GLP-1 Help

Ozempic · Wegovy · Zepbound · Mounjaro

GLP-1 questions, answered from the trials

Plain-language answers to the 35 questions GLP-1 users ask most, built from the prescribing labels, clinical trials and guidelines. Every number links to where it came from.

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Education, not medical advice. No supplements, no sponsors, no affiliate links. Decisions about your prescription belong with your prescriber.

The number most articles leave out

Nausea on Wegovy 2.4 mgpooled trials, US label
44%
16% placebo
Stopped for gut side effectspooled STEP 1 to 3
4.3%
0.7% placebo

Side effects are common; stopping because of them is not. Every side effect, drug vs placebo.

236 linked sourcesLabels, trials and guidelines, each graded
Placebo shownEvery rate next to its placebo rate
Honest gapsPages say when nobody has studied it
Questions to askEach page ends with prescriber questions

Most asked

Start here

Question 2

What are the side effects, and how common are they?

Nausea 44% vs 16% on placebo with Wegovy; 25 to 29% vs 8% with Zepbound. Every common side effect from the four US labels, drug versus placebo, plus…

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Question 3

Why does it cause nausea, and how long does it last?

44 of 100 people on Wegovy reported nausea, versus 16 on placebo. Median episode: 8 days. Why it happens (slow stomach plus brainstem), when it…

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Question 8

What happens when you stop taking it?

Four randomized trials followed people after semaglutide or tirzepatide stopped. On average about two-thirds of the lost weight came back within a…

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Question 10

Why am I not losing weight, or why did it stop?

About 1 in 6 people on Wegovy and 1 in 10 on Zepbound lost under 5% in the trials, and everyone's curve flattened eventually. What a plateau is, what…

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Question 12

What should I eat, and how much protein?

People on GLP-1 drugs ate about a third less in feeding studies. Protein targets of 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg are expert consensus, not trial results. What is…

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Question 15

Does it cause muscle loss, and what is "Ozempic face"?

The '40% muscle' claim comes from one 140-person DXA substudy and a term (lean mass) that is mostly water and organ, not muscle. Here is what STEP 1,…

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Three things the trials show

8 days

Median length of a nausea episode on semaglutide. Constipation lasted far longer, a median of 47 days. Timelines

14%

Weight regained in a year by people switched from tirzepatide to placebo in SURMOUNT-4. Stopping

About 1 in 4

Share of weight lost that was lean mass on tirzepatide (26%), about the same as on placebo (25%). Lean mass is not the same as muscle. Muscle loss

Sources: Wharton et al. 2022, pooled STEP 1 to 3 · Aronne et al. 2024, SURMOUNT-4 · Look et al. 2025, SURMOUNT-1 body composition. Hero figures: Wegovy US label and Wharton 2022.

The questions

From Google, and from the forums

25 questions are the ones people search most. 10 more come from patient forums, where people ask things search results rarely answer.

Starting

Before and during the first weeks

  1. 1How do GLP-1 drugs actually work?6 min · 9 sources
  2. 9How long does it take to work?6 min · 6 sources
  3. 14Do I take it with food or on an empty stomach?3 min · 3 sources
  4. 23Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound: what is the difference?6 min · 7 sources
  5. 24Are the pills as effective as the injections?5 min · 3 sources
  6. 25Does it need to be refrigerated? What if it got warm?4 min · 4 sources

From the forums

Questions people ask each other, not Google

  1. 26What are "sulfur burps", and are they a real side effect?3 min · 3 sources
  2. 27Why do I have heartburn or reflux?3 min · 3 sources
  3. 28Why do I feel dizzy or light-headed?4 min · 2 sources
  4. 29Is a red, itchy or bruised injection site normal?3 min · 2 sources
  5. 30What is "food noise", and why does it go quiet?4 min · 5 sources
  6. 31Why do I feel cold all the time?2 min · 3 sources
  7. 32Can it change my period?3 min · 2 sources
  8. 33Can it cause vivid dreams or change my sleep?3 min · 2 sources
  9. 34Will I have loose skin?3 min · 2 sources
  10. 35Can I space out doses or stay on a lower dose for maintenance?4 min · 5 sources

All 35 questions

On YouTube

Fewer Bites: the video side

Captioned Shorts and 4 to 6 minute explainers, each tied to a page here with its sources. Videos · Fewer Bites on YouTube