Study: Lost weight rebounds quickly after stopping weight-loss jabs
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Doctors around the world have been hailing "miracle" medications that make weight loss far easier, but new research suggests that after a person stops taking certain drugs, the weight tends to increase again rather quickly.
People who received the medication lost significant weight during the therapy, and this even continued to a small extent for a few weeks after stopping the medication, according to a research team led by Han Wu and Wenjia Yang from Peking University People's Hospital.
However, from the eighth week after the end of therapy, researchers said there was a marked weight gain that persisted for many weeks.
The extent of weight gain varies depending on the medication and lifestyle changes, according to the study, but there is a clear trend towards weight gain after stopping the medication.
This confirms existing findings, according to Stephan Martin, chief physician for diabetology and director of the West German Diabetes and Health Centre at the Association of Catholic Clinics in Düsseldorf, Germany.
He said that some manufacturers of the medications had also demonstrated this themselves through randomized studies. Test subjects were given the active substances for 10 weeks, after which some were switched to a placebo. This group "then continuously regained weight," Martin reported.
In the current study, the researchers from Beijing also referred to an investigation in which people who had completed a 36-week treatment with the active substance tirzepatide (GLP-1-RA) regained about half of the weight they had previously lost within a year of switching to a placebo.
The newly published meta-analysis summarised the results of 11 independent studies from around the world, including those on the drug orlistat, the combinations naltrexone/bupropion and phentermine/topiramate, as well as the group of GLP-1 receptor agonists. The data came from a total of 1,574 people in treatment groups and 893 in control groups.
GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1-RA) are included in popular medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic. In some countries, they are approved for type 2 diabetes and some cases of obesity, and they are known as lifestyle drugs for achieving a slim figure.
These active substances, which are injected regularly, primarily prolong the time food stays in the digestive tract, thereby increasing the feeling of satiety. Side effects include gastrointestinal complaints.
One aspect of the study stands out: Those who initially experienced significant weight loss during therapy tended to regain more weight afterwards, even if they participated in programmes to change their lifestyle, such as eating and exercise habits.
"This does not surprise me," says Anja Hilbert, professor of behavioural medicine at Germany's Leipzig University Hospital. Similar experiences are seen, for example, in people who follow a very low-calorie diet — they also tend to regain more weight after the diet ends than those who undergo moderate calorie limits.
However, the expert noted that there were only a few participants for this aspect of the study. "The results of the study actually suggest that long-term, perhaps even lifelong use of the medication may be necessary to stabilise weight," Hilbert says.
"It is a long-term therapy," diabetologist Martin emphasizes. Anyone who believes they can lose weight with this therapy and then everything will be fine is mistaken. "You need this therapy permanently."
Some in the US health care system have raised concerns that many people may not be aware of this or may accept it.
According to studies, two-thirds of people treated for obesity, most of whom pay for the treatment themselves, stopped using the medication within a year.
"We don't know why: Maybe it becomes too expensive, maybe they have lost enough weight and believe it will now stay off," says Martin, who advocates for more overweight prevention rather than treating the consequences.
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