Jardiance does cause some weight loss, but it is a heart, kidney and diabetes medicine, and its label measures weight only as a side effect. In its type 2 diabetes trials, weight fell about 2 to 3 percentage points more than on placebo. The interesting number is how small that is. The drug sends roughly 256 to 312 calories a day out in the urine, which on paper should take off far more. A 90-week analysis found people lost about 29% of the predicted amount. The model behind that analysis attributed the rest to eating more.
This page reads the US Jardiance label (effective 26 August 2026, read 28 October 2026) and the trials behind it, and sets the GLP-1 figures this site already reports beside them, each with its population. It does not rank the two classes. The other medicines people compare with GLP-1s are on GLP-1 alternatives.
What Jardiance is approved for
Jardiance (empagliflozin, Boehringer Ingelheim) is a sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. Its label lists four indications:
- to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalisation for heart failure in adults with heart failure;
- to reduce the risk of kidney decline, end-stage kidney disease, cardiovascular death and hospitalisation in adults with chronic kidney disease at risk of progression;
- to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease;
- as an adjunct to diet and exercise for blood-sugar control in adults and children 10 and older with type 2 diabetes.
Weight loss is not on that list, and the label contains no trial in people without diabetes, heart failure or kidney disease. It is "not recommended" for blood-sugar control in type 1 diabetes, because it may raise the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis. The heart outcome behind the third indication comes from EMPA-REG OUTCOME (7,020 people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, median 3.1 years), in which cardiovascular death was 3.7% on empagliflozin against 5.9% on placebo (Zinman et al., NEJM 2015).
The weight figures on the label
Every figure below comes from the label's type 2 diabetes trials. Doses are the trial arms, not a recommendation.
| Trial on the label | Weeks | Starting weight (mean) | Jardiance 10 mg | Jardiance 25 mg | Comparator | Difference from comparator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monotherapy vs placebo | 24 | 78 kg | −2.8% | −3.2% | placebo −0.4% | −2.5 / −2.8 points |
| Added to metformin vs placebo | 24 | 80–82 kg | −2.5% | −2.9% | placebo −0.5% | −2.0 / −2.5 points |
| Added to metformin + sulfonylurea vs placebo | 24 | 76–78 kg | −2.9% | −3.2% | placebo −0.5% | −2.4 / −2.7 points |
| Added to pioglitazone vs placebo | 24 | 78–79 kg | −2.0% | −1.8% | placebo +0.6% | −2.6 / −2.4 points |
| Added to insulin vs placebo | 78 | 90–95 kg | −2.4% | −2.4% | placebo +0.7% | −3.0 / −3.0 points |
| Added to metformin vs glimepiride | 52 | 82.5–83 kg | — | −3.9% | glimepiride +2.0% | −5.9 points |
Source: Jardiance label, section 14 (Clinical Studies). At 104 weeks in the glimepiride trial the label gives −3.1 kg on Jardiance 25 mg against +1.3 kg on glimepiride. In a separate 52-week trial added to several daily insulin injections, mean change was −1.95 kg (10 mg) and −2.04 kg (25 mg).
Two patterns are visible. The effect is small and roughly flat across doses — 25 mg is not reliably better than 10 mg for weight, and in the pioglitazone trial it was slightly worse. And the largest difference, 5.9 points, is against a drug that adds weight; against placebo the gap is 2 to 3 points.
The calories that leave, and the ones that come back
The label's pharmacology section gives the mechanism in grams: after 4 weeks, urinary glucose excretion averaged about 64 grams a day on 10 mg and 78 grams a day on 25 mg. Glucose carries about 4 calories per gram, so that is roughly 256 and 312 calories a day leaving the body — our arithmetic, not the label's. Kept up for a year with nothing else changing, 312 calories a day is in the region of 110,000 calories.
The weight loss in the table is far smaller than that predicts, and one study measured why. Ferrannini and colleagues (Diabetes Care, 2015; co-authors from Boehringer Ingelheim and the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) followed 86 people with type 2 diabetes on empagliflozin 25 mg for 90 weeks:
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Calories lost in urine, estimated | 206 kcal a day (median) |
| Weight loss that calorie loss predicts, with no change in eating | −11.3 kg |
| Weight loss observed at week 90 | −3.2 kg |
| Share of predicted loss achieved | 29% |
| Rise in calorie intake estimated by the model | 13%, about 269 kcal a day |
The paper's conclusion is that "chronic glycosuria elicits an adaptive increase in energy intake." That is a modelled estimate, not measured food intake, and it comes from one study. It is the clearest published explanation of why a drug that removes calories every day produces a modest weight change. It also marks the difference from GLP-1 medicines, which act on appetite itself — the mechanism is on our page on how GLP-1 drugs work.
