My husband had good results from Metformin. He was on it since diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 6 years ago.
He had no noticable side effects from Metformin, it controlled his A1C even with his sugar eating habit. His kidneys were tested and show none of the kidney issues some have with Metformin and he has 1 or 2 coctails each evening.
He was 40 lbs over weight simply because he loves to eat, especially a dessert every night.
Six months ago he went on Ozempic because of the touted weight loss benefits and as a result he lost 25 lbs and was taken off Metformin. He has little will power and continues to eat his sweets, drinks alcohol and his A1C is still normal. Ozempic cuts back on the appetite, noticeably the appetite loss for beef. After a small portion of beef he will gag if he eats more beef beyond that point. Other sources of protein are fine, like chicken, seafood, fish or pork. It's only the taste for beef that has changes; the other foods taste good but his portions of other foods is noticeably less. He fills up faster.
Ozempic does have a noticeable side effect, it causes constipation. However in his case this side effect is a benefit because for a decade he had loose, urgent stools. Now he must take MiraLax about twice a week for regularity.
Ozempic is extremely expensive, whereas Metformin is affordable. Even with his Medicare Pharmacy Plan, at the beginning of the year a 3 month Ozempic prescription is $500 and subsequent prescriptions are about $300.