Liraglutide Results Timeline: What Studies Measured, and When

Liraglutide is a prescription glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist that has been studied in randomised controlled trials for type 2 diabetes, weight management, liver disease and cardiovascular and kidney outcomes. It is a regulated medicine, not a research-only compound, and every question about whether it is appropriate for a particular person belongs with a prescribing clinician. This page is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice; consult a licensed physician about any medicine, including GLP-1 receptor agonists. What follows is a description of when published studies took their measurements and what they reported at those timepoints.

What “results” Meant in Liraglutide Trials

Most liraglutide trials did not publish continuous week-by-week trajectories for individuals. Instead, researchers pre-specified a primary endpoint and a fixed measurement date, then reported group averages at that date. Percentage body-weight change at week 56 was the endpoint in a trial of 3,731 adults with obesity or overweight without diabetes (PMID 26132939), percentage weight change at week 68 was the endpoint in a head-to-head comparison with weekly semaglutide (PMID 35015037), and percentage weight change at week 52 was the endpoint in a dose-ranging phase 2 study that included a liraglutide 3.0 mg comparator arm (PMID 30122305).

That design choice matters for anyone reading the literature: a trial that reports an average at week 56 is not describing what happened at week 4 or week 12, and group averages do not describe any individual participant. Where an interim timepoint was not published, it is simply absent from the record rather than implied.

Timeline at a Glance

The First Weeks: What Was and Was Not Captured

The earliest phase of liraglutide trials is the least documented in published abstracts. Gastrointestinal symptoms were the adverse events most frequently reported overall in the 56-week adult weight-management trial, where nausea and diarrhoea were described as the most common events with liraglutide 3.0 mg (PMID 26132939). The published record describes these as events over the whole trial rather than mapping them to specific early weeks, so any claim about a precise “first month” symptom curve goes beyond what those papers reported.

Similarly, no verified trial on this page published a week-4 or week-12 weight figure for liraglutide. Readers encountering confident statements about what happens in the first fortnight should note that such figures do not come from the primary reports summarised here, including the 68-week comparison trial (PMID 35015037).

Weeks 48 to 68: The Main Weight and Liver Endpoints

Week 52

A 52-week phase 2 dose-ranging trial in 957 participants with obesity reported mean weight loss of 7.8% with liraglutide 3.0 mg daily and 2.3% with placebo, alongside a range of semaglutide doses (PMID 30122305). In a separate 52-week maintenance trial, 195 adults who had first lost a mean of about 13 kg on an 8-week low-calorie diet were randomised to exercise, liraglutide 3.0 mg, both, or placebo, and researchers reported weight changes from randomisation of −4.1 kg with exercise, −6.8 kg with liraglutide and −9.5 kg with the combination, each compared with placebo (PMID 33951361). A randomised analysis from the same 52-week programme measured metabolic syndrome severity, abdominal obesity and inflammation, reporting greater reductions when exercise and GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment were combined (PMID 36841762).

Week 48 (liver histology)

The LEAN phase 2 study used liraglutide 1.8 mg daily for 48 weeks in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and took an end-of-treatment biopsy, reporting resolution of definite NASH in 9 of 23 participants (39%) receiving liraglutide versus 2 of 22 (9%) receiving placebo (PMID 26608256). The measurement here was histological, not symptomatic, and it was taken once at the end of the treatment period.

Week 56

In the 56-week trial of 3,731 adults with obesity or overweight without diabetes, researchers reported a mean weight change of −8.0% with liraglutide 3.0 mg versus −2.6% with placebo, with 63.2% versus 27.1% of participants losing at least 5% of baseline weight and 33.1% versus 10.6% losing more than 10% (PMID 26132939). Those proportions illustrate the spread behind an average: a substantial share of participants in the study did not reach the 5% threshold at that timepoint.

Week 68

The STEP 8 randomised clinical trial followed 338 adults with overweight or obesity without diabetes for 68 weeks and reported a mean body-weight change of −15.8% with once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg versus −6.4% with once-daily liraglutide 3.0 mg (PMID 35015037). This was a head-to-head comparison, so the liraglutide figure should be read as that trial's result in that population at that single timepoint.

Months to Years: Cardiovascular and Kidney Endpoints

Long-horizon endpoints were measured on a completely different clock. The LEADER trial randomised 9,340 patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk and, over a median follow-up of 3.8 years, reported the primary composite outcome of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction or non-fatal stroke in 13.0% of the liraglutide group versus 14.9% of the placebo group (PMID 27295427). A pre-specified secondary analysis of the same trial examined renal outcomes over a median of 3.84 years and reported the composite renal outcome — new-onset persistent macroalbuminuria, persistent doubling of serum creatinine, end-stage kidney disease, or death from renal disease — in 268 liraglutide-treated patients versus 337 placebo-treated patients (PMID 28854085). Event-driven outcomes like these cannot be assessed in weeks; they accumulate across years of follow-up.

