What happens after Ozempic

[AC2022]

I’ve been on Ozempic for three weeks and I’ve lost over half a stone which is great, but I still have a few stone to lose. It’s great to have a break from the food noise and focus but I’m not entirely comfortable with what my exit strategy looks like. When I stop taking Ozempic will the weight go back or or will the next few months on it trigger a sort of reset.

Does anyone know of any online info or have any experience of coming off Ozempic after reaching a goal weight?

You are being very wise in enquiring about this before you are too deep into the Ozempic weight loss, because one will not only regain the weight after withdrawal, but the regain will be rapid, and after a year, for most, the weight is back to the starting point. The crucial point this happened despite lifestyle interventions being maintained.
Many think, I will lose the weight and after I stop, keep applying the diet , however, it doesn't work.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9542252/

There is no reset.

So what next?
(1) Consider remaining on it for life
(2) Go to some sort of calorie cutting (counting, fasting, eliminating macros or a combination of those)

I’ve read this study it’s really interesting. Tbh I’m interested in comparison to how almost all diets fail when they stop, even non medicated. An awful lot of slimming world attempts fail and everyone puts it back on. I’ve lost and gained the same 3-5 stone for 20 years! The issue is me, my habits surely? If we don’t change, it’s inevitable you will regain it

It's like any weight loss intervention. If you return to previous habits you'll regain the weight. It's not magic - it won't change your hormones permanently. What it will do is reduce your body fat so that insulin sensitivity will ideally improve which may help reduce cravings and appetite over time. The biggest job however will be maintaining good habits without the medication to aid you.

I have listened to a few interviews from the research team that did the trials. Interestingly, the participants didn't return to the previous bad habits, they even had a group who continued with supervision and guidance, they just couldn't control their appetite and were eating all the right foods, but just too much of it.
Ozempic makes you eat less. You stop, you start eating more.

When queried about this, their argument was obesity is a lifelong disease and in the same way you take blood pressure medication for life, you will have to take obesity drug for life.

I have a friend who lost about 40 pounds and then went onto a "maintenance" dose which she does every 6 to 8 weeks and that's worked well for her to keep off the weight.

I read the article and I see some of the co authors at the very bottom have stated a conflict of interest as they are funded by drug companies. Of course the drug companies want to promote ozempic as a life long medication to take as it will increase profits.
I'm on ozempic and weight regain of course concerns me but I would really like to read an impartial research study paper instead of ones like this that I don't think objectively study the issue. I've a study not paid for by the drug companies

There's always a "what if" or a downside to any weight loss strategy. It's the same with calorie counting (what happens when I stop), exercise (what about when I'm injured) or even surgical intervention (what about if I blend toblerones and eat them?). It's good to be realistic about what could happen after stopping the drug, though.

I've been looking at this but it does seem that people put it all back on after.

Everyone thinks they will be different...

But it's putting me off.