Semaglutide helps people who are overweight or obese lose weight by making them feel less hungry and slowing down how fast food leaves their stomach.

When a drug like semaglutide turns on certain brain and body signals, it helps people feel fuller, eat less, and lose about 15% of their body weight on average.

If someone has had weight-loss surgery but isn’t losing enough weight—or gains it back—taking semaglutide seems to help them lose more weight than if they took liraglutide, and they’re over twice as likely to lose 10% or more of their body weight.

Semaglutide might be better than other similar weight-loss drugs at protecting heart health in people who are overweight or obese but don’t have diabetes.

In people who are overweight or obese but do not have diabetes, the medication semaglutide lowers the risk of serious heart-related events such as heart attack or stroke, and this benefit occurs even when some of the effect is not due to weight loss.

Even if you don’t have diabetes, if you’re overweight and have heart disease, a weekly shot of semaglutide can cut your risk of heart attack or stroke by 1 in 5 — and this benefit starts before you lose much weight.