The Future of Weight Loss Treatments

Last Updated: 25/06/2025

Over the last few years, we have seen a wide range of promising new weight loss treatments enter the market. Wegovy has certainly been the most anticipated of these drugs and is set to become available in the UK towards the end of 2023. But, there are still many exciting new treatments on the horizon; so, let’s take a look forward to the future of obesity treatment.

Current Weight Loss Treatments

Currently, there are a number of different weight loss treatments available from dietary changes to medications and even surgery. Most people will try a few different options before they find the one that works best for them.

Diet and Exercise

Dietary changes are integral to weight loss, whether you use it alongside medications or not. For example, fruit, vegetables and wholegrains are high in nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre, and can occasionally be high in calories. This will help you to stay healthy long-term.

Exercise is another important factor to consider when losing weight. The NHS recommends that you engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise over the course of a week. When you exercise, you burn energy which can help you to lose weight, although it can take a lot of exercise to burn off the energy from even a small amount of food. However, regular exercise also increases your metabolic rate, which helps you to burn energy more efficiently, as well as having a range of other health benefits.

Orlistat (Xenical)

Orlistat, also known as Xenical, is a type of weight loss medication commonly referred to as a fat-binder. It works by blocking one of the chemicals in the body that helps you digest fat. Therefore, the fat will pass through your digestive system without being absorbed by the body.

However, orlistat should not be used without giving consideration to your diet. Consuming high levels of fat whilst taking orlistat can lead to unpleasant side effects like diarrhoea. Conversely, if you naturally have a very low-fat diet, you may see little benefit from orlistat.

Saxenda, Wegovy & Trulicity

Saxenda and Wegovy are two of the newest weight loss drugs on the market. They were both originally used to improve blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes, but they were repurposed after they were found to be of great benefit in weight loss. Saxenda and Wegovy work by slowing down the rate at which your stomach empties.

This helps you to feel full more quickly, and therefore helps in regulating appetite. This reduction in appetite typically leads people to eat less, helping them to lose weight. Both Saxenda and Wegovy are self-injectable medications. Saxenda is taken daily, while Wegovy is taken weekly.

Trulicity injections also work in a similar way to Saxenda and Wegovy; however, Trulicity is a diabetes medication and the dosing schedule has not yet been refined for weight loss. While it is meant for people with type 2 diabetes, some doctors may prescribe Trulicity pens ‘off-label’ for use in weight loss. However, it may be less effective than other treatments, like Saxenda and Wegovy, which have been optimised to help you lose weight.

Wegovy has been approved for use in the UK, and has now been fully released. You can purchase Wegovy from our UK registered pharmacy, with delivery straight to your door!

Weight Loss Surgery

When other options have failed, some people turn to surgery to gain control of their weight. There are various different procedures available, but they typically involve drastically reducing the size of your stomach.

A smaller stomach means that you physically cannot eat as much as you could before. For some people, this can be life-changing, helping them to lose a lot of weight in a relatively short time. However, weight loss surgery carries much greater risks than prescription weight loss medicine like orlistat and Wegovy, and may not be suitable for everyone.

Upcoming Treatments

Wegovy and Saxenda are both diabetes medications that have been repurposed for weight loss. Tirzepatide is another diabetes drug that is set to re-enter the market as a weight loss treatment. Tirzepatide is a type of drug known as a dual-agonist.

Whereas Wegovy and Saxenda both work on just one hormone pathway (GLP-1) tirzepatide works on two (GLP-1 and GIP). GLP-1 agonists work by triggering glucagon receptors, which help to reduce your appetite by slowing down the emptying of your stomach, whereas GIP actually helps to make GLP-1 more effective.

GIP maximises the effectiveness of GLP-1 without causing a significant increase in side effects. Clinical trials of tirzepatide for weight loss have shown great promise with an average weight reduction of 15.7% on 15mg of tirzepatide over 72 weeks. The trials are still ongoing, confirming the efficacy and safety of the medication. It may be some time before the medication becomes available in the UK.

Retatrutide and Tri-Agonists

As outlined above, Wegovy and Saxenda act on one hormone pathway and tirzepatide works on two. New research is currently exploring a range of drugs that can work on three different hormone pathways at the same time. These drugs are called tri-agonists, meaning that they act on three different hormone receptors in the body. The most prominent of these medications is retatrutide.

Retatrutide clinical trials have shown a dramatic improvement in weight loss compared to other medications causing an average of 17.5% reduction in body weight after just 24 weeks and a 24.2% weight reduction after 48 weeks. It was also found to cause additional improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Whilst these results are very impressive, additional clinical trials are needed before retatrutide can enter the market.

The Future of Weight Loss

Currently, the most effective weight loss medications on the market are injectable medications. This is far from ideal, as injections can be uncomfortable and are less convenient than oral medications like pills and tablets. With this in mind, manufacturers like Novo Nordisk, who make Wegovy, are looking at creating a tablet form of the drug instead.

Wegovy contains the active ingredient semaglutide, which is already available as a tablet for diabetes. They are currently testing the tablet to optimise the dose for weight loss with promising initial results. If successful, it is likely that these new oral weight-loss medications will overtake the injectable versions when they enter the market in a few years.

Despite all these improvements, weight loss is likely to remain an ongoing problem and health businesses will continue to develop products to support weight loss. Future approaches to weight loss are likely to be more personalised and technologically integrated. We already have a range of wearable technologies that help to monitor our health and it’s likely these will also be used to guide diet and exercise regimes. The health-tech company, Lumen has created a breath analyser which can provide information on your metabolism to help you lose weight.

Over the coming years, genetics will also play a bigger role in our weight loss journeys. Various genes related to body weight have been identified and may enable people to tailor their weight loss treatments to suit their genetic profile.

Conclusion

Wegovy is a revolutionary new weight loss drug set to enter the UK market in 2023. It has shown great promise in clinical trials delivering an average of a 15.6% reduction in body weight over 68 weeks. However, a series of new drugs currently under development are anticipated to be even more effective than Wegovy.

The front-runner of these medications is retatrutide, which works in three different ways to help you lose weight. We also expect to see more weight loss drugs available in tablet form, instead of injection, over the next few years.

Looking towards the future, it is likely that weight loss medicine will become more personalised and more technological, integrating with both our genetics and our portable and wearable devices. This will allow people to tailor their weight loss plan to their unique body and lifestyle, maximising the effectiveness of their treatments.

Most of these new approaches to weight loss are still many years away. In the meantime, drugs like Saxenda and Wegovy are promising tools to help you on your weight loss journey.

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