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Endocrinologist offers advice on weaning off popular weight-loss medications
Many people have lost unwanted pounds by using popular injectable weight-loss medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound. These drugs contain semaglutide, liraglutide or tirzepatide, which curb appetite and increase insulin sensitivity. Some studies show that you can lose up to 15% of your body weight. But what if you want to wean off weight-loss medications?
Dr. Meera Shah, a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist, says that if you want to lose weight permanently, you need to stay consistently active and eat a nutritious diet.
You step on the scale and the numbers are moving in the right direction after taking one of the popular injectable weight-loss drugs. But now you want to stop the medication, so what do you do? How long can you stay on these drugs?
"We just haven't had people on this class of medicines for long enough to know what happens in five years, even three years, and when might be the right time to withdraw people off these medicines," says Dr. Shah.
Some studies show people regain weight after ditching diet drugs.
"If you stopped medication, say within six months of being on it, there's a very high chance for weight regain," explains Dr. Shah.
This could have something to do with an increase in appetite once you stop taking weight-loss medications.
"What the medicine is doing is it's actually changing those appetite signals, but when you don't have that medicine on board, then your body goes back to its default state," says Dr. Shah.
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