What Is Obesity?

This is indicated for individuals with BMI of 25 to 29.9 without comorbidities. Examples of comorbidities includes diabetes, hypertension, liver disease, heart disease, and kidney disease.

Treatment could include restrictive or non-restrictive diets like intermittent fasting or prescriptive nutritional interventions as well as planned exercises. Individuals can expect 2% to 10% weight loss depending on the type of intervention.

This is indicated for individuals with BMI of 27 to 29.99 with comorbidities and those with BMI of 30 with or without comorbidities. There are multiple medications such as Orlistat (Xenical), Phentermine/Topiramate (Qsymia), Semaglutide (Wegovy), Liraglutide (Saxenda), and Naltrexone/Bupropion ER (Contrave) used for weight loss.

Individuals could expect 10% to 20% weight loss depending on the medication.

This is indicated for individuals with BMI of >35 with comorbidity and those with BMI > 40 with or without comorbidities.

These treatment options include sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band, gastric bypass, and bilopancreatic diversion. Individuals can expect 30% to 40% weight loss depending on the kind of surgery.

Semaglutide belongs to the drug class called the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). These drugs are administered as a weekly injection and are also used to treat type 2 diabetes as well as obesity. Semaglutide works by curbing your appetite and making you feel full so you are less hungry, which means you eat less food.

Studies have shown that semaglutide offers cardiovascular benefits such as regulating blood glucose, improving blood pressure, and stopping the progression of plaques in blood vessels that could cause heart disease.

In combination with lifestyle modifications, semaglutide has been proven to provide the most effective weight loss in individuals. Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, headache, fatigue, and decreased appetite. Adverse side effects include increased risk for medullary thyroid cancer (animal studies), acute kidney injury, and pancreatitis.

Contrave combines two medications (bupropion and naltrexone) which have been shown to target two areas of the brain (hypothalamus and the mesolimbic circuit/reward center) that cause cravings and hunger. Contrave is an oral medication taken twice a day at its optimum dose.

In combination with lifestyle modifications, contrave has been proven to help individuals achieve sustainable results. Common side effects include nausea, constipation, headache, vomiting, dizziness, trouble sleeping, dry mouth, and diarrhea.

Because one of its medications is bupropion, an antidepressant, it could increase the risk for suicidal thoughts or actions in children, teenagers, and young adults under the age of 24 within the first few months of treatment. Other side effects include seizures, risk of opioid overdose if taken with other opioid containing medications, increased blood pressure and heart rate, liver disease, manic episodes, angle-closure glaucoma, and increased risk for low blood sugar in patients who also take other medicines for diabetes.