kg/44lbs total over 68 weeks.
And a similar story for tirzepatide.. Lose 20kg over 36 weeks, then gain 10kg back over the next 52 weeks for a net loss of 10kg/22lbs vs total weight loss in continuation group of 25kg/55lbs over 88 total weeks.
And if you want to DM me, I may be able to help find a potentially more affordable way of getting your friend Mounjaro. Lily, the manufacturer has a couple of options depending on insurance status and income.
Oh that’s really nice! I’m in Europe and I guess the whole insurance plan is very different here :) my friend is from Serbia and it looks like it’s even cheaper there(like 150USD/month). I’m just sceptical about long term benefits. And as she doesn’t have a lot of money and wants to get pregnant in the next years. But she’s made good progress so far :) so I guess that’s good.
Thanks for the reply and I’m sure it’s beneficial for a lot of people!
So I just looked up what semaglutid costs in the USA and google says it’s like 1000? Ok even without insurance and everything I guess it’s cheaper here in Europe ;-)
Yeah it’s not great in the US :/ There are options, but they can be difficult to navigate, and there’s not always a solution for everyone unfortunately.
If you’re interested, here are some stats from the approval studies for semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound), so you can see how fast participants lost weight over the course of the studies.
In the semaglutide study, participants weighed ~105kg/230lbs at the start and lost about 500g/1lb per week for the first 20 weeks, then it started to level out slowly. (You can skip to figure 1.)
In the tirzepatide study, participants started around 94kg/207lbs and lost about 400g/0.9lbs per week for 24 weeks until the weight loss slowed down. (Reference figure 2).
(These studies aren’t directly comparable to each other since they had different study populations, but this should give you a ballpark idea of how fast people on these meds lose weight on average.)
Are there any stats on weight gain after stopping the medication? From my surroundings almost everyone gained the weight again when they stopped. Just the ones who really put in effort to also do sport and change their general diet. I got mounjaro for a friend and she’s loosing weight but I’m scared she’s just throwing money out of the window because as soon as she stops she’ll put the weight back on. She is bipolar and pretty bad with all of her goals. And she really doesn’t have the money to spend so much on medication which will just cause a temporary weight loss :-/
You are mostly right that the weight comes back on, but at least in the time frame studied (up to a year after stopping) a not-insignificant amount of weight stayed off.
For semaglutide, participants lost ~10kg/22lbs over 20 weeks during the run-in period, then when switched to the placebo gained back ~5kg/11lbs over the next 48 weeks. Participants who stayed on semaglutide lost even more weight, leveling out around 20kg/44lbs total over 68 weeks.
And a similar story for tirzepatide.. Lose 20kg over 36 weeks, then gain 10kg back over the next 52 weeks for a net loss of 10kg/22lbs vs total weight loss in continuation group of 25kg/55lbs over 88 total weeks.
I will say that the final ~5% bodyweight loss in the semaglutide study or almost 10% bodyweight loss in tirzepatide study is still a big deal for a lot of people, and a lot of diseases and disease risk can be mitigated to some extent by weight loss of 5-10%.
And if you want to DM me, I may be able to help find a potentially more affordable way of getting your friend Mounjaro. Lily, the manufacturer has a couple of options depending on insurance status and income.
Oh that’s really nice! I’m in Europe and I guess the whole insurance plan is very different here :) my friend is from Serbia and it looks like it’s even cheaper there(like 150USD/month). I’m just sceptical about long term benefits. And as she doesn’t have a lot of money and wants to get pregnant in the next years. But she’s made good progress so far :) so I guess that’s good. Thanks for the reply and I’m sure it’s beneficial for a lot of people!
So I just looked up what semaglutid costs in the USA and google says it’s like 1000? Ok even without insurance and everything I guess it’s cheaper here in Europe ;-)
Yeah it’s not great in the US :/ There are options, but they can be difficult to navigate, and there’s not always a solution for everyone unfortunately.