Study reveals how fast weight returns after ending GLP-1 drugs

Study reveals how fast weight returns after ending GLP-1 drugs

Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY

Fri, January 9, 2026 at 6:11 PM UTC

2 min read

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have had a meteoric rise in recent years, with benefits like weight loss and help with other health issues. But according to a recent study, those benefits fade within two years of patients stopping their treatment.

According to a study published in the BMJ, data from 9,341 obese or overweight patients treated in 37 studies with any of 18 different weight-loss drugs showed that they regained about one pound on average after stopping the drugs.

The same study said they were projected to return to their pre-treatment weight in about two years.

Actress Rebel Wilson is the new Chief Health Ambassador at Noom, spearheading the weight loss company's campaign for GLP-1 microdosing.

A new study found 2 in 3 people who took GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic to lose weight quit within one year. People with Type 2 diabetes are more likely to continue using the medication.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chairman of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee speaks during a hearing of Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jorgensen on U.S. prices for the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Shoppers enter the Costco Wholesale membership warehouse club store at One Daytona in Daytona Beach on Saturday, July 19, 2025. The retailer's pharmacy now sells discounted prescription weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

Following the birth of Serena Williams' second daughter in 2023 and as part of her partnership with the telehealth company Ro (of which her husband, Alexis Ohanian, is an investor, and she’s a paid spokesperson), in 2024 Williams began taking the injectable GLP-1 weight-loss medication Zepbound. She's since lost 31 pounds.

Ozempic is the most popular GLP-1 medication on the market.

GLP-1 medication and weight loss

Actress Rebel Wilson is the new Chief Health Ambassador at Noom, spearheading the weight loss company's campaign for GLP-1 microdosing.

But weight was not the only thing that was projected to return after stopping the treatment. According to the same study, health risk factors like blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which saw benefits while taking the drugs, were projected to return to their old levels within 1.4 years.

GLP-1 medications tested as well

About half of the patients studied took newer GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as tirzepatide, which is sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound. According to the study, the weight regain rate was faster for these drugs, with an average of 1.8 pounds per month.

“But because people on semaglutide or tirzepatide lose more weight in the first place, they all end up returning to baseline at approximately the same time,” study senior researcher Dimitrios Koutoukidis of Oxford University told Reuters.

Weight loss drugs have shown some success

Weight loss drugs like the ones tested in the study have shown large levels of success in the United States in recent years. Back in October 2025, a survey from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index showed that there were an estimated 7.6 million fewer obese people in the United States compared to 2022.

In 2022, the U.S. adult obesity rate was a record-high 39.9%, while in 2025, that rate gradually declined to 37%. While the obesity rate dropped, the usage of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy doubled between 2025 and 2024, according to the same study.

Contributing: Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY; Reuters

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Here's how fast you can gain weight after ending GLP-1, per study

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