ADVERTISEMENT
Phentermine vs Ozempic: A Comparison of Two Weight Loss Medications
LAKSHMI M.S
Last Updated IST

Ozempic (semaglutide) is a medicine that you inject once a week to help control your blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, and it may also reduce the chance of serious heart problems (like heart attack and stroke) in people who have both type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

People who use Ozempic for diabetes also tend to lose weight, so the maker did some tests to see if people without diabetes would get the same benefit. They found out that they did and asked the FDA to approve the medicine for weight loss in adults who are too heavy or obese.

Best Phentermine vs Ozempic Weight Loss Alternative In the Market

#1. PhenQ: Click Here To Buy (Official Website)

ADVERTISEMENT

#2. Capsiplex: Click Here To Buy (Official Website)

#3. PhenGold: Click Here To Buy (Official Website)

#4. Phen24: Click Here To Buy (Official Website)

#5. PrimeShred: Click Here To Buy (Official Website)

If the FDA agrees, Ozempic would be the second medicine of its kind to be approved for weight loss in adults. Saxenda, which is also made by Novo Nordisk, was the first one to be approved.

How does Ozempic work?

Ozempic works by copying a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 helps with digestion and hunger control, making you feel full so that you eat less calories.

After you eat a meal, Ozempic makes your pancreas release insulin and stops a hormone that makes your liver release sugar. It also makes food leave your stomach slower (called gastric emptying), making you feel full longer. But this can also cause some bad side effects, like feeling sick and throwing up.

While other medicines of its kind sometimes need to be used every day, Ozempic only needs to be used once a week since it keeps working in your body for a longer time.

How long does it take to lose weight on Ozempic?

To lose the most weight on Ozempic once it’s approved, you’ll probably need to slowly increase your dose over time until you reach the goal dose (2.4 mg once a week). For example, dose changes were done every 4 weeks or so during the tests, as long as the people could handle them.

But even before you reach the goal dose, you may start to lose some weight. One of the phase 3 tests measured weight loss until the full dose at 20 weeks, finding that most people could lose weight during this time. People saw more weight loss over the next 48 weeks of the test.

What is phentermine?

Phentermine is a medicine that makes you more alert and is used for a short time to help you lose weight by making you less hungry. It is currently approved for use with diet and exercise in adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 mg/kg² or more alone or 27 mg/kg² or more if you have other problems, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol. It is not recommended if you are younger than 17 years old.

Phentermine was approved in 1959, so it has been around for a long time. Its chemical structure is similar to amphetamines, but it has not been shown to have the same addiction or withdrawal problems. However, it is considered to be a controlled substance, and it still has warnings about misuse and dependency.

Phentermine comes in 15 mg, 30 mg, and 37.5 mg strengths (capsules, tablets, and tablets that dissolve in your mouth) that are taken in the middle of the morning or split into two doses. It also comes as a lower-dose 8 mg tablet called Lomaira that is taken three times a day before meals. You can also find it with topiramate (Topamax) as the brand name Qsymia.

How does phentermine work?

Unlike Ozempic, phentermine has effects that make you more alert. It works by making your central nervous system more active, which changes chemicals in your brain to make you think that you’re full.

You’ll usually take it an hour or two after eating breakfast in the morning, and it’ll work to make you less hungry over the day. For example, taking one 30 mg capsule a day has been shown to reduce your hunger for 12 to 14 hours.

How long does it take to lose weight on phentermine? Phentermine can help you lose weight faster than diet and exercise alone, but it is not a magic pill. The amount of weight you can lose on phentermine depends on your starting weight, how well you follow your diet and exercise plan, and how your body reacts to the medicine. In general, you can expect to lose about 5% to 10% of your body weight in 12 weeks of use.

"How does Ozempic help you lose weight?

First, we need to explain that Ozempic is a medicine for type 2 diabetes; it is not on the list of weight loss medicines approved by the FDA. But Ozempic’s main ingredient, semaglutide, is on that list under the name Wegovy. The same company, Novo Nordisk, makes both medicines; Ozempic for diabetes in adults and Wegovy for weight loss. Both medicines have the same thing in them; so they help you lose weight the same way.

Ozempic helps you lose weight by copying a thing called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). It is a hormone that is in your body naturally, but not for long. Semaglutide acts like this hormone in your gut. After you eat, GLP-1 makes your pancreas release more insulin and tells your liver to release less sugar. For people with type 2 diabetes, this helps them lower their blood sugar and avoid high blood sugar.

In the tests for Ozempic, they saw that semaglutide also helps you lose weight. They did more tests to see if Ozempic was good for weight loss. The results were good; people with or without diabetes lost a lot of weight when they used Ozempic with diet and exercise.

The more insulin and less sugar in your blood makes food leave your stomach slower (gastric emptying). This makes you feel less hungry during the day and more full after you eat. Even with a small, low-calorie meal, you will feel like you had enough.

