Research

Hormonal

GLP-1 receptor agonists (specifically semaglutide 2.4 mg/week and liraglutide 3.0 mg/day) produce significant weight loss in adults with obesity (BMI ≥27 or ≥30) when combined with lifestyle modifications, outperforming placebo and many other pharmacotherapies.

If you have obesity (BMI ≥30) or overweight (BMI ≥27) with comorbidities, GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide (2.4 mg weekly) or liraglutide (3.0 mg daily) are highly effective for weight loss when combined with diet and exercise. Semaglutide showed an average loss of 15.3 kg over 68 weeks in trials. Expect mild, temporary gastrointestinal side effects, but these rarely require stopping treatment. Oral options exist for those averse to injections.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In conclusion, it was observed that in the semaglutide group, participants were more likely to lose 5% to 20% or more of baseline body weight at week 68 than those receiving a placebo. Change in body weight from baseline to week 68 was -15.3 kg in the semaglutide group compared to -2.6 kg in the placebo group... Liraglutide together with lifestyle changes resulted in weight loss of 8.4 ± 7.3 kg compared to 2.8 ± 6.5 kg in the placebo group over these weeks.
Giulia Biagi Furlan et al. · International Journal of Nutrology · 2023

Why this rating

Based on multiple Phase 3 randomized controlled trials (STEP, SCALE) and meta-analyses cited in the review.

Source

Use of GLP-1 analogs in the treatment of obesity: an integrative and systematic review

Giulia Biagi Furlan et al. · International Journal of Nutrology · 2023

DOI 10.54448/ijn23105

Meta-analysis · 40 studiesCited 2×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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