Virta Unveils New, Real-World Data at Obesity Week 2024 and The 75th Liver Meeting

Virta, the leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss through nutrition, is rooted in research and evidence-based care. Beyond implementing research findings to help our members improve their health, we’re dedicated to sharing our work with the greater clinical and academic communities. 

Last week, Virta’s research team presented several abstracts at Obesity Week, the preeminent international conference for obesity researchers and clinicians. This weekend, our team is presenting at The 75th Liver Meeting from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. 

Below, we’ve outlined the key findings presented at both conferences, all based on analyzing subsets of Virta’s real world members with type 2 diabetes and/or obesity. 

Rural and urban members with obesity experience similar, meaningful health improvements  

Obesity is far more common in rural areas of the U.S.—it’s estimated that as many as 6x more rural Americans struggle with obesity when compared to those in urban areas. Rural Americans often have less access to high-quality healthcare and fresh food, alongside higher poverty rates. Unfortunately, few (if any) interventions have had long-term success with this group. 

Yet, Virta’s newest research shows that its approach—that can be personalized based on lifestyle or budgetary needs—is helping members with obesity in both rural and urban areas achieve similar, transformative health outcomes. At one year, both groups saw cardiometabolic health improvements, including:

• Clinically-significant weight loss for all members, with 9.5% weight loss on average for rural members and 8.6% for members living in urban areas.
• Improvement in HDL (“good”) cholesterol and triglycerides, with no change in total, LDL, and non-HDL levels. 

Plus, retention was high—nearly two-thirds of members stayed with Virta for at least one year.  For context, one-year retention in the National Diabetes Prevention Program, considered the gold standard in metabolic health treatment, was 13.2%. 

Building on Virta’s growing body of health equity research, these findings demonstrate that Virta can narrow health disparities between rural and urban Americans, by helping all members improve their health—regardless of where they live. 

Virta’s approach provides a powerful and sustainable offramp for GLP-1 drugs, for members with type 2 diabetes with or without obesity

Despite the increasing popularity of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, they are not a long-term solution for the obesity crisis. Many patients experience side effects or cannot afford these medications. Over half (58%) stop taking the drug before reaching a clinically meaningful health benefit, according to new research from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Patients that do achieve significant weight loss see the weight rebound as soon as they stop taking a GLP-1. Patients and payers alike are looking for sustainable, cost-effective alternatives and offramps to help people get off these drugs without weight regain. 

Virta provides that offramp. Members with type 2 diabetes, with or without obesity, who were on select newer GLP-1 drugs (semaglutide or tirzepatide) at enrollment and discontinued the drugs during treatment, maintained their weight loss when following Virta’s nutritional approach. 

Beyond maintaining weight loss at deprescription, members kept the weight off—even up to 18 months post-deprescription.

Obesity members with higher ketone levels (≥1mM) saw 14% average weight loss at one year

Research has long demonstrated that nutritional ketosis is incredibly effective for weight loss. Using our extensive real-world member data, we gained new insights about how specific ketone levels affect weight loss.

• 5% weight loss: Members following Virta’s nutrition approach (ketones >0.30mM) lose at least 5% of their body weight on average, a level considered clinically significant.
• 14% weight loss: Members with higher ketone levels (≥1mM) experience an average weight loss of 14%—similar to results from GLP-1 weight loss medications.

Further, we found that members aiming for 10% weight loss should target ketone levels of at least 0.50mM.

Overall, members who closely follow Virta’s nutritional approach and maintain high ketone levels see the greatest weight loss. However even those who follow it more moderately experience meaningful results, showing a clear dosage effect with Virta’s approach. 

Virta members see improvement in key liver markers and liver function, without medications

Up to 80% of individuals with obesity are affected by some form of fatty liver disease, such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) or Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). There is no cure for these conditions, and only one clinically-approved drug to treat them. Over time, if untreated, MASH can progress to cirrhosis-related liver failure and liver cancer. 

Virta’s nutrition-first approach helps those with obesity to improve key markers of liver function, including liver enzymes, and even halt or reverse progression of liver disease. At one year, all liver-related markers significantly improved, including ALT levels (alanine aminotransferase levels are a key marker of liver inflammation and damage). Specifically, 13.5% of individuals had a histologically meaningful ALT decrease of 17 U/L.

This research demonstrates how Virta serves as an effective weapon against liver disease, without the use of pharmaceuticals. Read more at the following link — Virta's research is abstract 4515, located on page 2836: https://www.aasld.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/1_the_liver_meeting_2024_abstracts.pdf

We’re excited to continue sharing our research to improve the state of metabolic healthcare—stay tuned for more!