to feel uneasy about what this means long term rather than surprised by the weight regain itself?

That makes sense to me. In a trial you’repaid to do whatever’s asked of you during the trial period and then at the end you’re going to return to your normal life.

In contrast, someone who’s stumped up to pay for the medication out of choice because they are motivated to lose weight, and has done it all in a real life setting making the necessary adjustments to their usual habits, seems to me far more likely to keep the weight off afterwards.

I’m not sure but I can see why folks on a trial would be less committed. I’m not even sure ghe trials are relevant now, for me the real life experiences are way more relevant and they show weight staying off and much larger losses.

Do the trials mention whether people changed what they ate or whether they just ate less?

Yes it looked at the trials. Subsequent reviews have looked at real life participants, ie those not on a free trial and found weight loss much higher than 8kg and weight loss stays off. But yes in the trials the weight loss was limited and when folks finished the trial they regained quite quickly, unlike the people who went on the drug outwith the trials.

It was me. The person I responded to was talking about manufacturers not supermarkets, and presenting a conspiracy whereby they push fattening food on us so they can then make money from WLI. I was pointing out that the companies making WLI are not the same ones making UPF foods.

Oh and I can’t remember who asked who sold food and pharmaceuticals, but Asda, Tesco and Morrisons all offer WLI

It is known that most people who lose weight - by any method - will usually regain their weight and then some. And we know why. The hormones leptin and ghrelin, the ones affected by WLI, physiologically cause weight gain when not controlled. It’s how humans work. So it is not at all astonishing that people who stop WLI are at risk of regaining weight, especially when studied as part of a snapshot trial, without the associated motivation, mindset and lifestyle modifications that are usually present for successful weightloss.

But here’s the thing. People now have a tool to manage those pesky hormones and to lose weight successfully. I’m someone who has done just that and is delighted with the results. Not only am I slimmer and more confident, but my cholesterol, HbA1c and inflammatory markers are all improved too. So now I’m embarking on the next phase, to maintain this healthy state. I’m slowly reducing my injection dose and would like to come off completely, but if my hormones start to wreak havoc and spoil the party, I can kick them into touch once again. Of course it will take some effort to stay healthy, but it’s a much, much better place to be starting from.

All the article is saying is there is a risk that people on WLI can put weight back on faster than after following other diets. It says this can happen, not that it will.

Evidence is more limited on drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.

It sort of stands to reason that if you loose a lot of weight quickly, which is more likely on WLI, then you are more likely to regain it quickly unless you change your habits and then stick to them. Slower weight loss (on other plans) results in slower regain. Makes sense to me. It all goes back on though if you don't get things under control. I have lost weight on SW and WW in the past and it has always gone back on once I stop paying attention.

I have been on Mounjaro for 15 months and have lost 4.5 stone so a lot slower than some. I have changed my eating habits but I don't know how easy it will be to stick to those if the food noise and appetite comes back. All I can do is say that I plan to monitor closely for any gains and take action straight away if they happen. I used to find it easy enough to loose a few pounds before - it was loosing 5 or 6 stones i.e. sticking to a diet for months/years that was impossible.

I plan to loose another stone and a half and then start to taper down the doses. I can't afford to stay on it long term but may consider micro dosing if it makes maintaining more sustainable. I am hoping that coming off gradually will help me/my body adjust to the changes in appetite/food noise that will inevitable come. I am hoping that within a couple of years there may be low dose tablets available which are cheaper and which will help me keep the weight off. I am also starting to increase my exercise more now that I am less heavy which should also help as I will be burning more calories.

I do think some people on WLI rely on appetite suppression to a very large extent, eat very little and then loose weight fast so of course they will gain the weight back once they stop the drugs and start eating again. I am not sure this is 'news'.

Yes, it was a meta-analysis. The average amount of weight lost by those on WLIs in the studies that were included in the meta-analysis was 8kg.

It was a meta-analysis.

The researchers looked at 37 studies with over 9,000 patients to compare the blockbuster weight-loss jabs with conventional dieting or other pills.

again I would like to remind people that World Health Organisation states: Obesity is classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a chronic, relapsing disease arising from complex interactions between genetics, neurobiology, eating behaviours, access to healthy diet, market forces, and the broader environment.

I think people don’t understand what a disease is, they think it’s something catching, like chicken pox or measles. They think solely of infectious diseases and don’t understand that a disease is this:

an abnormal, harmful condition affecting the structure or function of all or part of an organism (human, animal, or plant), generally characterized by specific signs and symptoms

and thus both obesity and alcoholism falls into this scope. But if you don’t know what a disease is and think it’s like chicken pox ie only something infectious caused by pathogens , then you’d react like the poster who thinks it’s not. It’s just people not understanding what a disease actually is.