There is a second, faster component. The label records a 341 mL rise in 24-hour urine volume on day one, falling to 135 mL by day five. Part of the early drop on the scale is water.
Beside the GLP-1 trial figures
No trial on either label compares Jardiance with a GLP-1 medicine. The closest like-for-like comparison is the GLP-1 weight trials run in people with type 2 diabetes, which is the only population Jardiance's weight data covers:
| Medicine (trial) | Population | Weeks | Medicine | Placebo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jardiance 25 mg (label monotherapy trial) | Type 2 diabetes, mean 78 kg | 24 | −3.2% | −0.4% |
| Semaglutide 2.4 mg (STEP 2) | Type 2 diabetes with overweight or obesity | 68 | −9.6% | −3.4% |
| Tirzepatide 15 mg (SURMOUNT-2) | Type 2 diabetes with obesity, mean BMI 36.1 | 72 | −14.7% | −3.2% |
Sources: Jardiance label; STEP 2, Lancet 2021; SURMOUNT-2, Lancet 2023. The trials differ in length, in starting weight, and in the dieting support given to the placebo arms, so the gaps should not be read as exact. STEP 2's population is the one behind Wegovy's label; the full trial record is on Wegovy weight-loss results, and tirzepatide's on Zepbound weight-loss results.
The American Diabetes Association's 2026 Standards of Care (Table 9.2) grade the weight effect of SGLT2 inhibitors as "loss (intermediate)" and of GLP-1 receptor agonists as "loss (intermediate to very high)". Its recommendations name the two classes together for people with type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic heart disease (recommendation 9.7), recommend an SGLT2 inhibitor where there is heart failure (9.8), and add a GLP-1-based medicine for people with obesity and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (9.9a–b).
Side effects the label lists
From the label's pooled placebo-controlled diabetes trials:
| Adverse reaction | Placebo | Jardiance 10 mg | Jardiance 25 mg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urinary tract infection | 7.6% | 9.3% | 7.6% |
| Female genital mycotic infection (% of women) | 1.5% | 5.4% | 6.4% |
| Male genital mycotic infection (% of men) | 0.4% | 3.1% | 1.6% |
| Increased urination | 1.0% | 3.4% | 3.2% |
| Nausea | 1.4% | 2.3% | 1.1% |
The label's warnings include ketoacidosis (including at normal blood-sugar levels), volume depletion and low blood pressure, serious urinary infections, and necrotising fasciitis of the perineum (Fournier's gangrene), a rare infection. The side-effect profile is almost the inverse of the GLP-1 class: little nausea, more genital and urinary infection. The GLP-1 side-effect rates are on GLP-1 side effects.
What the record does not show
- Any weight result in people without diabetes. The label has none; "Jardiance for weight loss" in someone without diabetes is outside every trial on it.
- Long-term weight beyond two years on the label, or measured (rather than modelled) food intake on the drug.
- Whether adding Jardiance to a GLP-1 adds weight loss. No such trial is on either label.
Jardiance is a prescription medicine, and whether it suits a person's heart, kidneys or diabetes is a decision for their prescriber. Its place beside the older pill people search for on the same grounds is on our record of metformin's weight effect.
Sources
- Jardiance (empagliflozin) US prescribing information, Boehringer Ingelheim, effective 26 August 2026, set ID 59ed43d9-b4e0-72a2-e063-6394a90a327d (openFDA drug label record), read 28 October 2026 — indications, section 6.1, section 12.2, section 14.
- Ferrannini G, Hach T, Crowe S, Sanghvi A, Hall KD, Ferrannini E. "Energy Balance After Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibition." Diabetes Care 2015;38(9):1730–5, doi:10.2337/dc15-0355, PMID 26180105.
- Zinman B et al. "Empagliflozin, Cardiovascular Outcomes, and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes." NEJM 2015, PMID 26378978.
- Davies M et al. "Semaglutide 2·4 mg once a week in adults with overweight or obesity, and type 2 diabetes (STEP 2)." Lancet 2021, PMID 33667417.
- Garvey WT et al. "Tirzepatide once weekly for the treatment of obesity in people with type 2 diabetes (SURMOUNT-2)." Lancet 2023, PMID 37385275.
- American Diabetes Association. "9. Pharmacologic Approaches to Glycemic Treatment: Standards of Care in Diabetes—2026." Diabetes Care 2026;49(Suppl 1), doi:10.2337/dc26-S009, read 28 October 2026.