It’s one of the biggest dilemmas facing patients taking revolutionary weight-loss drugs: Will they ever be able to stop taking the injections?
The weekly jabs – including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro – are the most effective weight-loss drugs ever developed, with overweight patients able to lose up to a fifth of their body weight within a year of starting treatment.
However, research shows that about half of patients who eventually stop taking the drugs – collectively known as GLP-1 drugs – will regain some weight.
Worryingly, almost one in five who quit will regain all the weight they lost, or even more.
This means that many patients taking the appetite suppressant drugs are reluctant to stop taking them, raising the possibility that thousands will continue taking the drugs for the rest of their lives.
However, it is not a problem that TV celebrity Sharon Osbourne has had to deal with.
Instead, months after coming off the Ozempic injection, the reality TV star and music manager is reportedly struggling to regain the weight at all.
The 72-year-old has spoken publicly about her decision to start using the weight-loss kick Ozempic last year. Sharon said she lost third place within a few months.
Sharon Osbourne is struggling to regain her weight months after quitting Ozempic
However, her weight loss was so severe that many online observers expressed concerns about her thin appearance.
Earlier this month, the Mail revealed that Sharon had come off the jab in March but was still struggling to regain the weight.
Friends said she had been eating a high-calorie diet in a bid to put on weight, including roasts, burgers and club sandwiches.
Yet she still reportedly hasn’t gained weight, leading friends to worry that the drugs have permanently damaged her body.
Now experts have revealed the shocking reason why some patients, like Sharon, find they can’t regain weight after stopping GLP-1 injections.
And while they say the effect is rare, some argue there are steps any GLP-1 patient can take to ensure they come off the shot without piling the pounds back on…
The ‘mysterious’ Ozempic patients who can no longer gain weight
Experts say Sharon Osbourne isn’t the first patient to experience this strange side effect of GLP-1 injections.
The drugs mimic a hormone found in the pancreas that is released when the stomach is full after eating.
This means that patients who receive the injections have a smaller appetite, causing them to eat significantly less and lose weight.
When they stop taking GLP-1 injections, their appetite returns and, as a result, so does their weight, either in whole or in part.
However, experts say that a small percentage of GLP-1 patients have trouble regaining their weight, no matter how much more they eat.
‘We have found that around 5 per cent of people who come off these injections seem unable to put the weight back on,’ says Dr Alex Miras, consultant endocrinologist at Ulster University, who has been involved in several major GLP trials. 1 studies. .
“It’s a very unusual situation and the exact cause is still a mystery.”
Experts say that while it’s impossible to know exactly who will experience this side effect, it’s more common in people who have historically seen their weight rise and fall dramatically.
This is an issue that also affects Sharon Osbourne. Last year she told Good Morning Britain that her constantly fluctuating weight was one of the main reasons she started Ozempic.
But experts say they have also identified another potentially at-risk group.
‘Many of these patients have nothing in common, but it appears that people with diabetes have more difficulty regaining weight after stopping these drugs,’ says Dr Robert Andrews, professor of diabetes at the University of Exeter .
GLP-1 drugs were initially designed to treat diabetes because the injections can lower the dangerously high blood sugar levels that millions of patients experience.
However, experts say it’s still a mystery why some diabetes patients become super sensitive to the effects of GLP-1 drugs.
“It’s not what you would expect,” says Dr. Andrews. ‘People with diabetes gain weight more easily.’
The patients will probably regain their weight after stopping the injections
According to experts, much more is known about which patients are most at risk of regaining weight after stopping GLP-1 drugs.
Research shows that patients who stop taking semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy – regain on average about two-thirds of their weight.
However, patients who lose a large amount of weight in a short period of time are much more likely to gain it back than those who have lost only a small amount of weight with the drug.
Experts say this may be due to a phenomenon known as set point theory, the idea that the body has a natural weight range or set point that it always tries to maintain.
This weight varies from person to person, and experts claim that this explains why some people are naturally thin while others are taller.
“One of the biggest factors that can predict how you’ll do once you’re off these medications is how quickly you lose weight to begin with,” says Dr. Nerys Astbury, an expert on nutrition. and obesity at the University of Oxford.
