Research
Hormonal
Discontinuation of anti-obesity medications (AOMs) leads to significant weight regain starting at 8 weeks post-treatment, with the trajectory stabilizing by 26 weeks.
If you stop taking anti-obesity medication, expect to regain weight starting around 2 months later. This is a biological response to the loss of the drug's appetite-suppressing effects, not a lack of willpower. Long-term management likely requires ongoing treatment or intensive lifestyle support to counteract this regain.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Significant weight regain occurred 8 weeks after discontinuation of AOMs and was sustained through 20 weeks... At weeks 8, 12, 20, 26, and 52, AOMs were associated with significant weight regain when compared with controls... After 26 weeks of treatment discontinuation, the trajectory of weight regain leveled off.
Why this rating
Meta-analysis of RCTs, though heterogeneity was noted in some timepoints.
Source
Trajectory of the body weight after drug discontinuation in the treatment of anti-obesity medications
Han Wu et al. · BMC Medicine · 2025
DOI 10.1186/s12916-025-04200-0
Meta-analysis · 11 studiesCited 21×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) are associated with significant weight regain after discontinuation, whereas non-GLP-1 related treatments did not show statistically significant regain in this meta-analysis.Moderate
- Continuing lifestyle interventions (diet/exercise) after stopping AOMs does not prevent significant weight regain, as this subgroup also showed significant regain.Moderate
Related findings · Hormonal
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