If you are obese or overweight and need help with your weight management, Wegovy can help you. What is Wegovy®

Wegovy® is a weight loss medication containing the active ingredient, semaglutide. It’s injected into the body once a week to help you lose weight. Wegovy® is thought to be an effective weight loss medication when used alongside healthy diet and increased exercise.

The mediation is a MHRA approved for weight management and it is available via our website www.ukweightloss.co.uk.

How does Wegovy® work?

Wegovy® is a weightloss medication with an active ingredient semaglutide. This semaglutide is a synthetic version of the naturally occurring hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 plays an important role in regulating appetite and calorie intake. After eating, GLP-1 is released from the gut to help regulate your blood sugar levels and reduce the amount of glucagon in your body. As a result, it slows down the stomach emptying, makes you feel fuller for longer, suppressing the appetite and reduced food intake- thus result in weightloss.

Wegovy works best when it’s taken at the same time as making lifestyle changes (healthier diet and increased exercise). In fact, around 85% of users lost at least 5% of their weight, compared to just 40% losing 5% when no lifestyle changes were made. 

How effective is Wegovy®?

When Wegovy® is combined with healthy reduced calorie diet and increased exercise, a 68-week study  trial by Novo Nordisk has shown that:

Around 85% of people lost more than 5% of their body weight

66% of people lost more than 10% of their body weight

48% of people lost more than 15% of their body weight

30% of people lost more than 20% of their body weight

This compares to just 60% of people losing 5% of their weight when taking Saxenda® along with a reduced calorie diet and physical activity counselling. The trial included 1,961 patients who were classed as either obese (body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2) or overweight (BMI 27 kg/m2-29.9 kg/m2) and had at least one weight-related comorbid condition, such as dyslipidaemias, or hypertension.

Who can take Wegovy®?

Wegovy can be used by adults ages 18-75 who have:

A BMI of 30 or above

A BMI of 27 or above and you have a weight-related health condition such as:

PCOS

Depression

Cardiovascular disease

Sleep apnoea

Diabetes (As we are an online service, we are unable to prescribe Wegovy to diabetics for patient safety reasons)

Fatty liver disease

Gallbladder disease

High blood pressure

History of certain cancers

Osteoarthritis or gout

Asthma

You won’t be able to take Wegovy® if you: 

Are over 75

Are pregnant or breastfeeding

Have liver, kidney or heart failure, an eating disorder or pancreatitis

Are taking insulin, sulphonylureas or other weight loss drugs that work in the same way as Wegovy, e.g. Victoza. 

Does Wegovy burn fat?

Wegovy helps to regulate your appetite and make you feel fuller for longer, therefore helping to reduce how much you eat.

Wegovy does not burn fat.

What is the difference between Wegovy® and Saxenda®?

Although these two medications are made by the same manufacturer but they are different. The main difference is Saxenda is a daily injection and Wegovy is once weekly injection.

They also contain different active ingredients. Saxenda® contains Liraglutide while Wegovy® contains Semaglutide.  They work in similar ways to suppress your appetite for weight reduction.

Injecting Wegovy

You inject Wegovy® just once a week into your tummy, thigh or upper arm. 

Wegovy® injections come in a variety of doses. Depending on where you are in your Wegovy® journey, you will need to take different doses

The dose is gradually increased to make sure you cope with any potential side effects until you get to a maintenance dose, this process is known as titration.

Below are the dosing schedules if well tolerated:

Weeks 1-4: 0.25mg weekly

Weeks 5-8: 0.5mg weekly

Weeks 9-12: 1mg weekly

Weeks 13-16: 1.7mg weekly

Weeks 17 onwards: 2.4mg weekly  (maintenance dose, if tolerable)

How long does Wegovy® take to work?

Wegovy® has been shown to be an effective weight loss treatment, when used alongside healthy diet and increased physical activity.

How long do I take Wegovy for?

In clinical trials (Step 1 and Step 4), around 85% of people lost more than 5% of their body weight when using Wegovy and following a reduced-calorie diet and increased exercise plan:

Around 85% people lost at least 5% of their starting body weight after 6 months

Around 66% people lost more than 15% of their starting body weight after one year

Wegovy® injection potential side effects

As with all medicines, Wegovy comes with some potential side effects. Mostly, these should be mild and are likely to lessen or even disappear completely after a few weeks of starting treatment. It’s thought that more than one in 10 people might experience:

headaches

vomiting

diarrhoea

constipation

tummy ache

nausea

Some people might also experience:

dizzy spells

indigestion

bloating among other symptoms

Find out more by reading the patient information leaflet. 

How will UKWeightloss support my Wegovy® journey:

If you’re taking Wegovy®, the UKWeightloss clinicians will support you through your journey in a variety of different ways till you reach your weightloss goal, hit BMI 23 or you decide to come off the medication.

As part of your ongoing support from our clinical team, we’ll send you a follow up questionnaire and support you with phone calls, face to face consultation (please book your appointment here: www.ukweightloss.co.uk/bookanappointment)

We have many online resources and healthy living advice to support your weight loss journey.

 Please contact us if you have any queries or questions, we will endeavour to get back to you within 24hours (call, text, email or message us through your cloud Patient Record).

What if I miss a Wegovy dose?

Sometimes it is inevitable that you may miss a dose, but it is important to try and administer your Wegovy dose on the same day each week.

Missing a dose may cause you to feel hungrier, leading to potential overeating and decreased effectiveness of the medication. Missing a dose of Wegovy can lower the concentration of semaglutide in your body. Hence it is important to try and maintain a consistent schedule of taking the medication as prescribed to achieve the best results.

Setting an alarm on your phone can help.

Steps to follow:

If you miss a dose of Wegovy, don’t panic.

If you miss a dose of Wegovy and the next scheduled dose is more than 2 days away (48 hours), take the missed dose as soon as possible.

If you miss a dose of Wegovy and the next scheduled dose is less than 2 days away (48 hours), do not administer the dose. Take your next dose on the regularly scheduled day.

If you miss doses of Wegovy for more than 2 weeks, do not take the next dose on the scheduled day. Please contact us (UKWeightloss.co.uk) about how to restart your treatment.

It’s important not to double up on doses to make up for a missed one, as this can lead to unwanted side effects.

If you have any concerns or questions about missed doses or your medication regimen in general, don’t hesitate to speak with us (www.ukweightloss.co.uk) for guidance.

Wegovy® pen temperature:

How to store Wegovy

Any Wegovy® pens that haven’t been opened should be kept refrigerated and stored between 2-8°C .

During use you can keep the pens for 6 weeks in the fridge or room temperature (below 30°C).

Do not freeze Wegovy

How to throw away

Pens need to be disposed of in the sharps bin (we usually provide you with sharps bin free of charge at the start of your treatment).

When you're prescribed Wegovy® we’ll let you know how to get rid of the sharps bin and its contents via your local pharmacy.

Alternative weight loss treatments

There are other weight loss treatments and alternatives that are available in the UK, see below for the alternatives:

Saxenda®

Xenical (branded Orlistat)

Alli

Mysimba

Rybelsus (diabetes treatment, may be used off label for weightloss).

Wegovy

Rybelsus.

Ozempic (T2D medication, off label for weightloss). Ozempic and Wegovy contains the same active ingredient Semaglutide, but Ozempic is licensed for adults who have type 2 diabetes.