“This may be due to the body having a weight it is trying to regain, and that is much heavier than what you are when you stop the injections.”
Another theory is that patients who lose their excess weight quickly are more likely to return to unhealthy eating habits.
‘If you experience rapid weight loss and then immediately stop taking the medication, it is unlikely that you have developed new healthy eating habits,’ says Dr Astbury. “Instead, you could return to overeating, undoing the progress you’ve made.”
Regardless of the cause, experts agree that those who stop taking GLP-1 drugs and immediately regain the weight have one thing in common: they don’t exercise.
‘It’s clear that people who exercise regularly lose weight much better than those who don’t,’ says Dr Astbury. “So some exercise is better than nothing.”
The exercise routine that personal trainers say is crucial for maintaining Ozempic weight loss
While research shows that all forms of exercise help limit the amount of weight patients regain after stopping GLP-1 injections, experts say there are certain routines that are more likely to have the desired effect.
Multiple studies now show that physical activity is crucial in the fight against weight gain after GLP-1.
A Danish study found that patients who stopped taking the drug liraglutide — an older and less effective version of Ozempic — gained an average of about 20 pounds.
But those who had some fitness coaching sessions with a personal trainer before stopping the drug regained less than 9 pounds.
Experts say similar results are seen with all GLP-1 medications and this is proof that the key to limiting weight gain is building good habits.
However, according to Bret Durney, a personal trainer who regularly works with GLP-1 patients and founder of the London exercise studio Fitness Lab, the type of exercise is crucial to limiting weight gain.
“We get our clients who are on medications like Wegovy or Mounjaro to focus on strength training,” says Mr Durney.
‘So this includes resistance exercises such as deadlifts, squats or chest presses.’
GLP-1 drugs like Ozemic were initially intended as a treatment for diabetes
Experts say strength training is crucial for this cohort because research shows that patients taking GLP-1 drugs lose a significant amount of muscle mass.
Research shows that roughly a quarter of the weight loss caused by these drugs is actually due to muscle shrinkage.
This can have dangerous consequences, especially for older people, who are at greater risk of falling if they have no muscles.
However, Mr Durney argues that patients with less muscle mass are also more likely to gain the weight back after stopping the injections.
“Muscle uses more energy than fat,” he says. ‘So if you have a good amount of muscle mass when you come off these drugs, the extra energy you get from your increased appetite will go there first before you get fat.
“But if you come off it and lose muscle mass in the process, as you start eating more you will replace the lost muscle mass with fat, and you may even gain more weight than before you started the medication.”
For this reason, Mr. Durney recommends short bouts of strength training, usually involving six to 12 repetitions of the movement, with about a minute to ninety seconds of rest between each set.
“It’s all about muscle mass,” he says. ‘There is no point in doing a lot of endurance sports activities, such as running, because that does not help with muscle building.’
Why it’s okay to stand still when you really need to
There’s no reason patients can’t continue taking a GLP-1 drug indefinitely, experts say.
Although GLP-1 drugs have only been approved for weight loss in recent years, they have been used to treat diabetes for almost two decades.
This means that researchers know with some certainty that long-term use of the injections is unlikely to cause serious medical problems.
In fact, all evidence suggests that stopping GLP-1 medications has a negative impact on the body.
Patients who stopped taking Ozempic or Wegovy not only gained the weight back, they also saw their heart health worsen, with cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels all rising in those who stopped.
And while some super-sensitive people, like Sharon Osbourne, are losing worrying amounts of weight, experts say this is rare.
Research shows that the vast majority of GLP-1 users lose a maximum of about 20 percent of their body weight.
Of course, one reason patients may want to stop taking GLP-1 drugs is cost. A private prescription usually costs around £200 a month and access to the NHS injections is still limited to those who are severely obese.
For those thinking about quitting the jabs, experts say healthy eating and exercise habits are crucial – but so is realism.
“The majority of people who come off these medications will gain some weight back and that’s okay,” says Dr. Astbury.
‘Weight gain should not be seen as a failure, it is inevitable. But maintaining sensible portion sizes, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, avoiding fatty foods and of course getting plenty of exercise will help limit the amount you re-ingest.’