UK Weight Loss Medication Stats 2025

Weight loss medication is becoming a popular tool for effective weight management, and addressing a range of health concerns. The arrival of new medications such as Mounjaro and Wegovy on the market has sparked interest in its use and potential benefits.

To find out more about how people in the UK feel about weight loss medication, we leveraged AI-driven audience profiling to synthesise insights from opinions expressed online to a high statistical confidence level. 

This report analyzes data from 48,399 UK individuals who have used weight loss medication, over a period of one year ending on February 24 2025. Here’s what we discovered.

23.9% people use weight loss medication for long-term management

There are many reasons people turn to weight loss medications, ranging from health concerns to long-term management and beyond. Here’s what our study uncovered:

It’s estimated that 28% of adults in England are obese and a further 36% are overweight. However,  it’s positive to see that our audience is using weight loss medication for various reasons to counteract being one of these statistics. 

The largest percentage of our audience uses weight loss medication for long-term weight management, with 23.9% citing this reason. Significant percentages of people in the UK also use these medications to reduce fat absorption (22.7%) and to address certain health challenges or concerns (22.6%).

Although they constitute a lesser part of our group, 11.9% of the UK population use weight loss medication due to medical advice from a healthcare professional. A further 10.5% of people are using these medications to motivate them to lose weight, while 8.4% are looking for rapid results from their preferred choice. 

The fact that long-term weight management ranks the highest and rapid results the lowest is also a good indicator that people are focusing more on maintaining a lower weight, rather than looking for a quick temporary fix.

15.7% of UK citizens obtain weight loss medication prescription from a doctor’s consultation

Learning about weight loss medications online is most common amongst our audience. This graph highlights what our participants shared:

Here’s how our audience obtained their prescriptions:

People in the UK can secure a weight loss medication prescription through a private general practitioner or an NHS specialist, or by being referred to a weight loss programme via the NHS. 

For our audience, obtaining a prescription from a doctor’s consultation or healthcare provider proved to be the most popular, at 15.7%. Coming in a close third were 15.2% who obtained their prescriptions at weight loss clinics, and 13.3% who visited their local pharmacy.

Dropping down to 8.4%, were those who booked an appointment with a doctor to get their scripts, 8.2% preferred a virtual approach, booking an online consultation with a healthcare professional, and 8.1% were prescribed their medications by a specialist. Lastly, 8% of our audience received their scripts via a nutritionist, and 7.5% through a qualified dietitian. 

Overall, there’s a clear split between the top three methods and the remaining six, but the audience engagement levels are relatively similar between the methods, with no major dips. This highlights the importance of professional guidance in a weight loss journey, whether from a doctor, dietician, or nutritionist.

42.4% aware of Semaglutide for weight loss in the UK

There are many different prescription weight loss medications available in the UK, but when it comes to awareness of different brands and medications, some options far outpace the rest:

Semaglutide has gained the highest rate of recognition as a weight loss aid by a vast margin. 42.4% of our audience is aware of semaglutide as a prescription medicine, and 39.4% recognise Wegovy – the brand name of semaglutide. Ozempic is also semaglutide, but in the UK, Wegovy is licensed as a weight loss injection while Ozempic is used for lowering blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes. 

Collectively, a whopping 81.8% of our audience know about Wegovy (semaglutide) and its potential weight management benefits.

Just 7.8% of study participants are aware of Metformin, a medication often prescribed to manage type II diabetes, pre-diabetes, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), as an option. 4.1% noted that they had heard about Saxenda before, and 2.8% knew about bupropion. Naltrexone (1.5%), Liraglutide (1.3%), Topiramate (0.3%), Orlistat (0.2%), and Contrave (0.2%) are all lesser known in 2025, with very few of our audience recognising their names.

This data closely correlates with the usage of different weight loss medications in 2025, as you will discover below.

44.8% of our audience used semaglutide

In the section above, our data highlighted that semaglutide and Wegovy, semaglutide’s brand-name, have gained the most awareness among UK consumers. Our study found a strong link between this awareness and which weight loss medications our audience has used:

In the UK, Wegovy is the first obesity medication that doctors are allowed to prescribe specifically to reduce the risk of circulatory and heart disease in those who are obese or who have excess weight. 