Who can use these weight loss medicines?

To use any of these two weight loss medicines, you need a body-mass index of 30 or more. You can also use Phentermine or Ozempic if you have a body-mass index of 27 and a problem related to weight, like diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease. Do any of these two options fit you? Then you can try one of these medicines to lose weight fast. And, at the same time, make your health and life better.

If you don’t fit these options, another weight loss program might be better for you. You can talk to your doctor about your situation and the best treatment for you. Some people use a healthy diet and fasting. The benefits of fasting by hour are more than weight loss, and this can help you reach your goals quickly.

Doctors tell you not to use any of these medicines if you are pregnant or want to have a baby. There are not enough studies on Ozempic and pregnant women to know how this medicine could affect the baby. Phentermine and pregnancy are also not a good mix; studies don’t show any problems if you used Phentermine in the first three months of your pregnancy. But, as soon as you know you are pregnant, your doctors will tell you to stop the medicine until after you have the baby.

How much and how to use the medicine

These two medicines are very different in this way. Phentermine is a medicine that you use for a short time; usually, you use this medicine for about 3 months. After that, you have to stop using Phentermine; also, the body gets used to the medicine, so it does not make you less hungry anymore. You use Phentermine by mouth – as pills, broken pills, small containers, or long-lasting small containers. How much and how often you use it will depend on how strong the medicine is and your own situation and goals. Usually, you use Phentermine early in the day, a few hours before you eat breakfast; you use the medicine every day.

Ozempic is a medicine that you use for a long time; how long you use it will depend on how much you weigh at the start and how much you want to lose. This medicine is in pens that you inject; you have to inject the medicine once a week, always on the same day of the week. When you start the program, you will begin with a very small amount of 0.25 mg a week. After a month, your doctor can make the amount bigger by another 0.25 mg, and so on, until you reach the biggest allowed amount of 2 mg per week. Many patients ask us how long does Ozempic take to work? But there is no clear answer. It will depend on how quickly your body changes to the medicine and how long it takes you to get to a high amount.

How the medicines can affect you

Another thing that most patients think about when they choose a medicine to help them lose weight is the bad effects. Like most medicines, these medicines can also cause some bad effects, so we have to talk about this when we compare Ozempic and Phentermine.

The most common bad effects of Phentermine are pain in the chest, not being able to sleep, dry mouth, hard stool, loose stool, pain in the head, and feeling dizzy. Some very bad and rare bad effects of this medicine are too much pressure in the lungs (lung pressure) and problems with the heart valves.

For Ozempic, the common bad effects are feeling sick, throwing up, pain in the stomach, loose stool, and hard stool. And the more bad but rare bad effects are inflammation of the pancreas, changes in how you see, low blood sugar (low glucose), problems with the kidneys, and problems with the gallbladder.

You also have to remember that these medicines can mix with other medicines or things. For example, using Ozempic or Phentermine and alcohol together is very bad.

What is Ozempic? Ozempic is a medicine that you need a doctor to give you. It has semaglutide in it. It is used to control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes and also to help some people lose weight. Ozempic works by copying the effects of a hormone called GLP-1, which helps control blood sugar levels and make you less hungry.

How well they work Both Duromine and Ozempic can help you lose weight, but they do it in different ways.

Duromine mainly works by making you less hungry, so you eat less food. It can help you start losing weight, especially if you also eat healthy and exercise.

Ozempic works by controlling blood sugar levels and making you less hungry. It can help people with type 2 diabetes lose weight, and it may also help people who do not have diabetes but have trouble losing weight.

Bad effects you may have You may have bad effects from one of the two medicines or like one kind of medicine more than the other. It’s important to talk to a doctor or nurse about any bad effects you may have.

Bad effects of semaglutide may include:

feeling sick and throwing up hard stool or loose stool pain in the head pain in the stomach feeling tired low blood sugar Bad effects of phentermine may include:

not being able to sleep pain in the head heart beating too fast or not regular dry mouth feeling different high blood pressure heart not working well seeing things that are not there not wanting to have sex Also, people who use a lot of phentermine may have problems when they stop using it. This medicine may also make it hard for you to do things that can be dangerous, like using big machines or driving a car.

Which one is better for losing weight? Semaglutide and phentermine can both help you lose weight.

There is not much research that compares the two together, but some researchTrusted Source says that semaglutide that you inject may help you lose more weight than phentermine.

In a 2021 study, the researchers said that people who injected semaglutide lost more weight than people who used other medicines for weight loss that are approved, like phentermine.

But remember that only Wegovy is approved for weight loss, and Ozempic and Rybelsus can be used for that only if a doctor gives them to you off-label. You’ll want to talk to your doctor or nurse about which medicine may be best for your health.

