Scientists reveal whether weight loss pills or jabs are best for fat loss
Considering weight loss medication? A new study may help you decide the best one to take.
'Fat jabs' have enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity over the last couple of years, with millions worldwide using them to help combat diseases like obesity and diabetes.
The GLP-1 drugs mimic the hormone of the same name which is released in the body after eating a meal, telling the brain that you're no longer hungry.
As a result, it lowers a patient's appetite and slows digestion, helping them to lose significant amounts of weight when paired with a healthy diet and exercise.
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A major drawback, though, is that the jabs have to be taken by a weekly injection, which isn't very appealing to those with needle phobias.
However, that changed this week as the first weight loss medication in pill form finally launched in the United Kingdom.
Pharmacies are expecting huge demand for the Wegovy pill, though it has not yet been made available on the NHS.
A tablet has obvious benefits for those who are squeamish over injecting themselves, but does it actually shift more weight than a jab?
Scientists have done the work to find out.
Study details the differences between pills and jabs
Published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), 262 different studies, which looked into more than 99,000 weight loss medication patients, were analysed by researchers,
Their findings are very interesting.
Mounjaro was determined as the medication which led to the highest fat loss at 25.7 per cent, though it came with the highest loss of lean body mass, like muscle, at 8.3 per cent.
It also discovered that the medication that provided the largest weight loss over one year was the jab Mounjaro with 19.9 per cent, comfortably beating the Wegovy pill which stands at 10.9 per cent.
The rankings are:
- Mounjaro - 14.9 per cent
- CagriSema - 14.8 per cent
- Wegovy pill - 10.9 per cent
- Orforglipron pill - 9.9 per cent
- Wejovy jab - 9.8 per cent
- Phentermine-topiramate pills - 8.1 per cent
CagriSema is the new jab from Wegovy manufacturers Novo Nordisk which has not yet been approved.
Meanwhile, though it is available in America, phentermine-topiramate has not been approved in Europe.
Though it may have been beaten in the weight loss race, there were other benefits to the Wegovy jab. It was found to be the only one of the drugs studied to be linked with a lower risk of heart attack at 28 per cent, heart failure at 57 per cent and risk of death from any cause at 19 per cent.
However, it was added that the trials had a relatively short follow-up, meaning the long-term safety, quality of life and effects on organs like the heart and kidney could not be thoroughly concluded upon.
None of the drugs showed clinically important improvements in the quality of life or convincingly reduced kidney failure.
Daniel Murphy