A shocking new study has revealed how long it takes to regain the weight lost after you stop using Ozempic.
Weight loss injections have become a huge industry in recent years with the likes of Ozempic and Mounjaro becoming popular methods to tackle obesity.
Plenty of celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon with the likes of Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey and Kelly Clarkson openly admitting to taking these types of medication.
GLP-1 jabs are being used by millions of people as a way to lose weight but just how easy is it to maintain once you’re no longer taking the medication?
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Well, experts are warning that users could start to put the weight back on within just eight weeks of stopping the treatment.
According to a report by the Daily Mail, scientists working in metabolic medicine at the Peking University People's Hospital in Beijing, China, are saying that the results experienced from weight loss injections are ‘likely to be short-lived’.
This is if patients don’t continue to follow a healthy lifestyle after they stop taking the medication.
A study published in the BMC Medicine journal reported that the rapid weight gain after weight loss could be due to ‘weight cycling’.
In the study, it explained: “Significant weight regain occurred 8 weeks after discontinuation of AOMs (anti-obesity medications) and was sustained through 20 weeks.
“Different weight regain was observed in subjects with different characteristics. Studies with longer follow-up duration are required to further investigate the potential factors associated with weight change after discontinuation of treatment.”
The team of experts, who were led by Professors Xiaoling Cai and Lingong Ji, discovered that patients on trizeparide ended up regaining nearly half of their lost weight after moving off the medication and switching onto a placebo.
In previous research, it was found that people with low energy diets tend to have adverse hormonal changes in the gut when experiencing weight loss.
Cai explained: “This adverse hormonal change in the gut causes an increase in hunger levels and urge to eat, which promotes weight regain.”
According to another expert, Professor Susan Jebb, who wasn’t part of the study, the reason for the weight gain could be due to the drugs not teaching people how to effectively keep weight off.
This is because self restraint isn’t needed when taking GLP-1 medications as it curbs your appetite, so users don’t have effective ‘behavioral strategies in place’ for after the treatment.