GLP-1 drugs: a real change for millions, and a longevity question still open
Marek Piotrowski and Avi Roy in London, July 2024 — a Live Beyond interview on aging and the new metabolic medicines.
Of all the medicines that came up on our quest, none changed the world as fast as these. In just a few years, drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro went from diabetes clinics to front pages everywhere. Several of the experts Alek and I met spoke about them with real excitement, and some told me they may be the best longevity drug we have so far. They are also prescription medicines, injected peptides that change how the body handles food. So here is, carefully, what the studies show, what the scientists told us, what I lived myself, and where the evidence stops.
For people living with obesity or type 2 diabetes, these medicines are one of the biggest medical changes in decades. In large trials, people lost on average 15 to 21% of their body weight, their blood sugar improved, and in people with heart disease the risk of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease fell by a fifth. Kidneys were protected too.
What we don’t know yet is whether they slow aging itself or help healthy people live longer: no trial has tested that. Side effects are common, part of the weight lost is muscle, and most of the weight comes back when people stop.
The good news: the habits that protect your metabolism, your heart and your muscles are in your hands today. [1][2][3][4][5]
This is not medical advice.
This page shares experiences from our quest and what scientists told us. It does not recommend any medicine, peptide, supplement or treatment, and it knows nothing about you.
Never start, stop or change any medicine, peptide, supplement or treatment without your own doctor, who knows your health and can check your blood work. That matters even more if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, live with a health condition, or take other medicines.
Longevity, as we mean it: more healthy, joyful years. What we mean →
15–21%of body weight lost on average in the two big trials of semaglutide and tirzepatide, over about a year and a half.[1][2]
20%fewer heart attacks, strokes and heart deaths in 17,604 people with heart disease and overweight, without diabetes.[3]
2/3of the weight people had lost came back within a year of stopping the medicine.[5]
What GLP-1 drugs are
Avi Roy in London, July 2024 — a Live Beyond interview with Marek Piotrowski on GLP-1 and other obesity medicines.
GLP-1 is a hormone our gut releases after a meal. It tells the body to make insulin, slows down the stomach and tells the brain we have had enough. The medicines copy this hormone, but last much longer. They are peptides, small proteins, and most of them are injected under the skin.
Semaglutide sold as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes, Wegovy for weight, and Rybelsus as a tablet. It copies one gut hormone, GLP-1.
Tirzepatide sold as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for weight. It copies a second gut hormone too, called GIP, which is why people often call it the second generation.
Retatrutide a third generation that copies three hormones: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. It is still being tested and is not approved anywhere yet.
Older ones such as liraglutide, which came first and are used less now.
They are prescription medicines, and they are expensive. In London, in July 2024, Avi Roy, a cell biologist who studies aging, explained what this whole new family of obesity drugs is trying to do:
“These obesity drugs that are coming to market are trying to do these two or three things. They’re trying to either burn things faster, they’re trying to partition things efficiently into more into muscle, or they’re doing these things called mitochondrial uncoupling so that they are less efficient in storing the energy in the first place.”
In plain words: These medicines work in different ways: some help the body burn fat, some make you eat less, and some help send the energy from food into muscle instead of into fat.
Words worth knowing
Three words behind the medicine
From our glossary. Tap a card to turn it over: the science on the back, and the people we met who explained it to us.
No. 37 / 66Therapy
GLP-1 and GIP medicines
Peptides that copy two gut hormones: they calm hunger, steady blood sugar and calm inflammation too.
No. 37 / 66Therapy
GLP-1 and GIP medicines
Beyond weight and blood sugar, they cut heart attacks and strokes in people with heart disease and lower inflammation; their effect on the brain is being studied. Losing weight can restore fertility in women and men. Strength training and protein protect the muscle. Prescription only. Read more →
“Weight loss is great, but even independent of weight loss, we are seeing the decrease in all sorts of risk of age-related conditions, including … things like Parkinson’s.”
It starts in your thirties, and almost nobody notices until it costs them something — a fall, a stair, an independence.
