This One Thing Can Help You Drop 20 Percent of Your Body Weight

America’s weight problem has reached epidemic proportions, medical experts say. Today, over 42 percent of the population is considered obese—a figure that’s increased by nearly 50 percent since 1999—and the implications for our nation’s health are hard to overstate. Obesity is linked with several of America’s leading causes of death, including increased rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, liver disease, cancer, and more. In cases of severe obesity, life expectancies drop not by an average of mere years, but by a full decade or more. It’s no surprise then that researchers have been in search of a drug to help tip the scales in the fight against obesity. What is surprising is that, after all these years of research, they’ve finally found one that some researchers are calling a “game changer:” semaglutide. Read on to learn all about the promising weight loss aid, and for more weight loss tips, check out The One Secret Trick to Losing Weight You Haven’t Tried, Study Says.

Semaglutide was already approved as a treatment for controlling high blood sugar in those with type 2 diabetes, but for the purposes of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers repurposed the drug as a long-term weight loss aid.

Their findings were striking: three-fourths of the subjects who received a 2.4 mg dose of semaglutide over a 68-week period lost at least 10 percent of their body weight, and more than one-third lost at least 20 percent of their total weight. Put another way, out of 1,961 total test subjects, those who received the drug reportedly lost an average of 14.9 percent of their weight compared with a 2.4 percent reduction in the placebo group.

“No other drug has come close to producing this level of weight loss,” said lead author of the study, Rachel Batterham, a professor of obesity, diabetes, and endocrinology at University College London (UCL). “For the first time, people can achieve through drugs what was only possible through weight-loss surgery,” she added.

Semaglutide works by mimicking a hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which the gut naturally releases into the bloodstream after meals. The study found that those who take the drug experience reduced hunger and increased feelings of fullness, making it easier to reduce their overall calorie intake and lower their total body weight. However, 74 percent of those on semaglutide reported at least one side effect, including nausea, vomiting, or constipation, and more research will be needed to determine the drug’s long-term effects.

Looking for other strategies to reach a healthy weight, side effect-free? Read on for more healthy weight loss tips, and to find out why losing weight is so hard, There’s a New Reason You Can’t Lose Weight, According to Science.

Read the original article on Best Life.