What It’s Like To Be On Ozempic For 6 Weeks, According To Doctors And Real Women
Ozempic has become a household drug name over the past year after an army of people spoke out on social media about how the medication helped them lose weight. But with all the buzz surrounding Ozempic and similar medications, it’s understandable to have questions—a lot of questions—about what it would be like to use a medication like this for weight loss for a longer-term period.
Sure, it’s probably exciting when you first start using Ozempic, but what will it feel like a few weeks in? And can you use it successfully for just a few months, or is this a, say, forever investment in your health? Doctors—and real women who have been on Ozempic—share their perspectives.
What is Ozempic—and how does it work?
Ozempic is an injectable drug that’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help treat people with type 2 diabetes when other medications haven’t been able to effectively manage their blood sugar.
Ozempic, which is a brand name for semaglutide, works by mimicking a protein in your body called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), explains Kunal Shah, MD, an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. When you take Ozempic, it activates GLP-1 receptors in your body, causing an increase in insulin. That helps treat type 2 diabetes, Dr. Shah says.
But while Ozempic is designed to treat type 2 diabetes, one side effect is weight loss. In fact, while the official Ozempic website stresses that this is “not a weight loss drug,” it also casually mentions that people lost up to 14 pounds in a clinical trial.
How Ozempic Actually Helps With Weight Loss
It’s important to point out that the main ingredient in Ozempic—semaglutide—is also the active ingredient in Wegovy, which is FDA-approved to be used as a weight loss drug. With that, doctors say they will prescribe Ozempic for weight loss, too.
So, how does Ozempic lead to weight loss? The medication helps signal to your brain to eat less and store less, says Mir Ali, MD, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. It also slows down gastric emptying (meaning, the movement of food through your stomach), making you feel fuller, longer, Dr. Ali explains.
How long does it take for Ozempic to work?
It really depends. Ozempic is designed to be started at the lowest dose and then gradually ramped up to get the desired effect, Dr. Ali explains. “Some people who are more sensitive to it can start seeing results right away,” he says. “But, for most people, it takes a few weeks.”
Dr. Shah agrees. “We usually go up a dose every month,” he says. “Patients don’t usually see weight loss with the lowest dose, which is 0.25 milligrams, but they start seeing it after 0.5 milligrams. For most people, it will take about a month.”
The amount of weight loss someone wants to lose and how quickly really depends on the person and what else they’re doing to lose weight, Dr. Shah says.
What does it feel like to be on Ozempic for six weeks?
Again, it’s personal and may vary. “There are some people who are non-responders until they have a higher dose; some are hyper-responders and respond really well to lower doses,” Dr. Shah says. After six weeks, Dr. Shah says that you should start to feel the effects of the medication—which may mean that you do not feel as hungry as you normally would be.
But, again, everyone is different. Tanya Gulliver-Garcia started taking Ozempic a few months ago to help manage her type 2 diabetes. “I have not experienced any weight loss,” she says. But, Gulliver-Garcia points out, she’s on another medication that makes her gain weight, which can make results different than what others might experience. “I want to be healthy and have excellent blood sugar, whatever my weight,” she says.
For most people, it will take about a month to see results from taking Ozempic for weight loss.
By the way, you’ll be seeing your doctor pretty often when you’re on Ozempic—at least at first. “We do month visits where we gradually increase the dose,” Dr. Ali says. “When they get to the maximum dose, the follow-ups will continue but not as often.” Dr. Shah says that he often will have patients on Ozempic do appointments every two to three months “to make sure things are going okay”—and talk about potential side effects.
What is it like to stay on Ozempic for years?
Ozempic and other semaglutide medications are designed to be used indefinitely, Dr. Shah says. “The expectation is that you will plateau with weight at some point but the medication will help in at least managing that amount of weight loss that you achieved,” he says.
But some people may also notice other changes over time. “After a year or so, some people notice that the hunger starts coming back,” Dr. Shah says. “But that’s the case with every medication—you tend to lose a little of the effect over time.”
Kimberly Carlos has been on Ozempic for nearly a year and says she’s lost 75 pounds so far. “I went on the medication because I have insulin resistance, PCOS, and the disease of obesity,” she says. “It’s changed my life.”
Carlos adds that she no longer constantly thinks about food. “I have a completely different lifestyle, and I’ve never been happier,” she says. “With the food noise quieted, I have so much more brain capacity to focus on other things, like a podcast to help others. I’m creative again.”
Advice For Ozempic Users To Make It A Positive Experience
Experts say it’s important to have ongoing conversations with your doctor about how you feel and what else you’re doing to try to lose weight. That’s actually a big factor. People who have the most success on Ozempic also change up their diet and focus on a healthier eating plan, Dr. Shah says.
But weight loss is a journey, and he stresses the importance of keeping that in mind. “It’s very individualized,” he says.
