While GLP-1 receptor agonists, like Ozempic and Wegovy, have been heralded as miracle weight loss drugs, research has shown that as soon as patients stop using the medication, they can quickly regain lost weight. However, experts may now have found a way to reduce that weight regain. A review of almost 40 studies found that when people stopped taking GLP-1s, they typically regained around a pound a month, and eventually regained all the weight they had lost while taking the medication within about two years.
People may decide to stop taking GLP-1s for reasons including cost, insurance coverage issues, side effects and many others. Hoping to find a solution to this challenge, researchers at Tufts University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center investigated whether structured support - so things like using wellness applications and having tailored meals – could reduce the amount of weight regain patients experience. The results were positive.
These structured interventions help fill that gap,” she added. The findings of the study were published in the journal Obesity Science and Practice on October 7. The researchers included 39 adults in the trial.
Some had the typical care patients receive after coming off GLP-1 medication, others had access to a digital wellness application and others had medically tailored meals. The participants were reviewed for four months. The digital application enabled participants to self-monitor diet, exercise and weight, and also provided education on physiological, psychological, social, and environmental factors that influence eating behavior and offered tools on how to manage those factors.
Participants had to use the app for at least 15 minutes a day. The medically tailored meals were nutrient dense, dietitian-developed meals, given to participants with diet-related diseases, including uncontrolled type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and others. Selected individuals chose 10 of their preferred meals each week from a list of 70 and the meals were sent to their homes.
The researchers found that those in the control group (who did not have structured support coming off the GLP-1 medication) gained around 10.75 percent of their body weight in the time frame, while those using the wellness application gained 3.6 percent of their body weight, and those having the tailored meals gained 3.58 percent of their body weight. Hollis-Hansen said that she expected the “most intensive support” was needed during the first year after stopping GLP-1 medication “when the risk of weight regain is greatest,” but that more research was needed to “determine the optimal amount of time.” Ideally, she said that structured support during that first year could help people build “sustainable habits around eating, physical activity, sleep, and self-monitoring,” and “as those behaviors become more ingrained the level of support could likely be reduced over time, although some people may benefit from ongoing maintenance support.” Dr. Caroline Apovian, the co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told Newsweek that it is "very difficult if not nearly impossible to prevent weight regain after GLP-1 therapy.” “If patients lose robust weight such as 15 to 22 percent, this is usually maintained with continuation of the therapy because the GLP-1 is reducing the body weight 'set point' in the brain,” she said, explaining that the hypothalamus – “the energy balance control center” in the brain – is programmed to maintain fat stores at a certain ‘set point’ for survival.
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