If you are on weight loss injections, what do you make of this article?

[IwishIwasacaterpillar]

If you have come off them, have you gained weight very quickly?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/07/weight-loss-jabs-regain-two-years-health-study

That will depend why you ate in the first place.

I ate carbs and sugar to "reward" and feel good when shit hit the fan due to a variety of reasons.

I can't eat carbs a lot anymore, my stomach hates anything processed. I have to re-learn to sort out my issues without food as the go-to solution and have started over the last 6 months finding ways to do this.

Will I crave things? Yes, I am pretty sure. But for me the jabs are more than just loosing the weight, they are a tool letting me revamp my life and I find it far more satisfying being able to walk 3 miles without getting out of breath and needing a sugar fix because my blood sugar plumbed.

Fat cells have a long memory but they only live for ten years. Once you stop taking the jabs the fat cells still wants to be full. So you get the urge to eat. I’m hoping after the years all those fat cells die off and you lose this obesity memory. Time tells.

The medical and genetic causes for obesity are so under researched, it was always extremely likely that stopping medicated controls would lead to weight gain. The NHS should, and will eventually be able to offer maintenance doses where living with a healthy BMi and reduced co-morbidities means the funding can be transferred from dealing with those issues to preventative care pathways instead.

so many people who have reported so many additional benefits above and beyond the weight loss - those are the stories where people have underlying issues that are being dismissed or poorly diagnosed but the impact of managing insulin and improved digestive controls is resolving for them. Perhaps still treating symptoms rather than root cause - but it’s great progress.

Articles like this represent lazy, ineffective journalism in my view that continues to label obese people as simply a problem of overeating, of gluttony, which is irresponsible nonsense.

Totally agree. If the reasons for emotional eating aren't addressed then the problem won't be fixed.

One of my friends is on WLI and she looks fantastic (although getting a bit gaunt now), but she admits that some days all she can manage to eat is a small piece of chicken. That's it. Its really unhealthy and she cannot afford to be on them long term so as soon as she comes off it she is going to pile it back on because her body is now in starvation mode so will hang on to every calorie.

If this were true, we wouldn't see almost everyone who lost weight without medication regaining the weight, which is not the case

Do they have any side effects?

Twenty-five years ago my BMI was 39.5. I lost around 100 lbs doing weight watchers and have kept it off, with some fluctuation, including two pregnancies. My BMI is now about 22.5. I exercise regularly and am careful about what I eat during the week, and a bit more relaxed at weekends. I have made tweaks over the years, such as introducing fat back into my diet (what a revelation that was after doing low-fat for years and years!) and fasting (I only start eating at lunch time). On the surface, I know I appear to have no struggle.

But the food noise - wow. I can't escape it. I think about food constantly. It is a daily torture that ranges from uncomfortable to unbearable, and it has never gone away. I don't want to buy WLIs privately but it is so, so tempting to get rid of the food noise and have some peace.

Where are the studies showing that the degree of weight gain is different to other diets? You postulate that the drugs may suppress GLP-1 production; well, in an obese body these hormones are already imbalanced. The drugs correct the imbalance. If a user stops taking them, the imbalance will be restored and the weight will go back on, that is correct. You are ignoring what obesity does to the body: the irreversible changes that occur once someone becomes obese. Someone half a stone overweight may well lose it and keep it off through a change in habits. Someone obese will not, no matter what method you try. There is no long-term sustainable weight loss method that reverses obesity in the majority of people: none. You can tell obese people not to take these injections, but you have no solution to offer them. Please try to understand that. Media reporting on health and weight is very poor, but if you look for studies into obesity and weight regain, you will see that we have no solution. That's why GLP-1s are such a game-changer: they might actually work where nothing else has. But like many medications for chronic and complex conditions, they are most likely a lifelong treatment.

This argument doesn’t work with gym subscriptions though, does it?

No I don't think the concept has been hyped at all. It's something that many people experience and never knew it was so common and didn't have a name for (other than greedy, weak, disgusting and all the other self shaming words that people internalised for decades)

Similarly some people, like my husband, have to take statins because of genetic disposition. He will be on them for life regardless of his diet and lifestyle.

the key is in knowing who’s cholesterol is high because of their personal choices and those who’s is bio-chemical.

the treatment can be the same, because it’s all preventative, but long term therapies may differ.

No difference to WLI’s, but obesity- or ‘weight loss programmes’ have been such a high profit industry, nobody is funding the research.

Though that is starting to change now.

You want other studies? The Guardian article sets it out! Doesn't seem like poor reporting to me.

The study, led by academics at the University of Oxford and published in the BMJ, included a review of 37 existing studies regarding weight loss medication, involving 9,341 participants. The average duration of weight loss treatment being 39 weeks while the average follow up period was 32 weeks.

On average, weight was regained at a rate of 0.4kg per month for people who had stopped taking the medication, the analysis found, with participants returning to their original weight within an average of 1.7 years after stopping any type of weight loss medication.

Specifically, people on any kind of weight loss medication lost an average of 8.3kg during treatment, but regained 4.8kg within the first year.

The rate at which weight was regained after stopping these medications was almost four times faster compared with behavioural programmes, which may include a specific diet or physical activity plan, regardless of the amount of weight that was lost during treatment.

Hopefully in time there will be a low dose daily tablet form for exactly this, to support maintenance and keep the weight off.

well done for your achievements.