Younger Populations: Different Measures, Same Long Clocks

Paediatric trials used BMI-based endpoints rather than percentage weight change. A randomised trial in children aged 6 to under 12 years with obesity measured percentage change in BMI over a 56-week treatment period and reported a mean change of −5.8% with liraglutide versus +1.6% with placebo (PMID 39258838). In adolescents aged 12 to under 18 years with obesity, researchers measured BMI standard-deviation score over 56 weeks of treatment followed by a 26-week off-treatment period, reporting a greater reduction in BMI standard-deviation score with liraglutide 3.0 mg than with placebo at week 56 (PMID 32233338). A separate randomised placebo-controlled phase 3 study measured weight, body composition and hormonal and metabolic parameters in women with obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome using liraglutide 3.0 mg (PMID 35710599).

After Treatment Stops: What Follow-Up Measured

Two of the verified studies extended measurement beyond the treatment window. The adolescent trial continued observation for 26 weeks after the 56-week treatment phase ended, so measurements existed at week 82 as well as week 56 (PMID 32233338). A post-treatment analysis of the 52-week maintenance trial followed participants for one year after treatment was discontinued and measured body weight and body composition in the exercise, GLP-1 receptor agonist and combination groups (PMID 38544798). These follow-up designs are the only part of this evidence base that speaks to what was recorded once treatment ceased.

Adverse Events Over Time: What Studies Report

Adverse events were generally reported cumulatively across each trial rather than week by week. The 56-week adult trial described nausea and diarrhoea as the most common adverse events with liraglutide 3.0 mg and noted gallstone disease and pancreatitis among serious events (PMID 26132939). In the 68-week head-to-head trial, gastrointestinal adverse events were reported in 84.1% of the semaglutide group and 82.7% of the liraglutide group (PMID 35015037). In the trial of children aged 6 to under 12 years, gastrointestinal adverse events were reported in 80% of the liraglutide group versus 54% of the placebo group (PMID 39258838). Gastrointestinal events were also among the adverse events described in the 48-week NASH study (PMID 26608256). Safety assessment, like efficacy assessment, is a clinical matter for a prescribing physician.

What the Published Timepoints Do Not Tell a Reader

• No individual trajectory. The 56-week and 68-week trials reported group means and responder proportions, not personal week-by-week curves (PMID 26132939, PMID 35015037).
• No early-week weight endpoints. The verified reports anchored weight endpoints at 52, 56 and 68 weeks, not at week 2 or week 8 (PMID 30122305).
• Population-specific results. Findings in adults with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk (PMID 27295427) do not transfer automatically to other groups, such as children (PMID 39258838).
• Co-interventions matter. The 52-week maintenance trial measured liraglutide alongside structured exercise and placebo arms, so its numbers reflect that specific design (PMID 33951361).

Taken together, the trials summarised here measured outcomes at fixed, pre-planned dates spanning roughly 48 weeks to several years, and reported averages for the groups studied (PMID 26132939, PMID 27295427). Nothing in that record forecasts what any particular person would experience, and decisions about prescription medicines rest with a licensed clinician.

References

• A Randomized, Controlled Trial of 3.0 mg of Liraglutide in Weight Management (NEJM, 2015)
• Liraglutide safety and efficacy in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (LEAN): a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled phase 2 study (Lancet, 2016)
• Liraglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes (NEJM, 2016)
• Liraglutide and Renal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes (NEJM, 2017)
• Efficacy and safety of semaglutide compared with liraglutide and placebo for weight loss in patients with obesity: a randomised, double-blind, placebo and active controlled, dose-ranging, phase 2 trial (Lancet, 2018)
• A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Liraglutide for Adolescents with Obesity (NEJM, 2020)
• Healthy Weight Loss Maintenance with Exercise, Liraglutide, or Both Combined (NEJM, 2021)
• Effect of Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Daily Liraglutide on Body Weight in Adults With Overweight or Obesity Without Diabetes: The STEP 8 Randomized Clinical Trial (JAMA, 2022)
• Liraglutide 3 mg on weight, body composition, and hormonal and metabolic parameters in women with obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome: a randomized placebo-controlled-phase 3 study (Fertility and Sterility, 2022)
• Combination of exercise and GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment reduces severity of metabolic syndrome, abdominal obesity, and inflammation: a randomized controlled trial (Cardiovascular Diabetology, 2023)
• Healthy weight loss maintenance with exercise, GLP-1 receptor agonist, or both combined followed by one year without treatment: a post-treatment analysis of a randomised placebo-controlled trial (eClinicalMedicine, 2024)
• Liraglutide for Children 6 to <12 Years of Age with Obesity - A Randomized Trial (NEJM, 2025)