SEMAGLUTIDE VS. PHENTERMINE: HOW LONG-TERM AND SHORT-TERM MEDICINES FOR WEIGHT LOSS ARE DIFFERENT Do you have trouble keeping your weight steady? Are diets like Keto or Whole30 or programs like Noom and Weight Watchers not helping you get to your weight goal? For many people, having too much weight and being very overweight are common issues because of things like genes, getting older, or how they live. Luckily, there are medicines that you need a doctor to give you that can help you lose weight and keep it off.

Semaglutide and Phentermine are medicines for weight loss that are popular today. Semaglutide is the newest medicine for weight loss that you inject. It was first used for diabetes and copies hormones that control blood sugar and make you less hungry. As a result, it is a good medicine for weight loss to help people get thinner and lose hard pounds. Right now,

Phentermine is a medicine that makes you excited that has been used for more than fifty years. You use this medicine by mouth as a small container or a pill, and it makes your brain and body less hungry. It is a safe and good option for a short time for people who are very overweight. Right now, a kind of this medicine, Phentermine-topiramate, is approved by the FDA for keeping weight off for a long time.

While both medicines help people lose weight, they are different in how much, bad effects, how long you use them, and how they look. Read a full explanation of Semaglutide and Phentermine to help you choose if a short-term or long-term medicine for weight loss is better for you.

INJECTION VS MEDICINE BY MOUTH FOR WEIGHT LOSS When you compare medicines for weight loss that you inject with medicines that you use by mouth, you should think about how long these medicines work and how long you will use them. Semaglutide injections are for using for a long time for weight loss.

For Phentermine, this medicine by mouth is for using for a short time for up to 12 weeks. But some doctors give it to you for a longer time. Right now, a kind of this medicine, Phentermine-topiramate, is approved by the FDA for keeping weight off for a long time in some people.

BAD EFFECTS OF SEMAGLUTIDE VS. PHENTERMINE Common bad effects of Semaglutide are feeling sick, throwing up, loose stool, and hard stool. In rare cases, pain in the stomach, swelling of the pancreas, or problems with the kidneys are more bad effects.

"Phentermine can cause some side effects like dry mouth, headaches, dizziness, and trouble sleeping. But these side effects are not as bad or as common as those of Semaglutide. You should know that the side effects are different for each person.

HOW MUCH SEMAGLUTIDE AND PHENTERMINE SHOULD YOU TAKE? Both drugs have different amounts that you need to take. Semaglutide is a new and stronger drug than Phentermine. You take Semaglutide once a week, while you take Phentermine every day. You use a needle to put Semaglutide in your stomach, arm, or leg once a week. In the beginning, you take a small dose of 0.25mg every month. Then, you take more, up to 2.4mg, depending on how much weight you want to lose.

Phentermine is a drug that you swallow in a capsule. You take the capsule in amounts of 15 to 37.5mg every day, either in the middle of the morning or in two parts.

HOW MUCH WEIGHT CAN YOU LOSE WITH SEMAGLUTIDE AND PHENTERMINE? The weight loss from Semaglutide and Phentermine is different. When you take Semaglutide, studies show that you can lose 15-20 pounds in 26-30 weeks. When you take Phentermine, studies show that you can lose 5-10% of your first weight in 12-14 weeks.*

HOW DO YOU USE SEMAGLUTIDE? To use Semaglutide the right way, you use a needle to put it in your stomach, arm, or leg once a week. When you start taking the drug, you take a small dose of 0.25mg every month. Then, you take more, up to 2.4mg, depending on how much weight you want to lose.

HOW LONG DOES PHENTERMINE STAY IN YOUR BODY? Phentermine stays in your body for about 3-6 days. But this can change depending on things like age, weight, metabolism, and dose.

WILL I HAVE PHENTERMINE WITHDRAWAL? No. A recent study on Phentermine’s addiction risk says that patients who take the drug for obesity do not abuse or get addicted to it. Also, Phentermine does not make you want the drug, a usual sign of addiction. So, you will not have withdrawal if you stop taking the drug. This is true even if you take more than you should or if you have been taking Phentermine for a long time.

CAN PHENTERMINE MAKE YOU CONSTIPATED? Yes, one of the possible side effects of Phentermine is constipation. When you take Phentermine, you may have problems with bowel movements and may feel uneasy or full. Also, since Phentermine makes you less hungry, this makes you dehydrated, which often leads to constipation.

"TRY SEMAGLUTIDE IN STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK Semaglutide and Phentermine are good choices to help you get rid of extra weight and look and feel good. But Semaglutide is the only choice that helps you lose weight for a long time, stay at a healthy weight, and keep living a healthy life.

Find out more about Semaglutide on Staten Island with a top provider, Emerson Medical. Staten Island, New York, people who have trouble with weight control trust our wonderful staff to help them drop hard pounds and get lasting results.

To see if you can take Semaglutide weight loss drug, call us at (718) 448-3800 to make an appointment, or contact us online to learn more. We are excited to show you how this safe and powerful weight-loss shot will improve your look and meet your weight-loss goals.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 04 January 2024, 15:24 IST)