05-06-2023
As obesity continues to rise in the UK, new and easier methods to encourage weight loss have become increasingly popular across the country. Perhaps the most popular and revolutionary amongst these new methods is the use of Semaglutide injections – originally intended for the treatment of type-2 Diabetes – to lose weight with minimal lifestyle changes required.
These unsuspecting injections reached mainstream popularity for their weight loss potential after big-name celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, revealed that semaglutide was the secret to their rapid weight loss success. Initially only approved for weight loss treatment in the United States, semaglutide injections – including the brand name Ozempic – became approved for use on the NHS earlier this year and have since reached unprecedented levels of demand.
Here at Click Pharmacy, we’ve seen the demand for Semaglutide injections increase our sales by 300%.
We wanted to know how in demand these injections are for weight loss and just how much weight loss affects UK residents. To find out more, we conducted a survey of 2,000 people living in the UK and analysed keyword search analytics to see how many people have been searching for information about semaglutide injections.
Methodology
Click Pharmacy surveyed 2,000 UK residents over the age of 16, asking them about their weight loss habits and experiences – including whether they had considered using or already used Semaglutide injections to help them lose weight.
The survey was conducted between the 25th of May, 2023, to the 30th of May, 2023.
We also used keyword popularity data from Ahrefs.com from May 2022 to April 2023 in order to find out how many people have recently shown interest in semaglutide as a weight loss treatment.
How many UK residents are trying to lose weight
We wanted to find out more about the general public’s relationship with weight loss and their attitude to newer weight loss treatments – such as the use of semaglutide injections.
First, we asked respondents whether they had ever tried to lose weight. The majority (28%) said that they were currently trying to lose weight, of which 32% were female, with 24% of male respondents answering in this way.
The biggest age group that was currently trying to lose weight was those aged between 35-44 (31%), with 25-34-year-olds (30%) and 16-24-year-olds (29%) also responding heavily.
Interestingly, 26% of respondents said that they had never tried to lose weight – of which the majority (30%) were male, with 21% of female respondents saying they haven’t tried losing weight.
The age group with the most respondents that had never attempted weight loss was the over 55s, with 36% saying they had never done so before. In contrast, just 15% of 16-24-year-olds and 16% of 25-34-year-olds had never tried to lose weight.
Additionally, 15% said they had tried losing weight recently, while 19% of respondents said they had tried to lose weight some time ago, and 16% said they have attempted to lose weight for the majority of their life. Of these, 21% were female, in comparison to 17% of male respondents.
Overall, weight loss seems to be particularly prominent among younger generations and is far more prevalent in women.
How easy is it to lose weight?
Next, we wanted to know how easy people find it to lose weight. The majority of respondents overall said that they found it difficult (45%), with 16% reporting that they find it very difficult to lose weight, while 29% said they find it somewhat difficult.
Generally, women seem to struggle more with weight loss than men – with almost double (58%) the number of female respondents overall finding it hard to do, in comparison to 30% of male respondents.
In contrast, 32% overall said that they find it easy to lose weight – with 9% reporting that it is very easy for them to lose weight, while 24% find it somewhat easy to do.
Here, it was the men that found it significantly easier – with 43% of male respondents saying they found it easy overall, compared to 23% of female respondents.
Our survey found that an additional 22% said that they find it neither easy nor difficult to lose weight.
In terms of age, older respondents seemed to find it more difficult to lose weight. Overall, 66% of respondents aged over 55 found it hard to lose weight, alongside 52% of those aged between 45-54 and 36% of those aged 35-44.
In contrast, 27% of respondents aged between 25-34 and 25% of respondents aged between 16-24 said they found it difficult to lose weight.
The impact of weight loss on daily life
Weight loss is a particularly personal subject for many and can be the cause of a significant amount of stress and unhappiness. We wanted to know how much of an impact weight loss has had on the day-to-day lives of average people.
Our survey found that 14% of people were significantly affected by their weight loss process, with an almost-even split between male (14%) and female (15%) respondents. Of those that were significantly affected, the majority were younger generations.
16% of 16-24-year-olds, alongside 19% of 25-34-year-olds said that weight loss processes had a significant effect on their everyday lives. In contrast, just 12% of those aged between 45-54 and over 55 said the same.
An additional 34% of respondents said that their everyday life and well-being were somewhat affected by their weight loss process – of which 36% were male, with 33% of female respondents also responding in this way.
Interestingly, 27% of respondents said that the weight loss process didn’t affect their everyday life very much, with 17% saying it didn’t affect their life at all.
Of these, there was an almost equal number of male-to-female respondents – suggesting the experience wasn’t due to gender.