What helps
Resistance training at least twice a week, enough protein, and vitamin D if you are low. Grip strength and how fast you can stand up from a chair predict how the rest of your life goes better than most blood tests. Read more →
It came up most in our conversations with: Liz Parrish, David Karow, Avi Roy
Many doctors I talked to liked the idea. Because when people change nothing and only do the injections, they lose muscle everywhere, not just fat, even in their face. I have seen friends who looked like ghosts. I told them: either stop, or start strength training and change your diet. The ones who changed looked healthy and good about a month later.
Weight and diabetes
Steve Horvath at the Longevity Summit in Dublin, August 2023 — a Live Beyond interview with Marek and Alek Piotrowski on aging clocks and the future.
Semaglutide and weight
In 1,961 adults with obesity or overweight, without diabetes, those on weekly semaglutide lost on average 14.9% of their body weight over 68 weeks. Those on a placebo lost 2.4%. Both groups also got advice on food and exercise.
Based on: Large randomized, placebo-controlled trial [1]
Tirzepatide and weight
In 2,539 adults with obesity or overweight, without diabetes, those on the highest dose of tirzepatide lost on average 20.9% of their body weight over 72 weeks. Those on a placebo lost 3.1%.
Based on: Large randomized, placebo-controlled trial [2]
In Dublin, in August 2023, Steve Horvath, the scientist who invented the epigenetic clocks, was talking with Alek and me about how new medicines could help people stay healthier, when he said:
“The previous generation was plagued by obesity. So many people are obese. Now they develop these new drugs that make it actually relatively easy to lose weight. […] So I just think there will be these wonderful new drugs for people.”
In plain words: For a long time, losing a lot of weight was very hard for most people. These medicines make it much easier, and Steve sees that as a gift for many people.
And in Singapore, in February 2024, Nir Barzilai, who studies people who live to a hundred, added the hard part:
“People who are obese now, they’re using GLP, they’re using Ozempic. We didn’t have it before. It’ll help, it’ll make a huge impact. It’s very expensive to use it for everyone. It’s not available for everyone.”
In plain words: These drugs will make a huge difference for people with obesity. But they cost a lot, and not everyone in the world can get them.
The heart and the kidneys
Fewer heart attacks and strokes
In the SELECT trial, 17,604 adults aged 45 and over with heart disease and overweight or obesity, but without diabetes, were followed for about three years. On semaglutide, 6.5% had a heart attack, a stroke or died from heart disease, compared with 8.0% on a placebo: 20% fewer.
Based on: Large randomized, placebo-controlled trial [3]
Kidneys protected
In 3,533 people with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, semaglutide lowered the risk of serious kidney events, such as kidney failure or a large loss of kidney function, or death from kidney or heart disease, by 24%. The trial was stopped early because the benefit was clear.
Based on: Large randomized, placebo-controlled trial [4]
Avi told us what surprised the scientists most:
“They tend to lose a lot of weight. Also, simultaneously, their cardiometabolic profile improves. […] Yes, weight loss is great, but even independent of weight loss, we are seeing the decrease in all sorts of risk of age-related conditions”
In plain words: People lose weight, and their heart and metabolism get healthier too. And scientists see a lower risk of several diseases of age even beyond what the weight loss alone would explain. It is still early: these medicines have been widely used for only a few years.
Alcohol and the brain
Less drinking, in a first small trial
In 48 adults with alcohol use disorder, a low dose of semaglutide for nine weeks reduced how much they drank on drinking days and how strong their cravings were, compared with a placebo. It is one small trial; bigger ones are running.
Based on: Small randomized, placebo-controlled trial [6]
Alzheimer’s: no slowing
In two large trials with 3,808 people aged 55 to 85 in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, semaglutide tablets for two years did not slow the disease, compared with a placebo.
So the brain story is mixed: a hopeful early signal for cravings, and a clear no, so far, for Alzheimer’s. I heard a lot of hope that these medicines may protect the brain, which would matter most for older people. Maybe it is a mix of things working together. But hope is not proof: for that, we need real, big trials.
The muscle question
Part of the weight lost is lean mass
In the semaglutide weight trial, the people who had their body measured with a scan lost roughly two-fifths of their weight as lean mass, which includes muscle, and the rest as fat. In the tirzepatide trial, about a quarter of the weight lost was lean mass and three-quarters was fat, and the people on the placebo, who lost much less, showed the same split. These are two separate trials with different people, so they are not a head-to-head comparison.