I am fully expecting a bit of a battle when I come off the jabs and to have to work hard, especially initially, to find what I need to do to maintain. From what I’ve read on the WLI threads, a lot of the people who have put on quickly after stopping haven’t really monitored themselves and have had a shock a couple of weeks later when they got on the scales, and gone “omg I must go back on the jabs!” To be honest that is exactly what I did on getting to goal at ww many years ago, didn’t monitor, put a fair bit back on and scared myself! I am always going to have a tendency to put weight on, I’m a human Labrador, and I’m always going to have to watch myself. But now I’m a good few stones lower, and especially when I get to goal, I hope that won’t be as daunting as looking at six stones to lose, like I had last year.

Do you consider alcoholism to be a disease?

Any medication/injection can have bad effects on certain people, and it doesn’t matter what the medication is.

I’ve been on HRT for 40 years, because of a very early hysterectomy. I know that carries risk, but I feel so ill if I’m not taking it, I’m happy to take the risks. As I’ve had no problems, so far, my GP is also happy.

I guess those that can’t lose weight in the “old way” feel the same. No one knows what any long term effects might be with the jabs so far.

And the cost, for those who have to pay, is for each person to weigh up, I suppose. 🤷‍♀️

In this study of people on trials who lost an average of 8kg. There is also further studies of real life users where the opposite was shown.

4 times faster represents a rate of 0.4kg a month compared to 0.1kg a month. The average loss was 8kg on WLI in the study data, hence the prediction that all weight lost would be regained in around a year and a half.

In the real world, I have lost nearly 68kg on WLI. Even at a rate of 0.4kg a month, it would take me 170 months to put all that weight back on. That's about 14 years. I'm happy to take that risk!

It's been shown by other studies that two-thirds of people regain weight after some period off WLI. That's kind of expected as most people do regain weight after dieting. It's the speed at which the regain happens that is the topic of the article - four times faster than normal.

I mean, it's there in the title:

People who come off slimming jabs regain weight four times faster than dieters

I think it’s you being disingenuous.

those are lifelong medical conditions which are not within the control of the person who has them.

obesity is within the gift of an individual to change it (albeit with varying degrees of help/support needed). It is not a lifelong medical condition and we need to stop normalising it as such.

There's probably factors that will make some formerly obese people more or less likely than the cohort average to regain the weight yeah. That makes intuitive sense.

Also, you would think that someone who has been very overweight for most of their life is more likely to regain the weight once off WLI than someone who had say, always been normal weight but had put weight on over a year or so, due to menopause or a stressful period in life, etc etc. I suspect that the propensity for weight gain really depends on the reasons and circumstances of being overweight in the first place.

It's a systematic review that was published in the BMJ, of studies that already existed.

www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-085304

The reviewers were quite clear about the limitations of their work. That is, only 8 of the studies were on the newest generation WLIs, and also some of it had to be modelled rather than observed. They think more research is needed. Obviously a lot of the coverage left that bit out! But it makes intuitive sense, drugs stop working when you don't take them and people who lost a lot have more to put back on (they were still lighter).

And unfortunately, obesity doesn't care about anyone's 'should'. People who were previously obese are more likely than not to put weight back on when they've lost it, on a population level this is clear. Obese bodies don't play fair. But there are people who manage it, someone always bucks the trend, so maybe it'll be you- best of luck!

I think there may be some long term issues with these drugs, but I very much doubt they'll be as serious as the long term impacts of obesity - on people's mental health as well as physical.

I heard WL drugs will soon be available in tablet form. There will probably be a minimum dose tablet for those coming off higher doses that people can just take when and as to suppress appetite and prevent the weight coming back on. That's the way I see it going.

@fruitbrewhaha it may well be a "racket". However, I cannot turn back time and not get obese in the first place. I was obese as a child, so at a time when it was not so easy for me to be aware of my weight and take action at gaining a few pounds more than tolerable. I have been obese for nearly all my life. These medications have enabled me to move out of obesity and into a healthy weight for the first time in decades, and I will be able to stay at a healthy weight long term.

I cannot afford to wait for society to sort out its issues around food quality and the way we lead a modern life. Of course that needs to be addressed at a societal level, but that's of no help to me as an individual now.

It's too much to hope for in the Wild West of the NHS. Presumably we all know that they have no record of success in this area? Eatwell plate anyone! Our health service doesn't even have capacity do do the things they're actually good at and that have demonstrated benefit to patients, much less things they're not. What this would actually mean in practice is them not being available to many who need them and currently access them privately.

Which, because your first paragraph is correct, would mean more people getting them unofficially. Personally I'd prefer properly regulated pharmacists to be handling this one instead of whatever's been brought in from abroad. It's just not a very good idea.