This Wegovy review guide gives you a glimpse of what it’s like to take one of the blockbuster weight loss medications yourself. You may have heard or read horror stories on what it’s like to take this drug, but we dug through clinical trial results to give you the real picture. Read on to learn how many people feel sick taking Wegovy, and hear experiences from people in their own words.
Our research team analyzed evidence from a variety of sources, including FDA clinical trial data, the New England Journal of Medicine, and personal testimonies posted online. The full source list is below.
Jump to…
- Two-Thirds Report Feeling Sick. But There’s a Catch.
- Why Do Wegovy Doses Increase Each Week?
- Why Does Wegovy Cause Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea?
- How Do People Actually *Feel* Taking Wegovy? (Real Wegovy Reviews)
- How Does Wegovy Make People Lose Weight?
- Do People Regain Weight If They Stop Taking Wegovy?
- Wegovy: The Basics
Two-Thirds Report Feeling Sick. But There’s a Catch. (Does Everyone Who Takes Wegovy Feel Sick?)
The most common side effects of Wegovy are gastrointestinal issues like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
When you first research Wegovy reviews, you may come across horror stories of people who had to stop taking the medication because it made them feel sick. While that happens, it’s helpful to look at the clinical trial data with results from nearly 5,000 participants to get a clearer idea of how you might feel.
Across the four clinical trials that focused on people taking semaglutide to lose weight, an average of about two-thirds of people taking the drug reported negative gastrointestinal side effects. That may sound like a lot, but nearly half of the people getting the placebo (meaning that got no semaglutide medication at all), ALSO reported gastrointestinal issues.
People Reporting Negative GI Symptoms
In other words, people have GI issues whether they are taking this medication or not. However, people taking the medication *are* more likely to report GI issues. But those symptoms were mild enough that most people continued taking the medication for over 15 months. On average, only around 4% of people who got semaglutide stopped because their GI symptoms were bad enough.
Looking at more clinical trial data, we can see the median person had the following symptoms for:
- Nausea: 5-8 days
- Diarrhea: 3 days
- Vomiting: 2 days
- Constipation: 27-35 days
And the majority of people reported that these symptoms were “mild”, meaning they were “easily tolerated, causing minimal discomfort and not interfering with everyday activities.”
As always, there is some placebo effect at work too. Just over 0.5% of people getting just saline placebo stopped the trial because of GI side effects. In other words, simply taking a new medication—even if it is just saline–can make it feel like you have symptoms related to it.
People Stopping Semaglutide Trial
Why Do Wegovy Doses Increase Each Week?
Because most people who start taking Wegovy feel negative GI side effects, scientists looked for a way to reduce those symptoms. They found that starting at a lower dose and increasing slowly helped patients tolerate the medication and helped “minimize gastrointestinal side effects.”
Based on that, the manufacturer of Wegovy recommends starting at a dosage of 0.25 mg once a week for a month, and then increasing that dosage each week until 2.4 mg. This is known as “titrating” the medication.
Negative GI symptoms were also more common in the first four weeks of taking the medication, and if someone rapidly increased dosages. If GI symptoms are particularly bad after increasing dosage, researchers recommend delaying another dose increase for another four weeks.
Why Does Wegovy Cause Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea?
They don’t know exactly what about semaglutide makes people have stomach problems. There are two main theories:
- The medication slows down how fast food goes through stomach, which could potentially produce negative physical effects.
- The medication activates parts of your brain and endocrine system that control appetite, satiety (when you feel full), and nausea; and the combination of those effects can lead to negative physical symptoms.
How Do People Actually *Feel* Taking Wegovy? (Real Wegovy Reviews)
Clinical trial data focuses on two things: How safe a medication is, and how effective it is as doing what it says it will do. But that data doesn’t always give you a full picture of what your life will be like taking that medication. Even if you don’t have major side effects, how will you feel day to day?
Below we’ve gathered Wegovy reviews and testimonials from people who say they are taking the medication from various sources, including Reddit. While we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these statements, we selected them because they fit the spectrum of experiences based on our research.
We’ve broken the Wegovy reviews down into four sections, outlined below. We chose these Wegovy reviews because they captured what we saw as the most common but biggest differences among people taking this medication.
