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

[HazelMember]

I’ve just read a BBC article about research into weight loss injections like Ozempic and Wegovy showing that people who stop taking them tend to regain weight quite quickly.

I’m not shocked that weight comes back. That happens after most weight loss attempts whether they involve medication or not.

These drugs are increasingly talked about as something people might take for years or even indefinitely. That raises questions for me about what happens when someone cannot afford them anymore, when supply changes, when side effects become an issue or when a person simply does not want to stay on a medication for life.

If stopping leads not just to regain but to a fairly rapid rebound, it feels less like a temporary aid and more like something that is very hard to step away from once started. That sits oddly with how casually they are sometimes discussed.

AIBU to think the real issue here is not that people regain weight after stopping, but whether we are quietly normalising a treatment that may be difficult to discontinue once begun? Or is this simply the reality of managing a chronic condition?

Thank you for this. I will check it out.

WLIs are too new to have detailed data yet about the potential long term effects when used in such large doses and not for the treatment of obesity.

Absolutely no idea what your pms have to do with anything. You’re not engaging in any meaningful way on the thread and have exposed yourself as being absolutely clueless about WLI and not ‘concerned’ about anything in the slightest (except perhaps people losing weight). Funny.

The main problem with WLIs atm is the fact that in reality anyone can get hold of them if they have the money. People who are only slightly overweight have been using them to lose a stone quickly before a holiday.

Ideally they should only be available on NHS prescription to treat obese patients, carefully monitored and used alongside a carefully assessed diet and exercise plan, but I guess that's too much to hope for in the Wild West of the Internet.

There is also the danger of fakes:

www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/24/experts-warn-counterfeit-weight-loss-medication-tablets-uk

Why should private practice doctors be limited in their practice when they’re just as qualified as NHS doctors to prescribe? And do you really want the NHS to have to shoulder the burden of the cost of ALL WLI when 30% of the UK population is obese?

Can I ask why that model would be ideal? It would prevent hundreds of thousands, millions, of obese people from accessing these medications legitimately and using them responsibly as they are currently. It also cannot happen, as the NHS has reviewed what they can offer, and cannot cope with that level of demand. They have therefore decided on a limited rollout where very few people can access WLI via the NHS.

This. It’s a racket.

I think labelling obesity as a disease is unhelpful. I’m not disagreeing there are physical and psychological issues involved but it’s not equivalent. This is a societal issue. We are eating shit food that lacks nutrients.

People need to stop getting fat in the first place. People gain weight with the notion that they can shift it off again, but once your fat you’re fucked. Your body tried to revert to its set point. Your body is trying to gain back the fat.

The answer is to never get fat. No one is born fat. If you put on 5 or 6 pounds do something about straight away. Don’t wait until you got 3 stone to shift.

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.

@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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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. 🤷‍♀️

Do you consider alcoholism to be a disease?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'.