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By Letshego Zulu

Contributor


Meds and weight loss – More people are using diabetes drugs for weight loss

Little is known about the long-term negative effects of this slimming trend.


The weight-loss industry is constantly shifting. New strategies, new ways of doing things and new diets are constantly discovered.

As a big advocate of regular exercise and healthy eating as a method to control weight, I have only just learnt that some medicines used to control diabetes are now being used for weight loss.

I don’t say I agree with this approach, but we have to be open-minded and keep up with new strategies in the health and wellness space.

So, the question is, can diabetes medicine be used for weight loss? Well, it has been discovered that some diabetes medicines have resulted in patients losing a significant amount of weight while on treatment for diabetes.

And of course with this realisation, it has been reported that non-diabetic individuals have used the medicine

and lost significant amounts of weight. Unfortunately, there has yet to be long clinical trials with a significantly large sample size of individuals.

So at this point in time, we still don’t know what the long-term negative effects could be.

Nonetheless, this finding is obviously turning the weight-loss industry upside down as these meds are almost being lauded as a “magic pill”.

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Which diabetes meds are resulting in weight changes?

Mounjaro, Ozempic and Trulicity have been reported to result in significant weight loss.

Although to a lesser degree, Metformin and Jardiance have also been reported to promote weight loss but not as much as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Trulicity.

On the

downside, some treatments have been reported to have an op- posite effect, resulting in weight gain – these include sulfonylureas, glinides and insulin.

Female checking kilogrammes on the scale. Picture: iStock

What is the function of diabetes medicine and how does it affect your weight?

The main function of diabetes medication is to lower blood sugar (blood glucose).

Insulin helps to turn glucose from food into energy for the body. This is how blood glucose is reduced.

But when there is too much glucose in the body, insulin instructs the liver to turn the excess glucose into fat. That’s when weight gain occurs.

Weight loss occurs when one uses medication that reduces the amount of extra glucose in the blood.

Less glucose in the blood means there is less available glucose to turn into fat. So medicine that works to remove glucose from the blood leads to weight loss.

Ozempic tells the pancreas to release insulin after eating. It also results in a feeling of satiety and so users end up eating less resulting in weight loss.

Mounjaro works exactly like Ozempic but is a stronger version and so the resulting weight loss is apparently faster.

Metformin is the most prescribed medication. It lowers the amount of blood glucose and makes the body more sensitive to insulin.

 The resultant weight loss has been reported to be less than Ozempic and Mounjaro. Jardiance removes glucose from the blood, meaning there’s less glucose available to turn into fat.

This all sounds amazing but my main concern is, how long does one have to

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