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- Fast Appetite Suppression
- Slow Appetite Suppression
- Severe to Mild GI Side Effects
- Mild to No GI Side Effects
Wegovy Reviews: Fast Appetite Suppression
“I’m on week two and still no appetite. I have to force myself to eat or I get nauseous. It’s amazing. I have mental clarity because I’m not thinking about food 24/7. I can actually get things done without stopping for snacks, I don’t have to wrestle with food guilt even if I do have an unhealthy snack. I’m hoping it stays this way I’m so happy I feel so normal I want to cry.”
“I did 8 weeks on 0.25 and will take my first 0.5 tonight. I had immediate effects like you. Effects were a little less pronounced in the second and third week but I still lost about 1% of my starting weight each week and easily stayed around 1200 calories, so I asked to stay on the same dose for another month. I knew by the 4th week that I’d probably made a mistake in asking for a second month, but already had the next month of pens so I was stuck. Definitely had to fight harder to control random snacking in my second month of 0.25.”
“I’m back on 0.25 after one dreadful week on 0.5. I waited 11 days after that shot before my next one and I’m splitting the dose to 0.13 every 4 days. I should have my next shot tonight but I am postponing it to tomorrow because I’m still not in the least bit hungry and have zero food noise. I’m going to stay on this dose or slightly lower until I get some appetite back. I’m losing 2lb per week. I’m monitoring rather than counting calories to make sure I get enough calories and protein. Like you I’m struggling to get to 1000 but I’m trying to keep that as a minimum with at least 60g protein each day. Today is the start of week 6.”
“My effects on .25 would always taper off around days 4/5. I did 7 weeks at .25, and definitely by week 6ish I could tell I needed to bump up, as I was feeling my normal hunger earlier in the week.”
“I felt right away. By the second shot it would start to wear off toward the end of the week. I take my first .5 tomorrow. This 4th week has been almost entirely will power to stay on plan. The food noise is still muted so it’s “doable” but much loader than it was the first three shots.”
“I feel like I need to practice my new habits and body sensations more. Not hungry. Not really craving anything. Not needing something sweet after every meal. Not needing coffee. It’s just all new.”
Wegovy Reviews: Slow Appetite Suppression
“I took my third dose of 1.7 mg this week, and wow! I am finally at the point that I see others talking about with appetite suppression. Unfortunately, up until now I have been able to push past the point of full when something tastes good. I’ve still been eating less than I was before Wegovy, but I wasn’t one of those people who can only eat a few bites of food at a time.
Starting last week I noticed that even food I liked was less appetizing. I would take a few bites and feel like I’m no longer enjoying it. As of this week, I am not able to finish a plate of food – food that I would normally devour and then grab seconds. I am traveling for work this week and eating restaurant food which I’d normally overindulge in. But I am sitting here at the airport just waiting for my next flight, still so full from a half omelette from breakfast 5 hours ago. Old me would have eaten the entire omelette for breakfast (and hash browns) then grabbed a burger and fries for lunch then had a full dinner later – and I would eat all of this not necessarily because I was hungry but just because.”
“Yeah, 1.7 changed everything for me too! I’m a grazer. eating here and there throughout the day. But in 1.7 something changed. The bottomless hunger is gone.”
“It is definitely a rollercoaster. Some days I can’t even think about food. Some days I think about it, but can’t eat. Some days I can eat, but not much. And repeat. 12 weeks in down 28 lbs. Currently on 1 mg.”
Wegovy Reviews: Severe to Mild GI Side Effects
“Just started 1.7 yesterday after it being on backorder for 2 weeks and I’ve thrown up twice when attempting to eat something.”
“I started in November and threw up daily for MONTHS. I finally.realized okay his is not healthy and shouldn’t be just the med causing it. Turned out the constant nausea/vomiting said from my gallbladder!”
“Vomiting this much is highly unusual. I agree if someone is vomiting this frequently, they need to talk to the doctor right away. On the other hand, many of us do not experience this kind of problem. I only vomited once when I ate a very high fat meal and I learned my lesson.”
“I have IBS so I’m used to having more gut issues than normal. I’ve had an increased amount of vomiting on Wegovy but no more than once or twice a month. The longer I’ve been on the medication the less severe that side effect is. The nausea on the other hand is still something”
“I’m also on my second dose of 0.5 and going through the exact same thing besides diarrhea. It’s weird cuz I didn’t have much side effects besides nausea on the first dose of 0.5, but this second week has been hell. I cannot stand the sulfur burps. I barely eat, and when I do, I feel so uneasy and end up puking.”
