Weight regain after weight-loss medication exhibits want for sustained life-style change

Weight-loss medicines should be seen as therapies for a continual situation and never merely as urge for food suppressants, pharmacy leaders have mentioned.

The recommendation comes as a study published in the BMJ on 7 January 2025 reported that individuals who used weight-loss medicines regained weight quicker in contrast with individuals who misplaced weight utilizing behavioural weight administration programmes solely.

Researchers analysed 37 research of weight-loss remedy regimes undertaken by a complete of 9,341 contributors. The length of the interventions various (11–176 weeks), with a median of 39 weeks and a median follow-up of 32 weeks (4–104 weeks).

The research included frequent weight-loss medicines similar to semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide.

Generally, individuals utilizing remedy misplaced extra weight than those that didn’t. The researchers noticed that the typical weight reduction on the finish of a course of weight-loss remedy was 8.3kg in contrast with 5.1kg after behavioural weight administration programmes.

The examine information additionally confirmed that the typical weight lack of contributors when all kinds of remedy had been included was 5.7kg, which rose to eight.0kg with incretin mimetics (glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues) and 12.3kg with newer and more practical incretin mimetics (semaglutide and tirzepatide).

However, individuals who had used weight-loss remedy tended to regain the burden extra quickly, with a median month-to-month weight regain of 0.4kg in contrast with 0.1kg in cohorts who had adopted a behavioural weight administration programme, the examine revealed.

In addition, the researchers famous that the typical month-to-month weight regain of contributors was 0.3kg for all weight-loss mediations, which elevated to 0.6kg for incretin mimetics and 0.8kg for newer and more practical incretin mimetics.

From the info, the authors projected that physique weight after stopping weight-loss injections would return to baseline after 1.7 years, in contrast with 3.9 years after behavioural weight administration programmes.

Kieran Seyan, chief medical officer at Lloyds Pharmacy Online Doctor, mentioned: “Weight-loss drugs shouldn’t be seen simply as appetite suppressants that ‘reset’ weight and can then be stopped.

“They are treatments for a chronic condition, and for many patients, the benefits depend on appropriate duration, monitoring and follow-up.”

Seyan additionally referred to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) steerage, printed in August 2025, which mentioned that folks ought to be provided assist for not less than one yr after their weight-loss remedy or programme has ended, to scale back the chance of regaining weight.

“Recent data from NICE estimates that as many as four in five patients regain the weight after their treatment is discontinued, particularly where there is no structured transition or longer-term support in place,” he mentioned.

“Without this, some patients may experiment with altering doses or stopping medication independently, which can lead to suboptimal outcomes.”

Olivier Picard, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, commented: “Although weight-loss treatment can help some people to achieve a healthy weight who may have struggled in the past by simply making lifestyle changes, patients should understand it is not a silver bullet. As this study shows, without sustained lifestyle changes, weight loss and the subsequent health benefits will not be sustained.

“It’s really important patients who are using this treatment are given full wraparound support by their pharmacy to make the long-term changes to diet and exercise they need to maintain a healthy weight.”

John Wilding, professor of medication within the Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine on the University of Liverpool, mentioned: “The results are not surprising. Obesity is a chronic disease that usually relapses when treatment is stopped.”

However, Wilding added that he was hesitant to over-interpret the findings evaluating weight-loss injections with behavioural weight administration programmes.

“I would be cautious about interpretation of this as the populations included in these trials are likely to be different from those included in trials of medication, and I would always advocate lifestyle support to be used alongside weight-loss medications to optimise outcomes anyway,” he mentioned.

The examine authors additionally mentioned: “We found no evidence that the intensity of behavioural support provided during treatment with weight management medicines impacted the rate of weight regain after treatment.”

Tricia Tan, professor of metabolic medication, diabetes and endocrinology at Imperial College London/Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, mentioned: “There is increasing evidence that structured exercise is important to prevent weight regain after cessation of weight-loss drugs, and this study does not discuss this as a strategy to reduce this problem.”

“Behavioural weight management programmes do not in the first instance seem to cause enough weight loss to materially improve cardiovascular disease, whereas we do have evidence from weight-loss medication treatment that these do improve cardiovascular disease,” she added.

“Fundamentally, weight-loss medications have been assessed as clinically effective in improving the health of people living with obesity and are cost effective.”

The NHS affords a 12-week digital weight management programme to adults residing with weight problems, who even have a prognosis of diabetes, hypertension or each. The programme consists of behavioural and life-style recommendation tailor-made to the affected person.

Tirzepatide (Mounjaro; Eli Lilly) could also be provided on the NHS to sufferers with weight problems who produce other weight-related circumstances, similar to diabetes, hypertension and heart problems. Semaglutide (Wegovy; Novo Nordisk) could also be provided on the NHS by means of a specialist weight administration clinic if a affected person has a physique mass index in a sure vary relying on ethnicity and weight-related well being issues.

Currently, Wegovy may be prescribed on the NHS for a most of two years, whereas there isn’t any restrict on Mounjaro.