Based on: Body-scan substudies of two large randomized trials [1][8]
This matters for longevity, because muscle and strength are among the best signs of healthy aging. Losing weight always takes some muscle with it, but with weight loss this fast, scientists are watching closely, and new medicines that try to protect muscle are being developed, as Avi told us.
Here I want to share my own experience, as my experience and not as advice. With the first generation, which copies GLP-1 only, people could lose quite a lot of muscle along with the fat. I used to take a small dose of a second-generation medicine, GLP-1 plus GIP. At the same time I did strength training five or six times a week, working different muscle groups, and I changed how I eat. In six months I lost about 8 kg of fat and gained about 5 to 6 kg of muscle. It felt like magic, but it was also hard work: pushing the iron and changing how I live.
Side effects
Most common: the stomach
In the semaglutide weight trial, about three in four people on the medicine had stomach or gut problems such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting or constipation, compared with about half on the placebo. They were mostly mild to moderate and eased with time, but some people stopped because of them.
Part of the weight lost is lean mass, which includes muscle. You will find the numbers in The muscle question, above.
Based on: Body-scan substudies of two large randomized trials [1][8]
Hair loss
Hair loss is listed on the label of tirzepatide for weight: it was reported by about 4 to 5 in 100 people on the medicine, against 1 in 100 on the placebo, and the label links it to the weight loss.
Losing weight can lower bone density, and that matters most for older people. In a trial in Copenhagen with 195 adults who had just lost weight on a low-calorie diet, those who then took liraglutide, an older GLP-1 medicine, on its own lost some bone density at the hip and the spine compared with those who exercised. Those who took the medicine and also exercised kept their bone density. It is one trial, with an older medicine.
Based on: Randomized trial, secondary analysis [10]
The question I keep asking: would this still happen in people who exercise a lot and change their food and their life? I don’t know. We need real, big trials to answer it.
All reported side effects
• Gallstones and other gallbladder problems. • Inflammation of the pancreas. • Slower stomach emptying: tell the anesthetist before any surgery or sedation. Rarely, the gut can stop moving. • Kidney problems from dehydration, when vomiting or diarrhea is severe. • Low blood sugar, when taken together with insulin or some diabetes pills. • A faster heart rate. • Eyes: in people with type 2 diabetes, a worsening of eye damage was seen. Europe’s medicines agency also concluded that NAION, a rare condition that damages the optic nerve, is a very rare side effect of semaglutide, affecting up to 1 in 10,000 people. • Thyroid: in rats and mice these medicines caused thyroid tumors. This has not been shown in people, but the US labels carry their strongest warning, and the medicines are not for people with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer or MEN 2. • Allergic reactions. • Pregnancy: they are not used in pregnancy. With tirzepatide, birth control pills can work less well (see Fertility, and the pill, below). • Mood: in 2024 Europe’s medicines agency looked for a link with suicidal thoughts and found no evidence that these medicines cause them. The US semaglutide label still asks people to watch for changes in mood.
Based on: Medicine labels and the European Medicines Agency [11][9][12][13]
Avi described it to us like this:
“The negative effects is really a little bit of nausea, a little bit of gastrointestinal distress, that tends to go away. And there are so many other modalities coming in, ’cause right now it’s a injection that you take once a week, but there’s a once a month injection coming. There are pills coming down the pipeline.”
In plain words: For most people in the trials, the side effects were an upset stomach that got better with time. And newer versions are coming: monthly injections, tablets, and medicines that try to keep muscle.
In my opinion, a lot of the bad stories about side effects come from people using these medicines the wrong way, just as misusing any other drug does not work well. Many people just do the injections and change nothing: not their food, not their training. They can help you change how you live, and once you have changed it, I believe you should no longer need them.
When people stop
Most of the weight comes back
When people in the semaglutide trial stopped the medicine after 68 weeks, they regained about two-thirds of the weight they had lost within a year, and the improvements in blood pressure and blood sugar faded too.
This is why doctors talk about these drugs as a long-term treatment, and why the habits we build around them matter so much. I used mine as an enhancer, to change how I live, how I eat and how I train. In my view, being disciplined about that lifestyle is what keeps the result.
And longevity?
Dane Gobel in Washington, June 2024 — a Live Beyond interview with Marek Piotrowski on the Methuselah Foundation and the first longevity drugs.