Wegovy Reviews: Mild to No GI Side Effects
“There’s so many negative comments about side effects and it’s really off putting to the new people starting. There’s plenty of us, who don’t have the side effects, eat normally and lose weight at every dose. Or at least that’s been my (positive) experience. 🤷🏼♀️”
“Yeah I just finished a month of 1.7 and no side effects. I guess I do have a wave of nausea here or there, but I’ve never vomited and it passes quickly. Just stay hydrated and protein is your friend. I am staying on 1.7 for a bit because I am losing consistently and my doctor wants to stick with the lowest effective dose. I’ve lost almost 30 pounds after 4 months. I love this medication.”
“I am also someone with no side effects. I jumped from .5 to 1.7 and was so terrified that I put it off for a week. I don’t eat clean all the time either. I think I got sick once after eating French fries in the very beginning, but have since been able to eat them with no problem. I drink a ton of water, force myself to eat because I feel like NOT eating is what causes nausea in some, oh and I take a multivitamin, probiotic, b12 and D3.”
“I agree that the nausea seems to only happen if I go too long without eating. Otherwise I’ve had little to no side effects that weren’t manageable.”
How Does Wegovy Make People Lose Weight?
Scientists aren’t exactly sure. As one round-up of the research on semaglutide put it: “Although their weight loss effects are well known, the mechanism underlying these effects is still debatable.” In other words, clinical trials and research have shown that these drugs make people lose weight, but precisely why they work is still a mystery.
That being said, researchers in the above article said the most well-known mechanism for losing weight while taking Wegovy is pretty straightforward: people end up eating less, thanks to a reduced appetite. (And they surmise that is happening through the hypothalamus or the vagus nerve.)
One interesting study backs this up. Scientists recruited 30 obese people and randomly selected some to get a placebo, and some to get semaglutide. After 12 weeks they measured how much each person ate of their own free will at several meals and snacks, their resting metabolic rate (i.e. how many calories they burn merely by being alive), and body weight.
They found that people on semaglutide ate 24% fewer calories in one day than people taking the placebo. And that happened even though they were given the exact same meals and allowed to eat whatever they wanted. Even more interestingly, resting metabolic rate (i.e. how many calories people burned) did not differ between the two groups. In other words, people taking semaglutide did not suddenly have a faster metabolism (at least not as measured by resting metabolic rate), they simply ate less.
Do People Regain Weight If They Stop Taking Wegovy?
So far, all the data points to yes. In another clinical trial study, scientists recruited over 800 people and gave them semaglutide for 20 weeks. After 20 weeks, about a third of participants were randomly selected to switch to a placebo drug. At the end of the trial (nearly a year after the placebo doses started), people who kept taking semaglutide had lost 8% of their body weight compared to week 20. In stark contrast, people who had gotten the placebo gained back 7% of their body weight when compared to where they were at week 20.
Another study checked back on people who had taken semaglutide for 68 weeks and then stopped using it. It found that people had gained back two thirds of the weight they had previously lost.
Wegovy: The Basics
Wegovy is the brand name of a semaglutide drug produced by Novo Nordisk and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help people lose weight. It must be prescribed by a health care provider.
It is approved for people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater, or people with a BMI of 27 or higher with additional medical conditions, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Semaglutide is glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, which means it encourages production of additional GLP-1 in the body. GLP-1 is a peptide produced in the gastrointestinal system that leads the body to release insulin, which in turn helps the body absorb sugar from the blood. GLP-1 is also known to slow down how quickly the stomach processes food and to reduce appetite.
Semaglutide was originally approved by the FDA to help control blood sugar levels in diabetics in 2017, under the brand name Ozempic. The medication helped manage diabetes in part because people taking it lost significant weight. It was approved for chronic weight management by the FDA in 2021.
Taking Wegovy can lead to rare but serious side effects. There is a potential risk for acute pancreatitis, gallbladder problems, diabetic retinopathy, and increased heart rate. Talk to your healthcare provider if you are taking this prescription drug and experience significant symptoms, including serious abdominal pain.
Pregnant and nursing women should not take Wegovy, as the medication might affect your fetus or breast milk. People with a family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or history of pancreatitis should not take this medication, as they may be at a higher risk of thyroid cancer and pancreatitis.
Sources
The Discovery and Development of Liraglutide and Semaglutide – PMC (nih.gov)
Adverse Effects of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists – PubMed (nih.gov)
Wegovy (semaglutide): a new weight loss drug for chronic weight management – PMC (nih.gov)
Three-in-one drug cuts body weight by a third | Science | AAAS
Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity | NEJM