People who take weight-loss jabs to shift some pounds pile it all back on within 10 months of stopping, a study found.
Scientists at Oxford University discovered the effects of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy are short-lived if patients do not maintain a healthy lifestyle afterwards.
Even those taking newer, more powerful jabs drugs like Mounjaro put their weight back on once treatment was removed.
‘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 researcher Professor Susan Jebb.
‘Is it going to be worth the NHS investing in these drugs if they only have them for a short time and then they pile all the weight back on, or does the NHS have to accept that these are going to be long term therapies?
‘Either people really have to accept this as a treatment for life, you’re going to have to keep going forever, or we in science need to think really, really hard, how to support people when they stop the drug.’
While the study didn’t explain why people pile their weight back on so fast, Professor Jebb speculated it could be because diets are hard. No self restraint is required when taking the drugs, so people don’t have ‘behavioural strategies in place’ when they stop taking them.
The research, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain, looked at 6,370 adults in 11 studies.
Scientists at Oxford University discovered the effects of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy are short-lived if patients do not maintain a healthy lifestyle afterwards
The findings raise issues for the government, which plans to roll out NHS-funded weight-loss jabs far and wide over the next few years.
Healthcare funding watchdog NICE currently advises that people shouldn’t be on the injections for more than two years.
Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘It shouldn’t surprise anyone if people regain weight having used GLP-1 drugs without seriously attempting to improve their lifestyle. Using GLP-1s is not the quick-fix which many users believe it to be.’
Jane Ogden, professor of health psychology at Surrey University, added: ‘There’s no point just throwing people back out into the world of their own lives [after they stop taking jabs].
‘They’re going to need psychological counselling, behaviour change, nutritional support from that moment on to help them sustain healthier behaviour and keep the weight off.’