In private conversations, several scientists told me they think GLP-1 medicines may be the best longevity drug we have so far. Not only because people lose weight: in their view, these medicines help people keep eating less, they improve the metabolism and they lower inflammation.
Eating less is one of the oldest ideas in aging research. At the Buck Institute in California, in May 2024, Brianna Stubbs, who studies ketones and aging, explained it to me while we walked:
“Our body will make ketones when we do fasting and when we do ketogenic diets, and some of those dietary changes have been associated with increase in lifespan in simple things like yeast, but also excitingly in non-human primates, and then some of the biomarkers in a study called CALERIE, which looked at calorie restriction in humans, also indicated that that type of dietary intervention could help with healthy lifespan.”
Eating less, in monkeys
In rhesus monkeys, our closest relatives studied for this, eating less improved health and survival when the two big American studies were analyzed together.
218 healthy, non-obese adults aged 21 to 50 were asked to eat 25% less for two years; in practice they ate about 12% less. They lost about 10% of their weight, and their blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin sensitivity and a marker of inflammation improved. A later look at their blood found that one measure of the pace of aging, called DunedinPACE, slowed, while two other aging clocks did not change.
Based on: Randomized trial over two years, and a later analysis [15][16]
In plain words: Eating less, without malnutrition, has some of the best evidence for healthy aging. What nobody has shown yet is whether eating less because of a medicine brings the same benefits as eating less on your own. That is the open question.
When I asked Avi Roy again, online in April 2026, which medicine he sees as a true longevity drug, he answered:
“If there’s a true longevity drug that I know of, like as in a drug that hits many, many systems. […] GLP-1s obviously are the top of my list.”
In Washington, in June 2024, Dane Gobel, who runs the prize competitions of the Methuselah Foundation that his father Dave Gobel co-founded, told us something that surprised me:
“I think in some ways, like, the first kind of longevity drug actually is probably something like Wegovy or Mounjaro, honestly. A lot of people have talked for many years about metformin as being geroprotective, and I think it is probably. But the effects of it are not nearly as profound as something like as a GLP drug. […] That didn’t come out of the longevity community. That was something that popped out of nowhere, and I’m very happy that it exists. […] You can take something that’s going to make it easier for you to manage your lifestyle and dramatically increase your health span.”
In plain words: Dane thinks these medicines may be the first real “longevity drugs”, because they make a healthy lifestyle easier and can add healthy years for many people. That is his view; no trial has tested them against aging itself.
I also met the CEO of a big longevity institute who has been taking a GLP-1 medicine for two years, not to lose weight, but for his longevity. For someone in his position, that is a big statement.
Avi was hopeful too, but chose his words carefully:
“It may be able to actually metabolically rewire you, I say maybe, it be able to metabolically rewire you to be younger. At least in that context, as in how you use the fuel and put the fuel into your body. That doesn’t solve all the challenges of aging […] but at least that it is, that is there.”
In plain words: These medicines might change the way the body uses energy so that it works more like a younger body. Avi says “maybe”, and he is clear that this does not solve aging.
And he reminded us why it is too early to say what these medicines would do for a healthy person:
“When we get phase one, phase two, phase three data, it is in cohorts of people that have a particular disease. […] That data applied to a quote-unquote perfectly healthy person may not be the same outcome. So what is happening with GLP-1s, GIP agonist and antagonist is that slowly the needle is moving from severely obese people to obese people to maybe even just highly overweight people. And the signal is going in the same direction.”
In plain words: Medicines are tested in people who are ill. What helps them may not do the same for a healthy person. That is exactly where the evidence for GLP-1 drugs stops today.
Fertility, and the pill
Vittorio Sebastiano and me on the cliff in Irvine, California, December 2025.
Some of the scientists I spoke with told me something that surprised me: these medicines can make women, and men, more fertile, as if the body decides it is healthy enough to have children. That is part of why people talk about GLP-1 babies.
The pill can work less well
With tirzepatide, birth control pills can work less well. Its US label asks women who use the pill to switch to another method, or to add a barrier method, for 4 weeks after starting and for 4 weeks after each dose increase. These medicines are not used in pregnancy.
