Obesity is considered a pandemic, and the rates are steadily climbing. When excess weight poses health risks, doctors sometimes use Ozempic or other weight loss drugs to intervene. While these drugs are effective when combined with a good weight loss program, there are still important questions to ask.

This includes whether or not Ozempic is actually able to reduce visceral fat and not just fat in general. This article explores the dangers of visceral fat and considers current evidence on whether or not Ozempic is effective for this purpose.

Why Target Visceral Fat?

Fat is distributed throughout your body, but one place where it’s especially dangerous is your abdomen. Belly fat, or visceral fat, is a kind of fat that collects inside this area of your body. As it collects, it starts to push your belly outward, but that’s not what makes it so dangerous.

Something to keep in mind here is that many of your organs sit in your abdomen area. Your liver, kidneys, pancreas, and other organs can start to suffer when too much fat accumulates in this region.

The fat starts to collect around these organs, causing constriction, ultimately damaging them and reducing their ability to perform functions as usual.

For example, one study explains that an increase in visceral fat creates a pro-inflammatory environment in the abdomen, which can cause inflammation of the pancreas and potentially result in pancreatitis.

Another study provided evidence that visceral fat is strongly linked to to liver problems. The researchers established that visceral obesity could be considered a potential indicator for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

In a retrospective study, more than 25,000 individuals were studied. The results of the study showed a strong link between visceral fat and damage to the renal system. This provides evidence of how fat in your abdomen can cause damage to your kidneys.

Ozempic for Visceral Fat: Does it Work?

Ozempic is a drug originally developed to help improve blood glucose control in people with type 2 diabetes. However, patients taking this drug often saw weight loss side effects, which is where the interest in using Ozempic as a weight loss drug stemmed from.

There are a couple of studies that have looked specifically at how well Ozempic could work for weight loss. In one study, a dose of either 1.7mg or 2.4mg Ozempic was provided to participants on a once-weekly basis. The researchers reported positive findings in terms of weight loss.

A randomized controlled trial, with the study details published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also found that a once-weekly dose of Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, works well for people who are obese and overweight. This study used a 2.4mg weekly dose of semaglutide.

The trial lasted for 68 weeks. By the end of the study, there was an average body weight reduction of 2.4% in the placebo group, while those who took semaglutide had an average weight loss of 14.9%. This was a much more significant number compared to the control group.

The question now is: can Ozempic help with visceral fat?

The short answer is yes, and there is scientific evidence to back this up.

The study that we just looked at shows details about how exactly Ozempic (Semaglutide) is able to affect body composition. According to the researchers, the once-weekly dose of this drug resulted in a reduction of visceral fat.

Measuring Visceral Fat to Track Progress

Understanding how to measure visceral fat is important, as this helps people better understand how Ozempic is working for them. However, turning to a more traditional option, like getting on top of a scale or calculating the BMI of a person, is not an effective measurement.

BMI offers an overview of the body’s overall composition.

DEXA scans offer a more effective approach to measuring visceral fat. These scans use dual-energy X-rays to provide a detailed overview of body composition. Once done, the results of the scan can be used to understand a person’s bone, fat, and lean masses.

By providing a visual representation, it’s easier to see the amount of visceral fat that’s present in someone’s body. This approach gives a person a more precise idea of whether their strategies are working to reduce visceral fat and can be a great aid in determining whether changes to the weight loss plan are necessary.

Final Thoughts

Ozempic seems to work well in reducing visceral fat. A large-scale study has already provided evidence for this, indicating that it’s a drug with potential to improve body composition and target some of the most dangerous kinds of fat in the human body.