Where can I buy Wegovy?
You can buy Wegovy from online services and pharmacies, provided you have a prescription for it from a doctor. This is because Wegovy is a prescription-only medication. It will be prescribed as part of a weight management programme.
What alternatives are there to Wegovy?
The closest medicine to Wegovy is Saxenda, which is made by the same company, Novo Nordisk, but rather than a weekly dose is injected once daily. Saxenda works in the same way as Wegovy by suppressing your appetite, so you feel less hungry in general and fuller for longer after meals. It is also a prescription-only medication.
Other weight loss medicines include:
Wegovy Vs Saxenda
Both drugs work in the same way – by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone, but they contain different ingredients. Saxenda contains liraglutide rather than semaglutide and is injected daily rather than weekly. This makes Wegovy a easier option as you only need to inject it once a week.
- Saxenda is injected daily rather than weekly.
- Saxenda is licensed in the UK for teenagers as well as adults.
- Wegovy is a more effective weight loss drug than Saxenda. In a 2022 trial, people using Wegovy lost significantly more weight than those taking Saxenda. Both groups combined the treatment with diet and exercise.
Wegovy Vs Orlistat
Orlistat (available over the counter as Alli) works very differently from Wevogy. It's a lipase inhibitor, which means it reduces the amount of fat that’s absorbed by your body. It is used in conjunction with a balanced diet and exercise programme and is only prescribed if you have a body mass index of 28 or more and other weight-related conditions or a BMI of 30 or more. It has common gastrointestinal side effects that include pooing more frequently and an oily discharge from your rectum.
Wegovy Vs Mysimba
Mysimba is a weight loss tablet that reduces your appetite, so you’ll feel full after eating less food. This is similar to how Wegovy works. The average weight loss recorded by patients taking Mysimba was around 3.7-5.7% of their weight, but this also depends on whether they made dietary changes and exercised. You can expect to lose 5% of your starting weight after 16 weeks (4 months) with Mysimba. But if you lose less than 5% of your body weight, your doctor will advise you to stop Mysimba and may suggest alternative weight loss treatments.
Wegovy Vs Xenical
Xenical is a weight loss pill that works by reducing how much fat from each meal your body absorbs. Instead of absorbing this fat from each meal, your body gets rid of it as waste. Xenical is taken 3 times a day before each meal. You must make sure the meals you take Xenical with include some fats. Xenical takes around 24 to 48 hours to change how you absorb fat, and you should start to see results from taking it within a few weeks.
Alternatively – or in addition to – a prescription for Wegovy, a GP might recommend alternative routes to weight loss, including
- Joining a local weight loss group
- Exercise on prescription
- Changing your diet
- Trying a diet programme or very low calorie diet
- Increasing time spent exercising
- Setting realistic goals and monitoring your progress
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