Retatrutide copies three hormones: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. In May 2026 the company reported its first big results: in 2,339 adults with obesity or overweight, without diabetes, those on the highest dose lost on average 28.3% of their body weight over 80 weeks, against 2.2% on a placebo. In an earlier trial, about 1 in 5 people on the highest dose felt an unusual sense of touch on the skin, called dysesthesia, against fewer than 1 in 100 on the placebo. These results come from the company and are not yet published as full papers. Retatrutide is not approved anywhere; the company says it plans to apply in the US in early 2027.
Based on: Company-reported results of large randomized trials [17][18][19]
Some people do not wait, and buy retatrutide or other peptides online, made who knows where. Avi Roy told me, online in April 2026, why that worries him:
“It’s not just the sequence of amino acids that matter, but how they’re connected that matter. Because they’ll be absorbed very differently or become a completely different thing if they’re not folded up correctly. Every single aspect of this matters. And so if companies that are a trillion-dollar companies have difficulty producing smaller peptides, smaller than retatrutide, and you’re telling me that a garage in Manchester is producing the same quality and consistency? […] The problem with biologics is very difficult. You have around 50 to 80 steps to manufacture a peptide. And any difference in any of those steps produces a different peptide at the end of the day.”
In plain words: A peptide is a large, folded molecule, and a small mistake in making it gives you a different molecule. Big companies struggle with this; a garage cannot promise you what is in the vial.
Right after our call, Avi sent me a written message about it:
“A ‘99% purity’ claim is the red flag, not the quality signal. Real lab results look like 96.3%. Round numbers mean the test was never done.”
Then he listed four things to check before anyone injects a peptide bought online:
1. Right molecule? (test called LC-MS/MS)
2. Real purity? (ask for the graph, called HPLC, not just a number)
3. How many milligrams of peptide are actually in the vial
4. Bacterial contamination test for anything injectable
“Peptides aren’t pills. They can be the wrong compound entirely, degrade in ways regular drugs don’t, or carry bacterial toxins. A basic third-party panel: $200-500.”
In plain words: We are not telling anyone to buy a peptide online. We share Avi’s list so you can see what real testing involves, and why a vial from the internet is a gamble. Our view is simple: wait until a medicine is approved and made in proper labs, and take it only with a doctor.
What’s coming next
In London, in July 2024, Avi described the medicines that are coming after these:
“And then there are other drugs that are coming down the pipeline, which is actually trying to preserve muscle, and then some are actually trying to activate so that you can actually gain muscle faster, like the follistatin therapies and things like that.”
That is my hope too: one day, one medicine that helps you lose fat and build muscle at the same time, so that many more of us can be fit and healthy. We are not there yet.
Before you decide anything
Is this for me? These are prescription medicines for obesity, type 2 diabetes and some related conditions. Whether they are right for you is a decision for you and your doctor.
What about my muscles? Ask how to protect your strength while you lose weight.
What happens if I stop? Ask what the plan is for the long term, because the weight usually comes back.
Where does it come from? Copies sold online or without a prescription may not contain what the label says.
If a friend asked me, I would tell them what I believe, as my own view and not as medical advice. If a doctor thinks one of these medicines is right for you, the second generation, GLP-1 plus GIP, is the one I would choose, because together with strength training you can gain muscle while you lose fat. But it still needs many more clinical trials. Never take it without a doctor. Check your vitals and your biomarkers, and see how it works for you, because everybody is different: what worked amazingly for me may not work the same way for you.
And the cost. Yes, these medicines cost money. But in my experience I ate about 30 to 40% less, so I saved quite a lot on food. Depending on your country and the dose, the medicine can still cost more than the food you save.
Not medical advice, and not a recommendation for or against any GLP-1 medicine. We describe what the studies say and what the experts told us. We never give doses.
Where the joy is
And here is the joy. When you eat less, lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, you feel so much healthier and so much more alive. You want to do things. You stop thinking about food so much, and you can focus on your work and on your fun. It is an amazing feeling.
“You have to treat it as an enhancer, something that helps you change your lifestyle, not as a wonder drug that will change your life straight away.”
And the best part is still free. Moving every day, building strength, real food, good sleep and the people you love: they protect the same heart, the same kidneys, the same muscles and the same brain, with no side effects but joy. With a medicine or without one, that is where my longevity game is played.
This page shares experiences from our quest and what scientists told us. GLP-1 drugs are prescription medicines with real side effects, and they are not approved as treatments for aging. Every body is different: what works for one person may not work the same way for another.
