For many patients, gastrointestinal side effects gradually improve as the body adapts to the medication, though the timeline varies by product and individual
These drugs are injected into a persons upper arm, thigh, or stomach on a weekly basis, and work by mimicking certain hormones in the body to help lower blood sugar levels
What the Research Says About Muscle Loss on Ozempic Recent studies have measured how much lean body mass (which includes muscle) people lose while taking GLP-1 medications like Ozempic: A systematic review of 1,541 adults found that while semaglutide led to substantial fat loss, up to ~40% of the weight lost came from lean mass in some trials ( PubMed )
STEP-1 extension showed semaglutide patients regained two-thirds of their lost weight within a year of stopping, and cardiometabolic improvements largely reversed
These medications are meant to be used long-term to sustain the benefits
First, the sample size was relatively small, which limits the generalizability of the findings