Research
Hormonal
Discontinuation of obesity medications leads to weight regain and reversal of cardiometabolic improvements, necessitating long-term treatment.
If you are taking obesity medications, you likely need to continue them long-term to maintain weight loss. Stopping the medication often leads to weight regain. Talk to your doctor about managing costs and side effects to stay on treatment.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
Obesity medications do not permanently alter the underlying neuroendocrine disruption associated with obesity, meaning that medications and lifestyle modifications should be continued long-term to promote weight maintenance...
Why this rating
Based on withdrawal trials (SURMOUNT 4, STEP 4).
Source
Obesity: assessment and treatment across the care continuum
Robert F. Kushner et al. · Annals of Medicine · 2025
DOI 10.1080/07853890.2025.2521433
narrative_reviewCited 4×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obesity is a chronic disease of dysregulated energy balance involving neuroendocrine factors, requiring lifelong, multimodal management (lifestyle, pharmacotherapy, surgery) tailored to individual patient characteristics and evolving goals.Strong
- GLP-1 receptor agonists (liraglutide, semaglutide) and dual GIP/GLP-1 agonists (tirzepatide) produce significant weight loss (15-23%) and should be considered for patients with higher weight-loss goals or specific comorbidities like MASH or severe OSA.Strong
Related findings · Hormonal
- Initial treatment for type 2 diabetes should be a combination of metformin and either an SGLT-2 inhibitor or a GLP-1 receptor agonist to achieve cardiorenal protection, rather than monotherapy or older agents like sulfonylureas.Strong
- For patients with specific monogenic obesity syndromes (leptin deficiency, POMC/PCSK1/LEPR mutations), targeted pharmacotherapy (recombinant leptin or setmelanotide) is highly effective and should be prioritized, unlike in polygenic obesity.Strong
- Continued weekly administration of 2.4 mg subcutaneous semaglutide prevents weight regain and promotes further weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity, whereas switching to placebo results in significant weight regain.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →