clock: What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Taking Weight Loss Drugs
Teresa Shepard said she lost 90 pounds after taking Ozempic for about eight months.
Shepard, who lives in Florida, told Good Morning America that she’s still able to maintain her weight loss two months after stopping the medication.
“I started working out and now I work out multiple times a week,” Sheppard said of how he keeps the weight off. “We must continue to do what we have been doing and be careful not to fall back into old habits.”
As drugs such as Ozempic, Wigoby and Munjaro become more popular, so too are the headlines about their potential downsides, such as weight gain after cessation of use.
a A study published last year by the National Institutes of Health We found that when patients discontinued medication to lose weight, the average weight gain rebound was about two-thirds of total weight loss.
Medical experts say it’s normal for drugs taken for chronic conditions such as obesity to become ineffective when users stop taking them.
“This kind of drug withdrawal can lead to weight loss and increased appetite, which is no surprise to anyone,” says Louis Aronne, director of the Center for Comprehensive Weight Management at Weill Cornell Medicine. The doctor told “GMA.” “If you stop your blood pressure medication, that’s exactly what you’d expect to happen: your blood pressure will rise.”
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, obstetrician-gynecologist and board-certified obesity medicine, echoed Aronne, saying it was important to understand that obesity is a chronic disease. Stated.
“This is not candy. This is not like a cure for strep throat,” Ashton said. “So if you stop taking the medications needed to treat chronic conditions such as overweight and obesity, there is, of course, the possibility, albeit less likely, of rebound weight gain.”
In the United States, nearly 42% of the population suffers from obesity, reportedly responsible for over $170 billion in medical costs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 90% of the more than 37 million Americans with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, an obesity-related condition. According to the CDC.
Both Ozempic and Munjaro are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe them “off label” for weight loss. Wegovy is specifically approved for weight loss in obese people.
Ozempic and Wigoby are made from a compound called semaglutide, and Munjaro contains a compound called tirzepatide.
These drugs work by slowing the movement of food through the stomach and suppressing appetite, thereby causing weight loss.
MORE: People Talk About Real Side Effects of Popular Injectable Weight Loss Pills
Shepard said she took the semaglutide compound to lose weight. The semaglutide compound is manufactured using raw materials in a pharmacy.
Wegobee’s Ozempic has become a more popular option for people who may not be covered by insurance to obtain semaglutide from a pharmacy. It can cost upwards of $1,000 a month without insurance coverage.
Experts say there are risks in getting semaglutide that way because it can be modified and the drug’s source isn’t always clear.
Describing her experience of being able to maintain weight loss after stopping semaglutide, Shepard said, “Definitely people can do it off semaglutide, and I’m not afraid to quit semaglutide. ‘ said.
Ashton said some obese people may have to take the drug “indefinitely” to lose weight.
“We know that this phenomenon is programmed in the brain to bring the weight back to the heaviest level, so it’s not a question of willpower. It’s not a question of eating less and moving more,” she says. says. “Behavior is always important, but you have to put pharmacology to work.”
Read more: What you need to know about the ‘Ozempic face’, which some users claim makes you look emaciated after using a popular diabetes drug used for weight loss
Ashton said there is no standard protocol to follow, but doctors should try to get their patients closer to a healthy target weight and then follow “basic principles of pharmacology” to taper their patients down to the lowest doses possible. said there is.
“Best dose is the lowest dose of a drug that works,” says Ashton. “If you need to reduce your dosage and increase the frequency to once a month and once every other week, maintaining a healthy weight in the safest and most effective way is key.”
