What is Saxenda and How Can It Help You Lose Weight?
Controlling your weight is not as easy as it sounds. You need to control your diet, make changes to your lifestyle, and actively participate in some physical activities to fulfill your goals. When it comes to losing weight, you should change your nutrition plan, lifestyle, and behavior to make long-lasting changes. Changing your eating habits, increasing your physical activity, joining a weight loss program, and adding some weight loss products prescribed by your physician to your diet will help you achieve your weight goals.
There are some weight loss medications that can help control obesity by suppressing your appetite. Some physicians prescribe drugs and weight loss supplements to treat obesity. It is important to note that weight loss medications will only work if you change your diet and exercise and follow an exercise routine.
Saxenda is an FDA-approved medicine that can help you shed some extra pounds and keep it off. This injectable prescription medicine can work best when used with a low-calorie nutrition plan and rigorous exercise routine. Saxenda may help obese people to lose weight by controlling their blood sugar levels, regulating insulin levels, improving digestion, and solving their weight-related medical problems.
If you are wondering whether using Saxenda is right for you and how it can help you reduce weight, this article will make you a well-informed decision about Saxenda.
Let’s explore.
What is Saxenda?
Saxenda, also known as liraglutide, is an injectable prescription medicine that can help obese people to lose weight and keep it off for long. This medication belongs to the GLP-1 agonist class of drugs. Saxenda or liraglutide binds with the Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptors and make changes in insulin, leptin, and glucagon hormones that are responsible for regulating body weight.
Saxenda is an injectable weight loss medication that can lose weight in addition to a healthy mean plan and rigorous physical activity. It can produce positive results in overweight people or people with different health conditions such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. This prescription weight loss drug is available in a pre-filled pen and is injected into your body once a day, at any time of the day.
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Keep in mind that this prescription weight loss drug can produce its maximum effects if a person sticks to a low-calorie diet and exercise on a regular basis and continue the healthy lifestyle. It is important to note that Saxenda is not an effective treatment for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Victoza, another brand of Saxenda, contains the same active ingredient, liraglutide, but they are used for different purposes, so they shouldn’t be used together.
Why Should You Use Saxenda?
Reducing your waistline can not only improve your overall appearance, but it will also keep you healthy by preventing the risk of heart problems, diabetes, and other serious health concerns. Losing weight and keeping it off can help you control high blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and cholesterol levels. Saxenda is a prescription medicine that can reduce your body weight by altering different hormones of your body that are responsible for controlling appetite and metabolism.
Saxenda can help reduce leptin resistance, which is the most crucial hormone, which determines whether you are losing weight or not and how much pounds you are shedding. This injectable weight loss medication can naturally reduce the levels of leptin, which will reduce appetite, boost metabolism, and increase the process of fat burning.
According to some clinical studies, Saxenda was tested in a group of patients in which 85% of people showed a significant weight loss over several weeks. Another study shows that 3 out of 5 people who consumed Saxenda shed approximately 12 lb., 1 out of 3 people lost an average of 23 lb. and 6% of people shed an average of 47 lb.
Some clinical studies suggest that taking Saxenda for more than 3 years also achieved significant weight loss results. Approximately 56% of patients successfully maintained weight loss along with taking Saxenda and following a low-calorie diet plan and strenuous physical activities, compared with the group of people who didn’t take Saxenda.
How Can Saxenda Help You Reduce Your Waist Size?
Saxenda can help you reduce your belly fat by altering the effect of different hormones. It can produce its desirable weight loss effect by:
- Lowering leptin levels
- Reducing Insulin resistance
- Decreasing glucagon levels
- Suppressing Appetite
- Boosting metabolism
Lowering Leptin Levels
When you follow a low-calorie diet and lose some pounds, your body starts making a few changes to your hormones to boost your appetite and slow the metabolism to compensate for the calorie loss. This process will increase the production of the leptin hormone that can cause your body to regain the weight. Saxenda is a GLP-1 agonist that contains liraglutide, which can significantly reduce leptin resistance and reduce leptin spike when your body starts losing weight. This effect will help your body to lose weight and keep it off.
Reducing Insulin Resistance
It’s no surprise that insulin sensitivity is one of the major causes of type 2 diabetes. Insulin is an important hormone that can block the action of an enzyme lipase, which stimulates the fat burning process. If your blood insulin levels are high, it will make it difficult for the lipase enzyme to perform its major role and makes it difficult for your body to lose weight. Saxenda helps lower the insulin levels, which will lower blood glucose levels, which will eventually stimulate lipase hormone and result in fat burning.
