Key takeaways:
Wegovy is an injectable medication that contains semaglutide. It’s prescribed for chronic weight management in adults and adolescents ages 12 and older.
Wegovy works by mimicking a natural gut hormone that helps regulate appetite.
Some people who take Wegovy tell GoodRx it has helped ease their frustration after other attempts at weight loss.
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A bus driver from Michigan, a social media marketer from Florida, and a mortgage advisor from Oregon — all three of these people had one thing in common.
They were long frustrated in their efforts to diet and otherwise cut their weight. And they all finally found help with Wegovy (semaglutide), a medication prescribed in conjunction with a lower-calorie diet and exercise for weight management.
The medication — taken as a once-a-week injection — mimics a natural hormone, called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), that helps regulate appetite and food intake. It’s known to cause some stomach-related side effects. But some people say it has helped them lose weight when all other attempts have failed.
Below, three women share their experiences with Wegovy and tips for others who are considering taking medication.
It’s helping her get to her goal weight
When Lynn Stamper-Bruno of Lake Oswego, Oregon, was trying to shed pounds, she had something working against her. It was polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, a condition in which the ovaries produce an abnormal amount of androgen hormones. PCOS can also prevent the body from using its own insulin effectively, which can result in weight gain.
Lynn, a 54-year-old mortgage advisor whose weight had reached 287 lbs, had little luck with dieting. But her weight was causing her knees and back to hurt and had led to high blood pressure, she says. So her doctor suggested Wevogy, which was covered by her insurance.
After getting a 30-day supply of the medication, she began the weekly injections, administering them under the skin of her upper thigh. The initial results were more than she expected. “In the first month, I think I lost 12 lbs,” she says. “I was a little bit shocked.”
Taking the medication meant she simply wasn’t hungry as often and became fuller faster. Now, she might have a protein shake for breakfast and eggs for lunch. And “by dinnertime, I’m barely hungry,” she says. “So, I’ll just eat some chicken and vegetables.”
Lynn estimates she’s averaging 1,200 calories a day.
That initial burst of weight loss leveled off for a time before picking up again, she says. So far, she’s down to 244 lbs and progressing toward her goal of reaching 160 lbs. And she’s found that adjusting her diet has helped alleviate the medication’s side effects, which can include nausea and gas.
“I learned very quickly that if you eat processed foods, dairy, sugar, that will aggravate it. But if you just eat a clean diet, then you won’t really experience that as much,” she says, adding that cashew yogurt and fermented kombucha have both helped her stomach.
Because she now eats less, Lynn has also found it is important to make meals count by eating lots of protein and nutritious vegetables, as well as maintaining vitamins and staying hydrated.
“Your body still needs things,” she says. “And if you don’t give your body what it needs, you’re going to have issues.”
As for overeating, it’s difficult because it makes her feel terrible, she says. A large, celebratory birthday meal at a restaurant that left her feeling unwell for days, for example.
Lynn worries that she’ll gain the weight back if she stops taking Wegovy. Butshe hopes that once she reaches her weight goal, she’ll have the energy to be more physical and have healthier habits that will keep the weight off. And then, she won’t have to keep taking the medication.
She’s already seen a difference in her health. Her knees and back hurt less. She’s sleeping better. And, she says, “I can do more. I feel a little bit younger.”
‘Food noise’ turned off like a switch
When Kahlin Grant met her husband years ago, she weighed 140 lbs. But even then, her weight was tough to maintain.
Kahlin, who is now 41 and living in Daytona Beach, Florida, says she would try to keep weight off by running 3 mi to 6 mi a day, weight training four times a week, and “eating nothing but kale.”
But she had a hormone imbalance that caused insulin resistance, which made maintaining her weight harder. And things really began to change when she had children, which caused her to gain weight, she says. Soon, it felt almost impossible to combat despite her efforts to diet.
“I got to the point where I was so embarrassed on the scale, the last time I checked it was around 210,” Kahlin, who runs a social media marketing agency, says. “I was at risk for heart attack or stroke. And I was just very desperate and depressed.“
In 2021, her primary care physician recommended she try Wegovy, just months after it was approved by the FDA for weight loss. She started taking it in August of that year.
“I think my first month I lost 6 or 7 lbs — the second month, maybe 8 or 9 lbs,” she says, explaining that her dosage increased during the first few months. “By the time I got to the third month, that’s where I think the magic happened for me. And the weight kind of started to melt off.”
Simply put, she wasn’t hungry and craving food all the time — something she’d wrestled with for many years.
“I’ve always dealt with that ‘food noise,’ always just thinking about food, craving food, and being hungry all the time — and then, at the same time, trying to fight those urges and cravings. It was a constant battle,” she says. “And it just turned off, like a switch.”
