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What happens to body weight and measures of cardiometabolic health after people stop taking obesity drugs?
A new systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the BMJ, looks at 37 studies including 9,199 adults to assess how quickly weight is put back on after stopping obesity drugs including older drugs like orlistat and newer GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide and Tirzepatide. The research also looks at what happens to measures of cardiometabolic health such as blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides after stopping obesity drugs.
And by comparing these data with a previous systematic review looking at weight regain after weight loss by behavioural weight management programmes, the authors can talk about whether and why weight regain is different after obesity drugs than after other ways of losing weight.
Some journalists covered this research when it was at conference stage over the summer but the paper is now complete and includes more studies than it did at that time.
Journalists dialled in to this briefing to ask your questions and to hear from the authors of the study discuss e.g.:
– how quickly does weight return to baseline after stopping obesity drugs?
– does speed of weight gain differ between different drugs?
– what if behavioural support was provided alongside the drugs during weight loss?
– do we know if the health benefits of having lost weight remain even if weight goes back on?
– what does this mean for people currently on these drugs but who will come off them at some stage?
Speakers included:
Dr Sam West, postdoctoral researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
Prof Susan Jebb, Professor of Diet and Population Health at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
Dr Dimitrios Koutoukidis, Associate Professor in Diet, Obesity, and Behavioural Sciences, University of Oxford