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GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic is usually a lifeline for individuals with diabetes—serving to stabilize blood glucose and drop pounds, which contributes to diabetes issues. However not everybody advantages equally.
Scientists monitoring 92 people with diabetes in Japan over their first yr of taking GLP-1 medication discovered that individuals’s causes for overeating might have an effect on the success of those therapies. People who overeat in response to the sight or scent of tasty meals have been almost definitely to reply properly to the medication in the long run, whereas people who overeat for emotional causes have been much less more likely to.
“Pre-treatment assessment of eating behavior patterns may help predict who will benefit most from GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy,” stated Prof Daisuke Yabe of Kyoto College, senior creator of the article in Frontiers in Scientific Diabetes and Healthcare.
“GLP-1 receptor agonists are effective for individuals who experience weight gain or elevated blood glucose levels due to overeating triggered by external stimuli. However, their effectiveness is less expected in cases where emotional eating is the primary cause.”
How individuals eat
GLP-1 receptor agonists assist decrease blood glucose via a number of mechanisms, together with boosting insulin secretion, and trigger weight reduction by modifying urge for food. However not everybody loses weight whereas taking them. To research this downside, the researchers targeted on individuals’s relationship to meals, and what that may imply for his or her therapy.
They enrolled 92 individuals with kind 2 diabetes starting therapy with GLP-1 receptor agonists in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and tracked their progress throughout their first yr of therapy.
At three completely different factors—the start of therapy, three months later, and 12 months later—they collected information on individuals’ physique weight and composition, weight loss program, and a spread of related blood markers like blood glucose and levels of cholesterol. Additionally they requested about their relationship with meals.
The scientists have been significantly concerned about three various kinds of consuming behaviors related to weight achieve: emotional consuming, the place individuals eat in response to damaging feelings reasonably than starvation, exterior consuming, the place individuals eat as a result of the meals appears nice reasonably than due to starvation, and restrained consuming, the place individuals management their weight loss program to decrease their weight. Sparsely, restrained consuming may also help with weight reduction, however in extra, it could actually result in disordered consuming.
Totally different our bodies, completely different outcomes
Basically, people noticed a statistically important discount in physique weight, levels of cholesterol, and physique fats proportion over the course of the yr, whereas skeletal muscle mass stayed the identical. Blood glucose ranges additionally improved, however the enhancements weren’t statistically important.
Nevertheless, there have been some variations in outcomes based mostly on consuming behaviors. On the three-month mark, individuals reported extra behaviors related to restrained consuming, and fewer behaviors related to exterior or emotional consuming. Nevertheless, by the 12-month level, restrained and emotional consuming behaviors returned to their baseline ranges.
“One possible explanation is that emotional eating is more strongly influenced by psychological factors which may not be directly addressed by GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy,” stated Dr. Takehiro Kato of Gifu College, second creator of the article. “Individuals with prominent emotional eating tendencies may require additional behavioral or psychological support.”
The scientists additionally did not discover hyperlinks between emotional or restrained consuming scores at the start of therapy and the advantages that individuals noticed from the medication by the top of the yr.
In contrast, the lower in exterior consuming was sustained over the total yr, and individuals who reported excessive ranges of exterior consuming at first noticed the most effective outcomes when it comes to weight reduction and blood glucose ranges.
Though this research has the benefit of following people with diabetes below real-life situations, as an observational research utilizing self-reported measures, it could actually’t decide causation.
The researchers additionally identified that this group of individuals might have been particularly extremely motivated to attempt to enhance their management over their diabetes, which could have resulted in higher weight reduction.
“While our study suggests a potential association between external eating behavior and treatment response to GLP-1 receptor agonists, these findings remain preliminary,” stated Yabe.
“Further evidence is necessary before they can be implemented in clinical practice. Should future large-scale or randomized controlled trials validate this relationship, incorporating simple behavioral assessments could become a valuable component in optimizing treatment strategies.”
Extra info:
Affiliation between consuming conduct patterns and the therapeutic efficacy of GLP-1 receptor agonists in people with kind 2 diabetes: A multicenter potential observational research, Frontiers in Scientific Diabetes and Healthcare (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fcdhc.2025.1638681
Quotation:
Individuals on Ozempic who eat to control feelings much less more likely to drop pounds, analysis reveals (2025, September 17)
retrieved 17 September 2025
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