Prescription Medicines for Weight Management

Start with the smallest questions

Weight management medicines are prescription drugs used to treat overweight and obesity. Because they need a prescription, the first step is a conversation with a licensed provider, not a purchase.

This hub starts with the smallest questions, the ones that come before any medicine is named. How has weight moved over the past year? What has already been tried? What would you want to track week to week? For the medical background, read NIDDK's overview of prescription medications to treat overweight and obesity. Then read its page on adult overweight and obesity to see how the condition itself is described.

Four questions, one article each

Each article below takes one question and keeps to what public sources and a provider visit can answer.

Weight Regain After Stopping Treatment: what to watch for when a medicine ends.
How Weight Loss Medicines Act on Appetite: how appetite changes are described and tracked.
Who Qualifies for Weight Loss Medication: the questions a provider uses to decide if a medicine fits.
Off-Label Use of Weight Loss Drugs: what to ask when a drug is suggested for a use it was not first approved for.

To see how a new option reaches the public, read an FDA announcement of a new medication for chronic weight management.

Before your visit: what to bring

Medicine is one part of a plan. Food and movement are the other part, and NIDDK has a page on healthy eating and physical activity for life for readers who want to see how those fit in.

A woman stretches against a railing on a misty levee path at dawn.

Before a visit, write down your weight at the same time each week, any change in appetite, and every medicine or supplement you take. Bring the list and your questions. Whether a prescription medicine makes sense for you is a provider's call, and this hub only lists questions to bring.