Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist drugs, like the popular weight-loss jabs Wegovy and Ozempic, have proven to be immensely effective. Beyond allowing patients to significantly reduce their weight, they’ve been shown to have a constellation of other health benefits, like lowering the risk of heart disease and staving off diabetic kidney disease, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.
But the harsh reality of what happens when monthly injections stop is raising a grim wrinkle: will patients ever be able to stop taking these extremely expensive drugs, or are they signing onto a lifetime habit they won’t be able to break without suffering severe consequences?
A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford, which reviewed 37 existing weight loss medication studies involving over 9,000 participants, has found that patients who stopped taking GLP-1 weight-loss medications regained weight four times as fast as those who used alternative behavioral programs, like diets and physical activity.
On average, participants returned to their original weight just 1.7 years after stopping the medication. Patients who went off the drugs told the BBC last month that the hunger came roaring back.
“It was like something opened up in my mind and said: ‘Eat everything, go on, you deserve it because you haven’t eaten anything for so long,’” Tanya Hall, who has been on and off GLP-1 injections, told the broadcaster at the time, adding that she felt “completely horrified” by the amount of food she was consuming after just a couple of days.
Worse yet, the Oxford-led research team found that the secondary health benefits of the drugs dissipated as well. They observed that health markers, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, bounced back to original levels within an average of 1.4 years.
“This review found that cessation of [weight management medications] is followed by rapid weight regain and reversal of beneficial effects on cardiometabolic markers,” the researchers wrote. “These findings suggest caution in short-term use of these drugs without a more comprehensive approach to weight management.”
The researchers suggest that the drugs alone don’t form lasting lifestyle changes that persist after you stop taking them.
“This faster regain could be because people using drugs don’t need to consciously practise changing their diet to lose weight, so when they stop taking the medication, they might not have developed the practical strategies that could help them keep it off,” said senior author and Oxford associate professor Dimitrios Koutoukidis in an official statement.
The scientists are now calling for a more careful approach.
“These medicines are transforming obesity treatment and can achieve important weight loss,” said lead author and University of Oxford research scientist Sam West in the statement. “However, our research shows that people tend to regain weight rapidly after stopping — faster than we see with behavioral programs.”
However, that doesn’t mean GLP-1 drugs aren’t still astonishingly effective.
“This isn’t a failing of the medicines — it reflects the nature of obesity as a chronic, relapsing condition,” West added. “It sounds a cautionary note for short-term use without a more comprehensive approach to long-term weight management, and highlights the importance of primary prevention.”
Others advocate for a more holistic prescription model.
“Weight loss drugs can be effective tools for managing weight and type 2 diabetes risk — but this research reinforces that they are not a quick fix,” Diabetes UK research communications lead Faye Riley told The Guardian. “They need to be prescribed appropriately, with tailored wraparound support alongside them, to ensure people can fully benefit and maintain weight loss for as long as possible when they stop taking the medication.”
More on GLP-1s: Something Grim Is Happening to People Who Go Off GLP-1s
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