Thinking about food every minute, all day long, to the extent it interferes with daily life? Sorry, but I think that's hyperbole being pushed by the drug companies to convince people who don't automatically need the drugs – i.e. anyone not clinically obese but unhappy with their weight – to hop on the bandwagon.

And you've also kind of agreed with my point: it's the internal body shaming that's really the issue.

Where are the studies showing that the degree of weight gain is different to other diets?

Here- in the BMJ : https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-085304

Not every second of every day, but every day, multiple times. And sometimes it does interfere with my daily life. It's true.

Thank you for your kind words. I live in hope!

I have focused on learning how to change my eating patterns alongside using WLI. Whilst I have dieted for years and years, this time I've focused on protein and 'real' food. Not low fat, but lower carb, minimal sugar and as close to original form as possible. I've come to understand that protein is actually key to successful weight loss and overall health. I'm putting the work in but don't intend to stop WLIs until I've lost enough weight to move out of the 'obese' categorie AND feel confident in my ability to continue a healthy eating lifestyle.

This really happened to me with low-carbing. It worked very quickly (three stone off in three months) but was so restrictive and so strict that the rebound was insanely fast. It was like a tension that built up and built up and when the dam burst, I went absolutely crazy on carbs and put four stone on in about eighteen months.

For me personally on WLIs, no food group is off-limits. I know some people struggle to eat certain things due to side effects, but that isn't the case for everyone. I eat three meals a day, I don't calorie count and there is nothing like the restriction and obsession I have had previously. I just eat nourishing, nice food and I exercise. If I came off them, I would absolutely regain but not any differently to how it's gone before for me on every diet and exercise plan I've done in the past thirty-five years. I don't intend or expect to stop taking them, for this reason.

Well it's literally all over the news this morning. How much evidence do you need?

I don’t have a problem with my own weight, never have and have never used any injections, so I have no skin in the game here. However, I do have a couple of friends who have used Mounjaro.

My only concern about the results in the article is that the life-long nature of treatment needed for most people will result in many people never receiving it in the first place as the NHS simply won’t be able to afford it. I don’t consider a life-long dependency to be any different from an insulin dependency or other permanent condition, but when the drug companies first started offering it, it was billed in the media as a quick fix and has led to a demand and reliance which far outstrips what the NHS was ever going to be able
to deal with.

I look at the positive improvements in my friends and think the drugs are a great development. It’s not really about weight and aesthetics but about health and their risk of heart attacks, strokes etc has plummeted. How can that NOT be a good thing. Using two friends as examples though it’s clear to see that it works differently in different people. My one friend has been overweight her whole life. She generally makes good food choices actually, just has huge portions and eats constantly. Even on the drugs she still eats more than I do. As soon as she stops, the weight will go back on. My other friend only gained weight in the last few years, after his wife left him, he became depressed and developed bad eating habits. He’s used the drugs to retrain his former healthier habits and will more than likely keep off the weight. His weight was life event related whereas my other friend’s weight issues seem to be hardwired, and I think it’s this group that are going to need the life-long support. Which personally I think they should get, just not sure how to find it initially (long term I think it will probably pay for itself).

Congratulations, you've taken your own experience and extrapolated a conclusion that something doesn't exist because you don't experience it. And no, I'm not saying internal body shaming is the issue at all. I'm saying that internalised shame around the existence of debilitating food noise is harmful and isolating. The fact that people are now talking openly about the existence of this symptom is positive, and it he huge numbers of people sharing that they experience this indicates it's a real and widespread symptom.

No it's not. I don't think you understand how to interpret the evidence that's been presented.

The problem with this argument is that it presupposes there must be psychological treatment for obesity, when actually it's a trait that would've been beneficial to most humans throughout history. It isn't necessary to 'eat and drink beyond reason' to become obese either, a small amount of surplus calories a day will do it over a long enough period of time.

Certainly there are some people for whom psychological assistance will be helpful, no argument there. But nobody who makes this argument has ever explained how you think you're going to psychologically support away a trait that was beneficial for most of human history, and is only a problem now that we no longer live in circumstances where starvation is an ever present threat. There is no evidence for what you're claiming.

What do I think about the article? I think some people that post on MN about WLI are very keen to tell people like me that take WLI that we are stupid and wasting our time and money. Mainly because we aren’t losing weight in a way they deem acceptable and so morally worthwhile.

The main take away from the study for me is that more study is needed. The numbers are estimated not actual. The data is from trials where people stopped immediately, going from taking WLI weekly to nothing at all. I’d like to see studies about whether slow tapering off makes a difference, or a period of time on a lower dose before stopping, and so on. I’d also like to see stats about how much weight you lose initially and whether that affects regain rate.

I have lost almost 11 stone so far over about 18 months. That’s almost 50% of my starting weight. That’s significantly more than the figures given for weight loss in the study. There’s no way that I would regain all of that in another 18 months. And there’s no way I would let that happen. If I can’t manage without WLI then I will start taking them again as soon as my BMI reaches a level where I qualify. There’s no need for me to ever get back up to a BMI of 40 or higher ever again.

I also don’t get what point people are trying to make by going on about weight regain. Does that mean that no one should ever try to lose weight? Because via all methods people put the weight back on, even diet alone, doing things the “proper” way that people seem so obsessed by.