Public attitudes to new weight loss treatments
With so many new treatments appearing on the market to aid weight loss, including the recent addition of Semaglutide injections previously reserved for use in diabetes treatment, we wanted to know how many are already using these treatments – and how many would like to use them in the future.
First, we asked respondents whether they have used Ozempic to help them lose weight.
20% of respondents said that, while they haven’t used the drug previously, they would be interested in using Ozempic in the future – 20% of which were male, with 21% of female respondents showing an interest in using Ozempic in the future.
8% of respondents were already using Ozempic in their weight loss journey and said that they found the results to be successful.
Interestingly, male respondents seemed to have better results when using the drug, with 12% saying they were happy with the effects of using Ozempic, in comparison to 6% of female respondents.
An additional 10% of respondents said that they would like to use Ozempic to help them lose weight, but they are unable to get ahold of the drug due to shortages.
Similarly, attitudes to Wegovy – another branded form of semaglutide injection designed specifically for weight loss – were not too dissimilar from those of Ozempic users.
8% of our respondents said they were already using the drug and had achieved successful results. Similarly to Ozempic, 12% of male Wegovy users were satisfied with the outcome of the treatment, while just 4% of female respondents said the same.
An additional 19% said they would like to try Wegovy to lose weight but haven’t done so yet – with an almost-equal balance of male (19%) and female respondents (20%). While 10% said, they would like to use Wegovy but haven’t been able to due to stock issues.
How effective are Semaglutide injections for weight loss?
Despite reaching newfound popularity in the weight loss market, Semaglutide injections were originally designed to help type-2 diabetics – so, just how effective are these injections when it comes to losing weight?
Of those that had used these treatments, 64% overall said that they found it easy to lose weight – with 18% finding it very easy, while 46% found it somewhat easy. This seemed to be slightly more common in male respondents, with 67% finding it easy overall, in comparison to 57% of female respondents.
Our survey found that just 9% of users said that they found it difficult to lose weight while using the injections, with 3% finding it very difficult and 6% finding it somewhat difficult. There was a slight tilt in that those who struggled with losing weight while using the treatment tended to be female (13%), compared to 7% of male respondents.
An additional 27% of respondents said that they found it neither easy nor difficult to lose weight when using Semaglutide weight loss treatments.
How searches for weight loss treatments have changed in a year
The internet is a great source of information, and it’s usually where most of us turn when we want to research a topic we’re interested in. To better understand how interest in semaglutide injections and other weight loss treatments have increased, we looked at keyword search popularity over the past year.
Overall, as of April 2023, searches for ‘weight loss injections’ average at 49,500 per month – an increase of 173% year-on-year. This includes an increase of 22% in just the past three months. In May 2022, there were 40,500 searches for this term, while April 2023 recorded 90,500 searches – an increase of 50,000 searches.
Similarly, the search term ‘weight loss diabetes drug’ has seen a significant increase over a 12-month period, increasing by 1614% year-on-year. In May 2022, there were just 260 searches for this term, while December 2022 saw 22,200 searches.
Interestingly, as of April 2023, this search term has dropped to 3,600 searches – likely due to brand names, such as Ozempic, becoming more widely known.
The weight loss injection Saxenda has also seen a lot of search interest, recording an average of 90,500 searches per month. This is a change of 22% year-on-year, although searches for these injections have been steadily decreasing from its May 2022 peak at 135,000 searches. In April 2023, the term recorded 90,500 searches – down 44,500.
Final thoughts
Throughout this research, we were interested to see how attitudes towards weight loss treatments have changed recently and how many people are either currently making use of or soon hoping to make use of weight loss injections – such as Ozempic.
Overall, our research has found that there is a growing interest in the use of alternative weight loss treatments, with the newly-approved semaglutide injections growing rapidly in popularity in recent months. While there is still some reluctance from potential users right now, this is likely to subside as time goes on and the use of semaglutide injections in weight loss treatment plans continues to become more common.
Unfortunately, the survey has also highlighted a trend towards younger generations feeling more pressured to lose weight, alongside revealing that these younger people are also more affected by weight loss processes in their everyday lives.
As demand continues to grow for Semaglutide weight loss treatments, there are ongoing supply issues that have increased the wait time for these injections by several weeks. Although the manufacturers of Wegovy and Ozempic have pledged an increase in supply to meet these new levels of demand, the treatments are harder to come by at the moment – which has also had an impact on those hoping to make use of it for their own weight loss journey.
If you are in need of medical advice or require any further information regarding prescription treatment – including Semaglutide injections – please reach out to us at Click Pharmacy. We are always available to provide you with help sourcing prescriptions at your local pharmacies, alongside providing advice on medical treatments that you may be unsure about.