PARIS – When people stop taking the new generation of weight-loss drugs, they pile back on the kilos four times faster than they would after ending diet and exercise regimes, new research found on Jan 8.<\/p>\n
But this was mostly because they lost so much weight in the first place, according to the British researchers who conducted the largest and most up-to-date review of the subject.<\/p>\n
A new generation of appetite-suppressing, injectable drugs called GLP-1 agonists have become immensely popular in the last few years, transforming the treatment for obesity and diabetes in many countries.<\/p>\n
They have been found to help people lose between 15 per cent to 20 per cent of their body weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis all appears to be a good news story,\u201d said Dr Susan Jebb, a public health nutrition scientist at Oxford University and co-author of a new BMJ study.<\/p>\n
However, recent data has suggested that \u201caround half of people discontinue these medications within a year\u201d, she told a press conference. This might be because of common side effects such as nausea or the price \u2013 these drugs can cost more than US$1,000 (S$1,280) a month in the US.<\/p>\n
So the researchers reviewed 37 studies looking at ceasing different weight-loss drugs, finding that participants regained around 0.4kg a month. Six of the clinical trials involved semaglutide \u2013 the ingredient used in Novo Nordisk brands Ozempic and Wegovy \u2013 and tirzepatide used for Eli Lilly\u2019s Mounjaro and Zepbound.<\/p>\n
While taking these two drugs, the trial participants lost an average of nearly 15kg. <\/p>\n
However, after stopping the medication, they regained 10kg within a year, which was the longest follow-up period available for these relatively new drugs.<\/p>\n
The researchers projected that the participants would return to their original weight in 18 months.<\/p>\n
Measurements of heart health, including blood pressure and cholesterol levels, also returned to their original levels after 1.4 years.<\/p>\n
People who were instead put on programmes that included diet and exercise \u2013 but not drugs \u2013 lost significantly less weight. However, it took an average of four years for them to regain their lost kilos.<\/p>\n
This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreater weight loss tends to result in faster weight regain,\u201d lead study author Sam West of Oxford University explained.<\/p>\n
But separate analysis showed that weight gain was \u201cconsistently faster after medication, regardless of the amount of weight lost in the first place\u201d, he added. This could be because people who have learnt to eat more healthily and exercise more often continue to do so even as they regain weight. <\/p>\n
Dr Jebb emphasised that GLP-1 drugs \u201care a really valuable tool in obesity treatment \u2013 but obesity is a chronic relapsing condition\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne would expect that these treatments need to be continued for life, just in the same way as blood pressure medication,\u201d Dr Jebb said.<\/p>\n
If this were the case, it would impact how national health systems judge whether these drugs are cost-effective, the researchers emphasised. \u201cThis new data makes it clear they are a starting point, not a cure,\u201d said Associate Professor Garron Dodd, a metabolic neuroscience researcher at the University of Melbourne not involved in the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cSustainable treatment will likely require combination approaches, longer-term strategies, and therapies that reshape how the brain interprets energy balance, not just how much people eat,\u201d he said. AFP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS – When people stop taking the new generation of weight-loss drugs, they pile back on the kilos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-251169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}