Jump to: Is Wegovy good for long-term use? | How long will I continue to lose weight on Wegovy? | Second Nature’s medication programmes
If you’ve purchased the medication privately, you can stay on Wegovy for life if you can tolerate the medication, and it doesn’t lead to any adverse side effects that inhibit your quality of life.
For example, if you meet our eligibility criteria, you can purchase Wegovy from Second Nature as part of our Wegovy weight-loss programme.
The programme is designed to support you in building healthy habits to maintain your weight loss in the long term.
Some people will choose to come off Wegovy when they reach their weight loss goal; others will wish to remain on the medication to help them maintain their weight loss.
As long as this is approved and appropriate with our clinical team, then you could effectively stay on Wegovy for life if that’s the best approach to manage your weight.
However, if you’ve been prescribed Wegovy via the NHS, the current NICE recommendations don’t approve taking the drug beyond 2 years.
Is Wegovy good for long-term use?
Wegovy is good and safe for most people to use in the long term. Research suggests that Wegovy can support weight loss of around 15% of body weight after 68 weeks, with 93% of participants tolerating the medication enough to stay on it for the duration of the trial.
Additionally, over 86% of individuals in this trial lost more than 5% of their body weight and 50% greater than 15%. This suggests the majority of people taking Wegovy will achieve significant weight loss in the long term.
Research also shows that Wegovy is safe for most people. GLP-1 medications have been around since 2004. No long-term data has emerged to suggest that they’re doing more harm than good.
As technology improves, so does our ability to produce more effective and safer medications.
With each new iteration of GLP-1 medications, like Wegovy and Mounjaro, comes better outcomes and safety profiles.
This is supported by a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials analysing the impact of semaglutide on weight loss, which showed that 9.4% of participants experienced a serious adverse event that led to them stopping the medication.
The rate of serious adverse events in the placebo group was 6.6%. So, the in-treatment difference was just 2.8%.
This is likely due to individuals living with obesity already having a lower health status, and the risk of serious adverse events occurring, medication or not, is higher than those not living with obesity.
So, for most people, Wegovy is good and safe for long-term use.
How long will I continue to lose weight on Wegovy?
Data from randomised controlled trials suggests that weight loss tends to plateau after around 14 months on the medication.
The average weight loss on Wegovy after 14 months is around 15%, after this, it tends to plateau and maintain at this level.
However, as this is an average, it doesn’t accurately predict how much weight loss each individual will achieve. Some may lose 5%, while others 25%.
The amount of weight you can lose on Wegovy doesn’t just depend on the medication but the healthy habits you’re able to develop and maintain.
If you develop a healthier lifestyle while on Wegovy, you’ll likely be able to lose more than 15% in the long term if you need to.
Wegovy isn’t a magic pill
Weight-loss injections are most effective when combined with a healthier lifestyle. They can help kickstart weight loss while you commit to developing healthier habits.
Mounjaro and other weight loss injections, like Ozempic and Wegovy, can allow you to make lifestyle changes to support long-term weight loss.
These medications can help silence food-related thoughts and give you a boost of confidence with more immediate weight-loss results.
They can also buy you the time and headspace to understand why your body may have struggled to lose weight and build new long-term healthy habits.
The core focus of our medication programmes is to calm down the feeling of food noise, lower your cravings, and allow you to build healthier habits to keep the weight off for good.
The ultimate goal is to make losing weight feel second nature.
Second Nature’s medication programmes
Second Nature has two medication-supported programmes: a Wegovy weight-loss programme and a Mounjaro weight-loss programme.
If you’ve decided to try Wegovy or Mounjaro (assuming you’re eligible), why should you choose Second Nature over other medication providers?
For peace of mind.
Second Nature has worked with the NHS for over 6 years, providing weight-loss programmes across the UK.
While our Wegovy and Mounjaro weight-loss programmes are private and not currently used by the NHS, we’ve built the programmes focusing on scientific evidence, patient safety, and data security.
We hope that our 6+ years of working with the NHS and building a track record of effective weight-loss results will give you peace of mind to give us a try.