It makes sense then that semaglutide is the most widely used weight loss medication in the UK in 2025, with 44.8% of our participants having used it before. Wegovy (the brand name for semaglutide) comes in at a close second, with 37.7% reporting using it. Effectively, this means that 82.5% of our audience uses the same weight loss medication. 

In contrast, just 6% of our audience has used metformin, and 3.4% and 3.2% have turned to Naltrexone and Saxenda, respectively, to shed unwanted pounds.

Only a small fraction of our audience has experience with taking Topiramate (1.6%), Liraglutide (1.5%), and Bupropion (1.5%) for weight loss. Contrave seems to be the least popular option, with just 0.2% of people having tried it before. The data shows that semaglutide and Wegovy hold a significant share of the weight loss medication market. With reviews of clinical trials showing that semaglutide is more effective for weight reduction than anti-diabetic medications and placebo, many may also be compelled by these promising results.

29.4% of weight loss medication users experience headaches as a side effect

Side effects are a key concern when taking any new medication. The graph below reveals which side effects our audience has experienced:

At 29.4%, the largest percentage of our audience cited headaches as a weight loss medication side effect. 27.3% of our audience also reported dealing with insomnia while taking weight loss medication, and 23.4% dealt with feelings of fatigue. A further 12.4% of people felt nauseous during treatment. 

Allergic reactions seem to be a less frequent side effect of weight loss medications, as only 5.7% of our audience reported. A minor 1.8% also experienced digestive issues, possibly due to certain medications’ ability to slow the rate of food passing through the stomach to control blood sugar levels.

42.9% of our audience found their appetite was negatively affected

Taking weight loss medications can affect your daily life in several ways. This is what our audience experienced during treatment:

The primary effect weight loss medications had on the day-to-day lives of our study group was negatively affecting their appetites (42.9%). 13.3% deal with unpleasant side effects like headaches, insomnia, fatigue and nausea, but 13.2% are able to manage daily life well nonetheless. 

6.7% of those taking medication for weight loss are able to track their weight accurately and effectively, and 6.6% found themselves visiting the doctor’s rooms on a frequent basis. Another 6.6% enjoyed improved emotional well-being during treatment, while 6.2% had to adjust their grocery shopping habits according to new needs. 

The minority of people (4.6%) found that their medications suppress their appetite daily, suggesting that most of our audience aren’t experiencing consistent appetite suppression during treatment.

62.4% would consider combining weight loss medication with exercise

We’ve shared our insights into our audience’s willingness to combine medication with other weight loss methods below:

The UK audience seem to be most willing to combine weight loss medication with exercise (62.4%) to achieve the best results from their treatment, and 27% would consider using supplements alongside their medication.

Thereafter, the statistics plummet, and only 4.5% would consider therapy to reach their goal, despite weight issues often linking to mental health. Even fewer people are interested in attending support groups while using medication (3.7%), and 2.4% feel that mindfulness could be a good addition to their weight loss efforts. This highlights the fact that those who are overweight understand the connection to weight loss and exercise, but may need extra motivation to get moving. 

Based on our audience insights, it’s clear that weight loss medications are becoming an increasingly popular tool in the UK. Encouragingly, most users are focused on long-term weight management rather than seeking rapid results, highlighting a positive shift in weight loss approaches and a better understanding of why maintaining a healthy weight is so important.

Sourced from an independent sample of 48,399 UK people who have used weight loss medication opinions across X, Quora, Reddit, TikTok, Bluesky and Threads. Responses are collected within a 65% confidence interval and 6% margin of error. Engagement estimates how many people in the location are participating. Demographics are determined using many features, including name, location and self-disclosed description. Results are based on what people describe online—questions were not posed to the people in the sample.

About the Representative Sample

• 28.4% of our audience lives in London
• 28.5% of those taking weight loss medications are older than 65 
• 59.0% of weight loss medication users in the UK are female, and 41.0% are male