GLPwatch

A Comprehensive Review on Weight Loss Associated with Anti-Diabetic Medications.

Life (Basel) · 2023

Last updated 2026-05-28

A review of clinical studies found that some diabetes medications can also help with weight loss. Among these, GLP-1 drugs like liraglutide and semaglutide showed the greatest impact on weight loss, while others like metformin and SGLT-2 inhibitors had modest effects. Acarbose had mild weight loss effects, and DPP-4 inhibitors showed neutral or mild results.

AI summary of the abstract below.

JournalLife (Basel), 2023
Citations41
Relative citation ratio5.88
NIH percentile94
Molecules
Conditions studied Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity

Abstract

Obesity is a complex metabolic condition that can have a negative impact on one's health and even result in mortality. The management of obesity has been addressed in a number of ways, including lifestyle changes, medication using appetite suppressants and thermogenics, and bariatric surgery for individuals who are severely obese. Liraglutide and semaglutide are two of the five Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved anti-obesity drugs that are FDA-approved agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. In order to highlight the positive effects of these drugs as anti-obesity treatments, we analyzed the weight loss effects of T2DM agents that have demonstrated weight loss effects in this study by evaluating clinical studies that were published for each agent. Many clinical studies have revealed that some antihyperglycemic medications can help people lose weight, while others either cause weight gain or neutral results. Acarbose has mild weight loss effects and metformin and sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter proteins-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors have modest weight loss effects; however, some glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists had the greatest impact on weight loss. Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors showed a neutral or mild weight loss effect. To sum up, some of the GLP-1 agonist drugs show promise as weight-loss treatments.

Verbatim abstract via PubMed 37109541 ↗