Drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound can help people with extreme obesity lose enough weight to be candidates for weight-loss surgery People with BMI over 70 lose about 13% of their body weight on a combination of the drugs This outperformed diet and exercise, which led to just a 6% loss in overall weight FRIDAY, June 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Taking a cutting-edge weight-loss drug could help extremely obese patients drop enough pounds to be eligible for bariatric surgery, a new study shows. Patients with extreme obesity -- a BMI of 70 or more -- are at higher risk of complications from surgery compared to people who weigh less. Weight loss prior to surgery can lower that risk, but up to now nothing’s been able to help patients lose enough weight to make a difference, researchers say.
However, new GLP-1 agonist medications like , and have been shown to help people quickly shed pounds. For this trial, researchers recruited 113 extremely obese patients and assigned them to either a single GLP-1 drug, more than one GLP-1 drug or a medically supervised diet and exercise program. Patients were treated an average of 73 days.
People on multiple drugs had the greatest weight loss, dropping about 13% of their total body weight. A single GLP-1 drug helped people lose a little more than 8% of their body weight, while diet and exercise helped participants drop about 6% of their body weight. The findings were presented Thursday at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery�.