Patients who discontinue weight-loss medications see their progress vanish quickly, with comprehensive research revealing a concerning pattern of rapid reversal in both weight reduction and health improvements.
Key Takeaways:
- Patients regain nearly one pound monthly after stopping treatment, returning to their original weight within 1.7 years
- Heart health improvements like blood pressure and cholesterol normalize within 1.4 years of discontinuation
- Newer GLP-1 drugs show faster rebound rates at 1.8 pounds per month despite initially producing better results
Analysis of 9,341 patients across 37 studies examined outcomes from 18 different weight-loss medications. The data paints a clear picture: stopping treatment triggers swift weight regain and erases cardiovascular benefits.
Approximately half the participants used GLP-1 medications. Among them, 1,776 received semaglutide (marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy by Novo Nordisk) or tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound by Eli Lilly). These newer drugs demonstrated a peculiar pattern.
“But because people on semaglutide or tirzepatide lose more weight in the first place, they all end up returning to baseline at approximately the same time,” said study senior researcher Dimitrios Koutoukidis of Oxford University.
Despite faster monthly regain with modern medications, timeline to baseline remained similar. Patients using semaglutide or tirzepatide returned to pre-treatment weight around 1.5 years post-discontinuation, compared to 1.7 years for other drugs.
The BMJ-published findings revealed another troubling comparison. Weight returned faster after pharmaceutical intervention than following behavioral weight management programs, regardless of pounds shed during treatment.
Researchers acknowledged a critical gap in current understanding. The retrospective study design prevented identification of factors that might help some patients maintain their weight loss.
“Understanding who does well and who does not is a bit of a 'holy grail' question in weight-loss research, but nobody has the answer to that yet,” Koutoukidis said.
The research examined obese and overweight individuals, tracking both weight metrics and cardiovascular risk factors including blood pressure and cholesterol. These health indicators returned to pre-treatment levels within 1.4 years on average after medication cessation.
Written by Alius Noreika