Weight lost by people treated with blockbuster weight-loss drugs based on the hormone GLP-1 returns in less than two years, and with it the heart and metabolic conditions associated with being overweight, a meta-analysis reported Wednesday in The BMJ has found.
The development of weight control drugs, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, has transformed, for the better, the treatment of obesity to the point that the World Health Organization now recognizes them as essential for humanity and considers that they should be universally available.
Weight regain is common after discontinuation of drugs
To test whether its benefits are maintained if treatment is discontinued, an international team of researchers has analyzed 37 studies published up to February 2025, with a total of 9,341 participants.
The mean duration of drug treatment for weight loss was 39 weeks (about 3.2 years).
A subsequent average follow-up of about 3 years, on average, found that, after stopping the drugs, patients regained weight at a rate of about 0.4 kilograms per month and most had returned to their previous weight within 1.7 years.
These 37 studies showed that all cardiometabolic risk markers that had improved with weight loss, such as high cholesterol, arterial hypertension or diabetes, returned to pre-treatment levels within 1.4 years after discontinuation of the drugs.
Researchers have also found that the rate of weight regain after stopping weight loss drugs is almost four times faster than the weight change that occurs after changing diet or physical activity level.
“This evidence indicates that, despite their success in initial weight loss, spot treatment with these drugs alone is not sufficient for long-term weight control,” the researchers conclude.
Long-term therapy?
Experts such as John Wilding, Professor of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine at the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom), remind us that obesity is a chronic disease that tends to relapse when treatment is discontinued.
“We do not expect interventions for other chronic diseases such as diabetes or hypertension to continue to work when treatment is discontinued, and there is no scientific reason to expect obesity to be any different. Therefore, we should consider these treatments as long-term therapies and not as a quick fix,” Wilding notes in a reaction to this study.
“The findings reinforce that obesity management often requires long-term planning. If individuals discontinue medication, many will likely need ongoing nutritional and behavioral support. Further research is needed into effective and scalable strategies for long-term weight loss maintenance alongside pharmacotherapy,” says University of Cambridge researcher Marie Spreckley, in a reaction for Science Media Centre.
With information from EFE