Never start, stop or change any medicine, peptide, supplement or treatment without your own doctor, who knows your health and can check your blood work. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
Sources
Every number on this page, by the number in square brackets. Quotations come from Live Beyond’s own recorded interviews, cleaned only of “um” and “uh”. Not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before you change anything.
Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Calanna S, et al. Once-weekly semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity (STEP 1). N Engl J Med. 2021;384(11):989-1002. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2032183
Jastreboff AM, Aronne LJ, Ahmad NN, et al. Tirzepatide once weekly for the treatment of obesity (SURMOUNT-1). N Engl J Med. 2022;387(3):205-216. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2206038
Lincoff AM, Brown-Frandsen K, Colhoun HM, et al. Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in obesity without diabetes (SELECT). N Engl J Med. 2023;389(24):2221-2232. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2307563
Perkovic V, Tuttle KR, Rossing P, et al. Effects of semaglutide on chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes (FLOW). N Engl J Med. 2024;391(2):109-121. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2403347
Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Davies M, et al. Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: the STEP 1 trial extension. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2022;24(8):1553-1564. doi:10.1111/dom.14725
Hendershot CS, Bremmer MP, Paladino MB, et al. Once-weekly semaglutide in adults with alcohol use disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2025;82(4):395-405. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789
Novo Nordisk. EVOKE and EVOKE+ phase 3 trials of oral semaglutide in early Alzheimer’s disease did not meet their primary endpoint. Company announcement, November 2025; reported by Alzheimer Europe, 3 December 2025.
Look M, Dunn JP, Kushner RF, et al. Body composition changes during weight reduction with tirzepatide in the SURMOUNT-1 study of adults with obesity or overweight. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2025. doi:10.1111/dom.16275
ZEPBOUND (tirzepatide) injection, prescribing information. Eli Lilly; US Food and Drug Administration label. https://uspl.lilly.com/zepbound/zepbound.html
Jensen SBK, Sørensen V, Sandsdal RM, et al. Bone health after exercise alone, GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment, or combination treatment: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 (published 25 June 2024).
WEGOVY (semaglutide) injection, prescribing information. Novo Nordisk; US Food and Drug Administration label. https://nctr-crs.fda.gov/fdalabel/services/spl/set-ids/ee06186f-2aa3-4990-a760-757579d8f77b/spl-doc
European Medicines Agency. PRAC concludes eye condition NAION is a very rare side effect of semaglutide medicines Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy. 6 June 2025. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/prac-concludes-eye-condition-naion-very-rare-side-effect-semaglutide-medicines-ozempic-rybelsus-wegovy
European Medicines Agency, PRAC: no evidence of a causal link between GLP-1 receptor agonists and suicidal or self-injurious thoughts or actions. April 2024; reported by The Pharmaceutical Journal. https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/ema-finds-no-link-between-glp-1-receptor-agonists-and-suicidal-thoughts
Mattison JA, Colman RJ, Beasley TM, et al. Caloric restriction improves health and survival of rhesus monkeys. Nat Commun. 2017;8:14063. doi:10.1038/ncomms14063
Kraus WE, Bhapkar M, Huffman KM, et al; CALERIE Investigators. 2 years of calorie restriction and cardiometabolic risk (CALERIE): exploratory outcomes of a multicentre, phase 2, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2019;7(9):673-683. doi:10.1016/S2213-8587(19)30151-2
Waziry R, Ryan CP, Corcoran DL, et al. Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial. Nat Aging. 2023;3(3):248-257. doi:10.1038/s43587-022-00357-y
Eli Lilly and Company. TRIUMPH-1 topline results for retatrutide in adults with obesity or overweight. Company announcement, 21 May 2026; reported by HCPLive, 21 May 2026.
Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly’s triple agonist, retatrutide, delivered weight loss of up to an average of 71.2 lbs along with substantial relief from osteoarthritis pain in first successful Phase 3 trial (TRIUMPH-4). Company announcement, 11 December 2025.
Eli Lilly and Company. TRIUMPH-2 and TRIUMPH-3 topline results for retatrutide, and plan to submit to the US FDA in the first quarter of 2027. Company announcement, 23 July 2026; reported by HCPLive, 23 July 2026.
