Liraglutide
The daily GLP-1. About 8% of body weight in a year in trials, proven and approved; the weekly shots now beat it on results and hassle.
What it is
Liraglutide is a once-a-day shot that quiets appetite and steadies blood sugar; people on it lost about 8% of their body weight in a year in the trials. It is the original GLP-1 and fully approved, and the honest reason to pick it over semaglutide or tirzepatide is access, price, or wanting a drug that leaves your system in a day or two.
The people who land on liraglutide usually get there one of three ways: their insurance or budget covers it and not the weekly drugs, they have type 2 diabetes and a doctor who started them on Victoza, or they want a GLP-1 they can stop quickly, because it clears in about a day. That short life is also useful for people who had a bad time on a weekly drug and could not escape the nausea for a week. Teenagers 12 and up can be prescribed Saxenda, which is not true of every GLP-1. If daily injections sound like a dealbreaker, they will be; that is the single biggest reason people quit it.
Appetite drops within the first few days, faster than with the weekly drugs, because a daily shot reaches a steady level in about three days. Nausea shows up with each step up and usually fades in two to four days. Weight comes off at roughly a pound a week in the early months and slows by month six; the trial average was about 8% at a year, so a 220 pound person lands near 200. Good looks like steady, boring progress and a lot less food noise. It will not give you the 15 to 20% that semaglutide and tirzepatide produce, and it will not hold the weight off if you stop.
It is a prefilled pen, 6 mg per ml, no mixing: dial and inject subQ (just under the skin) in the belly or thigh at the same time each day, with or without food. The titration is the whole game: 0.6 mg for week one, then up 0.6 each week through 1.2, 1.8, and 2.4 to the 3.0 mg maintenance dose. If a step is rough, hold it another week rather than pushing on. For diabetes the usual landing spot is 1.2 to 1.8 mg. The mistakes: jumping straight to a high dose and spending a week miserable, eating big greasy meals in the first weeks, and letting protein slide so the weight you lose includes muscle. An 18 mg pen is six days at 3.0 mg, so a five-pen box is about a month at full dose.
This is one of the best-proven things on the site. The SCALE trials in thousands of adults showed about 8% average loss at 56 weeks on 3.0 mg against about 2.6% on placebo, and the LEADER trial in people with type 2 diabetes showed fewer heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths. It was approved as Victoza in 2010 and Saxenda in 2014, and generics followed for Victoza in 2024 and Saxenda in 2025. The flip side is also well documented: in the trials, stopping it meant most of the weight came back within a year. It is a treatment you stay on, not a cycle.
If you can get a weekly GLP-1, it is the better choice: semaglutide roughly doubles the weight loss, tirzepatide does better still, and both are one shot a week. Retatrutide is the next step beyond those for people in trials or sourcing research product. Liraglutide earns its place when access, cost, or a need to stop fast matters more than the extra pounds. Skip it with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer or MEN 2, and tell your doctor about any pancreatitis or gallbladder history before starting.
What people use it for
Weight loss
Most evidenceThe SCALE program randomized thousands of adults to 3.0 mg liraglutide or placebo and found about 8% average weight loss at 56 weeks versus about 2.6% on placebo, with more than half of people losing at least 5%. That is real, approved, repeatable, and about half of what the weekly drugs now deliver.
Type 2 diabetes and the heart
Most evidenceAs Victoza it lowers HbA1c reliably, and the LEADER trial in over 9,000 people with type 2 diabetes showed fewer heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths than placebo over several years. For someone with diabetes that heart benefit is a reason to choose a GLP-1 at all, and liraglutide was the first to show it.
What happens when you stop
Most evidenceTrial follow-ups and the weight-maintenance arm of SCALE show that most of the lost weight returns within a year of stopping. The drug does not reset anything; it holds appetite down while you take it. Plan for it as a long-term treatment, or plan the habits that will hold the line when you taper.
How people use it
Safety, in brief
Things people sometimes notice
- Nausea for two to four days after each step up, worse with greasy or large meals
- Constipation, or the opposite, in the first weeks
- Burping, reflux, and feeling full after a few bites
- A small bruise or bump where you inject
The full picture — stop signs and who should talk to a doctor first — is on the dosing guide.
Sources
The labels and studies behind this page. Each link opens the original on PubMed, DailyMed or ClinicalTrials.gov.