Decreasing Glucagon Levels
Glucagon hormone is responsible for increasing blood glucose levels; suppressing this hormone can help your body burn fat and lose weight fast. Saxenda is a GLP-1 agonist that can lower the levels of glucagon levels while reducing insulin resistance. It will promote the process of liver metabolism of glucose to keep the blood glucose levels under normal limits and stimulates adipose tissues to increase the process of fat burning.
Suppressing Appetite
If your body burns more calories than it consumes, then your body will easily lose weight. Saxenda allows you to eat less by slowing down the process of stomach emptying. When your gastric contents empty slowly, it can stimulate the feeling of fulness and promote a reduction in appetite. Calorie restriction due to loss of appetite will result in weight loss.
Boosting Metabolism
Believe it or not, your metabolism can play a crucial role in achieving your weight loss goals. It is because the basal metabolic rate is responsible for the calories that your body burns. It is one of the most important aspects that clearly shows how fast you are losing weight. Saxenda can significantly increase your basal metabolic rate by affecting leptin levels.
How to Use Saxenda?
Saxenda is an injectable medication that should be subcutaneously injected in your abdomen muscles, upper arm, and thigs. Don’t try to inject it intravenously or intramuscularly. Never share your Saxenda pen or needles with anyone to prevent the spread of infection. Saxenda comes in a prefilled injection pen. It is recommended to read the instructions carefully before using the Saxenda pen. Make sure that you learn how to use the pen and which type of needles are best before you start injecting the dose.
To prevent infection, contamination, and lower the chances of administrating the wrong dose, always use a new needle. If you want to know how to use the Saxenda pen, you can watch the video on its official website to learn how to attach the inject the dose, attach the needle with the pen, select the dose, remove the needle, dispose of the needle.
Safety Precautions Before Taking Saxenda
You should avoid taking Saxenda if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to conceive, have a family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), have Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2 (MEN 2). People who are allergic to liraglutide are advised to avoid taking Saxenda. Those who are taking GLP-1 receptor agonists, insulin, and Victoza should avoid this medication.
Talk to your healthcare provider before taking Saxenda. He/she will make whether it is safe for you or not by evaluating your family history and your medical conditions. Tell your doctor about all the medications you are taking. It is because Saxenda slows down the process of stomach emptying that can affect several medicines that need to pass immediately through the stomach. Also, note that Saxenda may alter the effect of some medicines, and other medicines may affect the way Saxenda performs, so it is advised to talk to your healthcare provider before taking it.
Don’t use Saxenda if you have heart problems, stomach problems, kidney or liver diseases, gallbladder or pancreas issues, high triglycerides, or depression.
Side Effects of Saxenda
Saxenda contains liraglutide, which may cause some adverse health effects, so it is important to check with your healthcare provider if any of these unusual symptoms. Here is a list of some common side effects of Saxenda:
- Chills
- Cough
- Diarrhea
- Frequent urination
- Pain in the urinary bladder
- Headache
- Loss of appetite
- Joint pain
- Nausea
- Shivering
- Sore throat
- Tiredness
- Lower back pain
- Difficulty to sleep
- Vomiting
- Nervousness
- Sweating
Saxenda Dosage
The recommended dosage of Saxenda is 3mg; you can safely take this standard dose of liraglutide to produce its maximum effects. You can see the dose-escalation chart to learn how to gradually increase the dose. If you can’t tolerate the 3mg dose, you can stick to the 0.6 mg dose and delay the dose-escalation for one more week. Discontinue the product immediately if you find some adverse effects.
Saxenda can be taken once daily at any time of the day before or after meals. It can be injected subcutaneously in the abdomen, upper arm, thighs. Saxenda shouldn’t be administered intravenously or intramuscularly. However, you can change the injection site and timing without making any dose adjustment.
Dose Escalation Schedule
| Week | Daily Dose |
| 1 | 0.6 mg |
| 2 | 1.2 mg |
| 3 | 1.8 mg |
| 4 | 2.4 mg |
| 5 and onward | 3 mg |
Those patients who are already taking insulin are advised to reduce the insulin dosage and continuously monitor their blood glucose to prevent the risk of developing hypoglycemia. In case you missed the dose, there is no need to make up for that missed dose; however, you can resume the once-daily regimen. If the last dose was taken 3 days before, then you should reinitiate Saxenda at 0.6 mg daily and then gradually increase the dose prescribed by the physician to reduce the onset of gastrointestinal symptoms that may occur due to reinitiation of the treatment.
Before injecting Saxenda, it is advised to take proper training of dose administration to prevent any dose administration and needle stick errors. Before administering the dose, make sure to carefully check the injection, the solution should be clear, colorless, and contains no particles.
Furthermore, Saxenda and insulin shouldn’t be used together and other GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. This injection is also helpful for people who have weight-related medical issues
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