Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Receptor Agonists in Obese Patients Without Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Cureus · 2025

Last updated 2026-05-28

A review of 13 clinical trials found that GLP-1 drugs helped people without diabetes lose an average of 12.79% of their body weight, reduced BMI by 4.80 points, and lowered waist size by 9.78 cm. The drugs also lowered systolic blood pressure by 6.32 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 1.95 mmHg. People were more likely to lose at least 5%, 10%, 15%, or 20% of their weight while taking these drugs, with tirzepatide showing greater effects than semaglutide.

AI summary of the abstract below.

Journal	Cureus, 2025
Citations	0
Molecules	—
Conditions studied	Obesity

Abstract

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (RAs) treat overweight or obesity with or without diabetes. This review aims to evaluate the effects of GLP-1 RAs on weight and cardiometabolic measures. This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Two reviewers extracted the data and assessed the quality with the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) tool. Thirteen randomized controlled trials were included. We concluded that GLP-1 RAs reduced mean percentage body weight by -12.79% (95% CI: -15.12 to -10.46), BMI by -4.80 kg/m² (95% CI: -6.24 to -3.36), waist circumference by -9.78 cm (95% CI: -11.47 to -8.09), systolic blood pressure (BP) by -6.32 mmHg (95% CI: -7.92 to -4.72), and diastolic BP by -1.95 mmHg (95% CI: -3.21 to -0.69). Risk ratios for ≥5%, ≥10%, ≥15%, and ≥20% weight loss were 2.98, 5.56, 9.50, and 15.00, respectively. Tirzepatide showed greater reductions than semaglutide. GLP-1 RAs, particularly tirzepatide, achieve substantial weight loss and improve cardiometabolic risk factors.

Verbatim abstract via PubMed 41341350 ↗