New prescription medications guidelines for weight loss released by American Gastroenterological Association

Obesity is a medical condition in which too much body fat negatively impacts your health. It is healthy to have some body fat. In fact, a healthy level of body fat is needed to survive. But too much fat can be harmful to your body. Obesity is most often measured by body mass index (BMI), a calculation of body weight compared with height. BMI isn't the only way to measure healthy weight. For most adults trying to shed pounds diet and exercise mostly fail in the long term. Recently new evidence-based guidelines were released by American Gastroenterological Association strongly recommending that these patients with obesity use recently approved medications coupled together with lifestyle changes.

The following medications, paired with healthy eating and regular physical activity, are first-line medical options and result in moderate weight loss as noted as a percentage of body weight (reported as the difference compared to percent weight loss observed in the placebo group).

Semaglutide, weight loss percentage: 10.8%

Phentermine-topiramate ER, weight loss percentage: 8.5%