But not everything is sunshine and rainbows, she says: “I did also experience nausea and vomiting.” These side effects lessened over time, however. And she found experiencing them was a trade-off she was willing to make.
“My goal was to get to 140, because when I met my husband, I weighed 140 lbs,” she says. She has since surpassed that goal, seeing her weight fall to 120 lbs on a maintenance dosage that is less than what she took before.
But she says it wouldn’t have happened without diet changes, which have included intermittent fasting and maintaining her efforts to reduce overall calories, sugars, and carbs. And she doesn’t recommend Wegovy for someone who only wants to lose 10 lbs or 15 lbs.
“It’s not a magic pill or potion. Just eating cookies, tacos, and pizzas and thinking, ‘OK, this is a hack and I don’t have to be healthy, I can just take this’ — it won’t work,” she says.
Kahlin’s new weight has improved her health and raised her confidence in her work and social interactions. But the biggest benefit, she says, is knowing she’ll be healthy for her children, who are now 3 and 8 years old.
“It changes everything,” she says.
Thrilled to be losing 3 pounds a week
Melissa Sawicki had finally had enough. The 29-year-old old paraprofessional and school bus driver from Potterville, Michigan — a small town just outside of Lansing — was facing serious health problems related to her weight. She had arthritis in her feet and asthma — all exacerbated by the fact that she had reached 273 lbs.
Nothing seemed to help her make progress losing weight and her frustration had grown with time. “I’d been dieting for years,” she says. But because of medication and illness, she adds, she had not been able to lose weight.
Melissa went to see her doctor and asked for gastric bypass surgery, which would mean undergoing a serious procedure. That’s when he asked if she had heard of Wegovy.
“I promptly agreed, even though he listed several possible side effects,” she says about trying Wegovy. “For me, anything was worth shedding some weight.”
Although she was prescribed Wegovy in November 2022, she had to wait because the increasingly popular medication was on backorder. During that time, she researched Wegovy, watched videos of people who had tried it on TikTok, and grew less skeptical hearing stories of weight loss.
In January 2023, Melissa started taking the medication. “The shot itself doesn’t hurt; it’s very simple to use, “ she says.
At first, she had some nausea, indigestion, and sulphuric burps. But these side effects faded over time. “The longer I’ve been on it, the less I’ve been nauseous,” she says.
Her weight started to drop quickly. “I started to lose weight the first week on Wegovy, which is incredible,” she says, noting that after significant initial results she has averaged a loss of about 3 lbs per week.
She discovered that, while she was eating far less, she was not eating enough nutritious food. All she needed for lunch, for instance, was half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So she recently ordered vitamins and started to drink protein shakes.
“Wegovy makes me not hungry. And when I do eat, I can only eat about a cup’s worth of food. So it’s very important you make those calories count,” Melissa says.
So far, she’s noticed she has more energy. And she’s been able to cut back on pain medication and has had fewer asthma attacks. So Wegovy hasn’t been the “snake oil” she worried it might be. “I’m hoping to continue to lose weight and get down to my goal,” she says.
Her goal is to reach 180 lbs from her starting point of 273 lbs.
While better eating habits will allow her to stop taking the medication eventually, she says: “I’m prepared for a lifetime if it gets me where I want to be. That’s how much better I feel already.”
What does the pharmacist say?
Alyssa Billingsley, PharmD
Director, Pharmacy Content
Wegovy is a once-weekly injection approved for chronic weight management in adults and adolescents ages 12 and older. It works by stimulating insulin release after you eat, blocking your liver from making extra glucose (sugar), and slowing the movement of food out of your stomach. It also targets appetite- and reward-related areas of the brain.
These effects can reduce your appetite, stop cravings, and make you feel full, so you eat fewer calories, which can result in weight loss. But this can also cause several unpleasant side effects, including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain — especially when you first start taking Wegovy and after dose increases.
To manage these side effects, you’ll typically start with a lower Wegovy dose, which is slowly increased every 4 weeks until you reach your target dose. For many people, digestion-related side effects like nausea improve over time. But in the meantime, avoiding or minimizing high-fat, sugary, and processed foods can help.
Since Wegovy can affect your appetite, you’ll need to pay special attention to the foods you are eating. Getting enough protein and nutrients may seem challenging, especially if your appetite isn’t what it used to be or if you’re feeling queasy. So talk to your provider about ways to ensure you’re getting adequate nutrition while taking Wegovy.
Wegovy is meant to be taken long term, alongside a healthy diet and regular exercise. You may start to notice weight loss within a few weeks of taking it, but you’ll typically need to continue treatment to keep the weight off. If you’re considering a medication like Wegovy, your provider can help you weigh the pros and cons of treatment.
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