‘It’s changed my life’: Diabetes drug working wonders for weight loss

Thousands of overweight Australians are hailing an appetite suppressing diabetes drug as a “game changer” for achieving their New Year’s weight loss goals.

For the past 30 years, Julie Williger’s New Year’s resolution has been to lose weight, but 2022 was the first time she had already achieved it thanks to a new diabetes drug that is helping thousands of Australians to lose weight.

Semaglutide, marketed as Ozempic, is a once a week, self-administered injectable drug currently only approved for Type 2 diabetes, but it is being prescribed off label by thousands of people like Mrs Williger for weight loss.

“It stops you from feeling hungry, you don’t feel like sweet things. I’m now down to 78 kilograms from 99 kilograms last year,” the 49-year-old from Wollongong said.

Julie Williger at 99kg last May, before she tried Ozempic and lost 20kg.

Associate Professor Samantha Hocking, endocrinologist, diabetes and weight loss expert from Sydney University, said Semaglutide worked by suppressing appetite receptors in the brain.

“These medications help regulate appetite control in the brain, that is how they lower body weight, in terms of how they help people with diabetes, they work on the pancreas and help the pancreas make insulin in response to glucose. They also delay gastric emptying, they slow down how quickly that food enters into your intestines,” she said.

In a double blind study of 1961 adults with a body-mass index of 30 or over (obese) the average weight loss over 68 weeks on the drug was 14.9 per cent of body weight compared to 2.4 per cent in the group that did not receive the drug.

“The dose we currently have in Australia (for diabetes) is not the dose that has been studied for weight loss, the dose for weight loss is 2.4mg weekly but the dose for diabetes is 0.5mg or 1mg weekly dose, so it is significantly lower than the dose in the weight loss trials,” she said.

“On the 2.4mg weekly dose, people are achieving up to 15-16 per cent body weight reduction and that really is a game changer, it is much better than any other weight loss medications available.”

Julie is now at her lowest weight ever. Picture: Jonathan Ng

A/Prof Hocking said she had seen good results in her patients who were prescribed the lower dose for weight loss.

“Some people have done exceptionally well on the 1 mg dose in terms of losing weight,” she said.

Makers of the drug Nova Nordisk, currently have an application before the TGA specifically for use for weight loss marketed as Wegovy. It has to go through a separate approval process, but over 4,500 people are sharing their success in an online group set up for Ozempic weight loss on social media.

Julie Williger’s weight had climbed to 120kg at its highest and she underwent bariatric surgery in 2018 with a gastric sleeve. She lost weight but then it crept back on as you can still eat chocolate and make bad choices even with a smaller stomach.

At 99kg her doctor suggested Ozempic last May and she injects 2mg each week. She also joined a gym.

“The needle, it’s so tiny you don’t feel it, you pinch a bit of tummy and you don’t feel it,” Mrs Williger said.

“Ozempic is an awesome tool to support this journey. I‘ve lost roughly 20kg on this medication. It’s a combination of making food choice changes, exercise, and Ozempic. I’m now at my lowest weight ever.”

Mum of two Tash Knight has lost 17 kilograms on Ozempic since November.

Tash Knight has lost 17kg since starting the weekly injections in November. The 27-year-old Melbourne mother of two has struggled with her weight all her life and was contemplating bariatric surgery before starting Ozempic.

“It got to the point I had to do something about it, at 171 kilograms. I just don’t feel likes of drinks and fast food and I’ve stopped snacking. 100 per cent it is a game changer. I was 171 kilos and now 154 kilos and hoping to get under 100 kilos,” Ms Knight said.

Ozempic helped Cassie Wright from Brisbane lose the last 8kg.

Ipswich-based mum Cassie Wright, 31, has also had bariatric surgery but when her weight plateaued at 85kg for eight months, she tried Ozempic and 11 weeks in, she is now down to 77kg.

“It’s changed my life. I don’t regret the bariatric surgery, but I didn’t know about Ozempic back then,” she said.

While Ozempic is subsidised through the pharmaceutical benefits scheme for diabetes, the off label use for weight management is around $130 a month for the drug.

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Originally published as ‘It’s changed my life’: Diabetes drug working wonders for weight loss