Saxenda for weight loss: what the TikTok journey videos skip

What did @princessleahsfitforlife actually say?

Over five months on Saxenda (liraglutide), this creator reports dropping from 80kg to 59.8kg, a total loss of 20.2kg. She says weight loss is "definitely starting to slow down," she has done no exercise, she has stopped drinking alcohol, and she is now noticing significant hair loss. She frames the alcohol change as partly driven by the medication making wine taste unpleasant and causing what sounds like flushing episodes.

She is also hinting at an upcoming cosmetic procedure, likely related to the "mummymakeover" hashtag, which suggests excess skin removal following rapid weight loss. No specific dosing information is mentioned, and she makes no medical claims about liraglutide treating disease.

Does the science back this up?

The weight loss rate here is faster than average trial data, but not implausible given her starting point and the alcohol reduction. The SCALE Obesity trial (Pi-Sunyer et al., 2015, NEJM) showed liraglutide 3mg produced mean weight loss of about 8.4kg over 56 weeks versus placebo. Twenty kilos in five months substantially exceeds that average, but trial participants were not necessarily also cutting alcohol calories.

On hair loss, she is likely experiencing telogen effluvium, a stress-related shedding triggered by rapid caloric restriction rather than by liraglutide itself. A 2021 review in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (Rebora) confirmed that aggressive calorie deficits reliably trigger telogen effluvium within two to four months of the deficit beginning, which aligns exactly with her timeline. The hair loss is real, common, and almost certainly not a direct drug side effect.

The alcohol aversion observation is also scientifically plausible. GLP-1 receptor agonists appear to reduce reward-driven consumption. Preclinical and early human data (Leggio et al., 2023, JCI Insight) suggest GLP-1 signalling dampens dopaminergic reward responses to alcohol, which could explain why she now finds wine unpleasant rather than appealing.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

She got the hair loss observation right in the sense that it is real and documented. She got it slightly wrong by implying it might be Saxenda-specific. It is almost certainly caloric restriction doing that, not the drug molecule. Worth knowing the difference because it affects how you respond to it.

Her weight loss framing is honest. She does not overclaim. Saying it is "slowing down" at lower body weight is accurate physiology. Adaptive thermogenesis and reduced absolute body mass mean the same deficit produces slower results over time. She does not pretend the drug is magic, and she openly admits she has done zero exercise, which is a fair disclosure most influencers skip.

The alcohol angle is where things get interesting. She does not claim Saxenda is a treatment for alcohol use. She just describes her experience, which is the appropriate lane for a patient sharing a personal journey. That said, viewers should not interpret one person's reduced cravings as a reliable or universal effect. The clinical evidence for liraglutide specifically on alcohol is preliminary at best.

What should you actually know?

If you are considering Saxenda, a few things this video does not cover matter quite a bit. First, liraglutide requires daily subcutaneous injection at doses titrated up to 3mg. The SCALE trial data show most people regain significant weight within a year of stopping. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to treat it as a long-term tool, not a five-month fix.

Second, the hair loss will almost certainly resolve on its own within six to nine months once the body adapts to the new weight, assuming nutrition is adequate. Protein intake below roughly 1.2g per kilogram of body weight accelerates telogen effluvium. If you are on a GLP-1 and losing hair, check your protein before panicking about the drug.

Third, the upcoming cosmetic surgery hint in the hashtags raises a real clinical point. Rapid weight loss, particularly without resistance training, causes disproportionate lean mass loss alongside fat. Tischler et al. (2022, Obesity Reviews) found GLP-1 users in several trials lost 25 to 40 percent of their total weight loss as lean mass rather than fat. That changes surgical risk profiles and recovery timelines. If you are planning a body contouring procedure after GLP-1-assisted weight loss, that conversation with a surgeon matters more than most people realise.