Weight Loss Injections Linked to Rapid Weight Regain Post-Treatment: Study Finds

“These drugs are very effective at helping you lose weight, but when you stop them, weight regain is much faster than [after stopping] diets,” said Susan Jebb, the co-author of the study and professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford.

The findings raise issues for the NHS, as NICE guidelines state people should not be on weight loss injections for more than two years. Additionally, many patients give up the treatment, whether because they are buying it privately so cannot afford it, because the side effects do not suit them or because they are not losing weight anymore.

While the study did not show causality, Jebb speculated that the difference in how fast people put weight back on could be since diets are hard and people have to practice restraint to lose weight, whereas if you are taking a drug that knocks your hunger out completely, you don’t have to make that effort. “So when the drugs are then taken away, you haven’t got those sort of behavioural strategies in place that help keep the weight off.”