Trulicity for Weight Loss: How Much at Each Dose

Trulicity causes modest weight loss: about 3 kg (6.6 lb) at 1.5 mg and 4.6 kg (10 lb) at the top 4.5 mg dose after 36 weeks, in the AWARD-11 trial of adults with type 2 diabetes.^[2][3] That is about 5% of body weight at best. Trulicity is not FDA-approved for weight loss, and it has no published weight trial in people without diabetes, so using it for weight is off-label and rests on diabetes data.^[3]

How much weight do you lose on Trulicity at each dose?

Higher doses take off more weight, in small steps. AWARD-11 randomized 1,842 adults on metformin, with an average weight of about 96 kg and BMI of 34.2, to three of the doses.^[2][1] The lower doses come from the label’s monotherapy trial and from SUSTAIN 7.^[3][4]

AWARD-11 figures are the label’s, which count everyone regardless of whether they stayed on the drug; counted on treatment, they rise by 0.1 to 0.2 kg.^[3][1] The trial had no placebo arm, so these totals are not measured against an untreated group. A placebo-controlled trial in the label, with metformin and pioglitazone as background, gives a cleaner read at 1.5 mg: −1.3 kg against +1.2 kg, a gap of 2.5 kg.^[3] The label’s monotherapy trial also found Trulicity 1.5 mg level with metformin, at −2.3 and −2.2 kg.^[3]

Starting weight changes the kilograms and leaves the percentage about the same: people with higher BMI lost more in absolute terms, at a similar share of their weight. People with lower starting HbA1c lost more.^[1] Results in routine care are often lower. In a 2026 study of patients who stayed on dulaglutide for at least 3 years, weight was down 2.9 kg after a mean of 4.3 years.^[13]

Is Trulicity approved for weight loss?

No. Its label stops at blood sugar and heart risk, both within type 2 diabetes.^[3] A prescriber may use it off-label, but paying for it gets harder. Lilly’s savings card requires a prescription for an approved use, so a weight-only prescription does not qualify for it.^[14] Insurers commonly tie coverage to a documented diabetes diagnosis, as UnitedHealthcare’s diabetes program shows. Without coverage, the price as of November 2026 is $389 a month through LillyDirect. Insurance and savings programs change the Trulicity cost and are a separate subject.

We found no published randomized trial of dulaglutide for weight in people without diabetes, at any dose. So nobody can give a reliable figure for what Trulicity does in that group. Other GLP-1 drugs produce more weight loss without diabetes than with it, but carrying that pattern over to Trulicity is a guess.

Why does Trulicity cause less weight loss than Ozempic or Mounjaro?

Nobody has established the reason. The size of the gap is clearer. The one randomized head-to-head trial is SUSTAIN 7, open-label and funded by Novo Nordisk, in which Ozempic 1 mg took off 6.5 kg against 3.0 kg for Trulicity 1.5 mg, and Ozempic 0.5 mg took off 4.6 kg against 2.3 kg for Trulicity 0.75 mg.^[4] It did not test Trulicity 3 or 4.5 mg. A 2025 meta-analysis also favored semaglutide on weight, but its authors warned about low-quality, inconsistent studies.^[15] A small 2026 retrospective study from one urban clinic found −6.51% on semaglutide against −1.14% on dulaglutide at one year.^[12]

These trials differ in length, background treatment and design, so the table shows scale only.^[3][5][6] Diabetes itself seems to lower the numbers. The same semaglutide dose produced −14.9% in people without diabetes in STEP 1, and the same tirzepatide dose −20.9% in SURMOUNT-1.^[7][8] The brands are set side by side at Trulicity vs Wegovy and Zepbound vs Trulicity.

Do higher Trulicity doses cause more side effects?

Somewhat. Going from 1.5 to 4.5 mg in AWARD-11 added about 1.6 kg of loss and took nausea from 13.4% to 16.4%, vomiting from 5.6% to 9.3% and diarrhea from 7.0% to 10.7%.^[3] How that compares across the class is in which GLP-1 has the worst side effects.

When does the weight effect of Trulicity matter?

Mainly for people with type 2 diabetes who take it for blood sugar or heart risk, especially alongside insulin, which tends to add weight. In AWARD-9, weight on Trulicity plus glargine ran 2.41 kg below placebo plus glargine.^[9] In a post hoc AWARD-4 analysis, Trulicity 1.5 mg with mealtime insulin ran 3.23 kg below a glargine regimen, and 10.5% against 2.4% lost at least 5%.^[10] Its heart benefit does not appear to come from the weight, either: in REWIND, a post hoc analysis tied the benefit partly to HbA1c and kidney markers, not to weight change.^[11]

For someone whose goal is weight, four GLP-1 products have an FDA weight indication, as our list of GLP-1 drugs sets out, and a weight label also makes coverage and dosing simpler. The same reasoning applies to diabetes pills, as Rybelsus for weight loss explains.