For many individuals today, living with obesity is a part of life. When you commit to change for the better, though, there are various medications on the market aimed at weight loss and physical improvement.
Chief among these would be Saxenda and Wegovy. Both come with a strong reputation for being used to help overcome obesity and get back to a comfortable, healthy weight.
When comparing Saxenda vs Wegovy, though, it can be tough to determine what is the best choice. Typically, both medications are designed to do one thing – to reduce your appetite and make you less hungry. By making you feel less of a compulsion to eat, it is easier to balance your calorie intake and thus avoid needless weight gain.
Unlike other weight loss medications, Saxenda and Wegovy can be useful for keeping the weight off in the first place. These treatments have been around for some time and have gained a reputation for being highly effective when it comes to both weight loss and weight maintenance.
There are various comparisons out there, but to break down the differences between Saxenda vs Wegovy, we have put together a quick list below. Now, hopefully, you can understand what option should be the priority for you when it comes to choosing the right weight management medicine in the future.
What is Wegovy?
So, Wegovy is a new formula for the old Semaglutide anti-diabetes medication. Wegovy is a newly approved weight-loss formula that has become increasingly available in the West.
It is aimed at adults determined to be clinically obese – typically, this is defined by having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of around 30 or above. Those with a BMI of 27 or above, though, would also be considered viable candidates for using Wegovy.
When paired with a calorie-cutting meal plan, Wegovy can be an effective treatment for extreme weight gain. However, it also does have to be taken alongside a lifestyle change in terms of your physical output and your food intake.
Wegovy is taken once per week, taken on the same day each week, and is taken with or without food. Dosages can vary from the smallest dose of 0.25mg to the highest dose of 2.4mg, depending on how much assistance is needed. The period of time that you take Wegovy is around four weeks.
Currently, Wegovy is the only prescription weight control medicine that you can take that would be taken once per week. Wegovy benefits your body, though, by synthesizing a hormone that targets the part of our brain regulating our appetite. This helps you to ‘trick’ your mind into thinking you are full when you have eaten far less than you usually would.
What is Saxenda?
First things first: there are many more similarities when comparing Saxenda vs Wegovy than differences. In terms of what they both do, though? They are almost identical in terms of the end goal. The main variance here is how they get you to reach that end goal in the first place.
The most significant difference is when you take your dosage. With Wegovy, you take it once per week; with Saxenda, you take it once daily. You start in your first week, taking 0.6mg per day, which eventually rises to 3mg per day by week five and beyond.
However, this is an average: every person gets their dosage based on their health history. So, do not expect there to be a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to taking Saxenda or Wegovy.
While Wegovy uses an active compound known as semaglutide, Saxenda is made using liraglutide. In terms of how the results come across, though, it would be hard to say that there is much of a difference. Both produce the same result: a synthetic creation of GLP-1 hormones that help to ‘trick’ the body into assuming that you are full when you would otherwise have kept eating.
Saxenda vs Wegovy: What Is the Best Option?
This is the hard part, as no set-in-stone ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ option exists. What works best for you depends on your current condition, your long-term medical history, and the kind of life you lead.
Generally, many people find that Wegovy works easier for them because it requires fewer daily dosages. For those living busy lives, Semaglutide works for longer with each dosage, meaning less effort on your part to administer the treatment in the first place.
Some studies have found that, in general, Saxenda is not going to produce the same weight loss results as Wegovy. However, many people use these treatments as more than a weight loss technique. They use it to help regulate their metabolic health – and on that count, it would be hard to say that one is better than the other.
Both provide you with a GLP-1 receptor agonist, so they both functionally bring you the same result. What you need to do is work with a medical professional to determine what is the right choice for you personally.
In Conclusion
If you were to compare Saxenda vs Wegovy, you would find that they are extremely similar in their results. The biggest difference stems from how many injections you need to take per day or per week. If you can find it easier to organise the time for daily injections, you might find it easier to keep track of performance with Saxenda.
For those on shorter timeframes per day, though, the weekly injections of Wegovy can be easier to keep track of. When you use both regularly, though, there is absolutely nothing to say that they cannot help you gain the same results: improved metabolic health and consistent weight loss.
When combined with lifestyle changes and an improved diet, though, you can find that you can gain similar results with both. So, in the old argument of Saxenda vs Wegovy, the best answer is this: both work; it just depends on what suits you personally!
