GLP-1s have been hailed as miracle medicine for his or her effectiveness in weight reduction, however customers are prone to expertise fast weight regain as soon as they cease taking them, in response to a brand new research by College of Oxford’s Nuffield Division of Main Care Well being Sciences.
Weight regain is simply a part of the issue. Metabolic and coronary heart well being advantages related to GLP-1s – akin to decreasing hypertension and excessive ldl cholesterol – additionally reverse as soon as sufferers discontinue the medicine, in response to the report, which was printed in peer-reviewed medical journal The BMJ.
This research underlines that GLP‑1s will not be a everlasting repair, which has large implications for the way meals and beverage corporations take into consideration innovation and positioning.
As soon as customers come off the medicine, each weight and cardiometabolic danger elements are inclined to drift again towards baseline, which suggests a rising want for on a regular basis meals that assist keep satiety and higher metabolic management on fewer energy, reasonably than simply eating regimen branding.
For producers, that factors to a number of alternative lanes: extra portion‑managed, nutrient‑dense codecs that make it simpler to stay with smaller servings.
No silver bullet
The research pooled knowledge from 37 randomized and observational research together with 9,341 adults handled with weight reduction drugs, akin to GLP-1 medicine, for at the least eight weeks.
Researchers then tracked how a lot weight individuals regained, and the way their coronary heart and metabolic well being measures modified, within the months after they stopped taking the medicine, in contrast with individuals on placebo or way of life packages.
Be taught extra about GLP-1s
FoodNavigator has been monitoring how GLP-1 weight-loss medicine are reshaping diets and demand throughout the meals and beverage trade. Latest protection appears to be like at what rising GLP-1 adoption means for manufacturers, retailers, and future innovation.
The GLP-1 impact: How 2026 will search for meals and beverage
The variety of US adults taking GLP-1 medicine surged in 2025 and reveals no signal of slowing within the new 12 months, and whereas the drugs are reducing weight problems charges, their affect on meals and beverage gross sales hasn’t been as dangerous because the trade as soon as feared.
May useful meals change the necessity for GLP-1s?
As GLP-1 medicine disrupt the load loss market, meals and beverage gamers are racing to unlock the appetite-regulating energy of useful elements.
GLP-1s linked to instances of sickness and loss of life
GLP-1 medicine have been linked to a spate of sicknesses within the UK. The Medicines and Healthcare merchandise Regulatory Company (MHRA) has steered that a number of instances of acute pancreatitis (infected pancreas) could also be linked to the medicine. Many sufferers have been hospitalised from this sickness.
The research discovered that customers gained a mean 0.4 kg (just below a pound) monthly after ending the remedies. Weight and danger markers related to diabetes and coronary heart illness returned to the pre-treatment ranges in below two years, in response to the report.
That weight acquire got here at a charge virtually 4 instances sooner than that skilled after discontinuing behavioral weight administration program.
“The proof means that regardless of their success in reaching preliminary weight reduction, these medicine alone will not be ample for long-term weight management,” in response to the research’s authors.
Shoppers will want accessible, on a regular basis instruments to assist protect more healthy habits, together with nutrient-dense, portion-aware merchandise, retail environments that cue more healthy selections, and digital or community-based helps that may lengthen the advantages of way of life change effectively past the prescription window.
Endlessly medicine for weight reduction?
The research famous that roughly half of GLP-1 customers discontinue the drug inside a 12 months, highlighting the necessity for extra analysis on how well being is impacted by getting off GLP-1s.
Upon discontinuation of GLP-1s, the common consumer returned to their pre-treatment weight by 1.7 years, whereas cardiometabolic dangers returned after 1.4 years.
“Month-to-month weight regain was additionally sooner after weight reduction medicine than after behavioral weight administration packages (by 0.3 kg), impartial of preliminary weight reduction,” the research discovered.
This discovery “cautions in opposition to short-term use of weight administration drugs.”
Extra analysis wanted
Whereas the findings pose new concerns regarding the medicine’ long-term efficacy, even short-term weight reduction may be helpful, in response to Qi Solar, affiliate professor of drugs at Brigham and Ladies’s Hospital and affiliate professor within the Departments of Vitamin and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan College of Public Well being.
World GLP-1 disruption
Weight-loss jabs are taking the world by storm, reshaping every thing from client habits to product innovation. Their affect is being felt throughout areas and classes, however the impact in a single sector is not all the time mirrored in one other.
From tender drinks to alcohol, confectionery to snacks, we dissect the disruption and ask what’s subsequent.
Be part of us for the dialog on Feb. 5, 2026, 9:00 native (GMT-6)
Solar authored an essay on the research, arguing that whereas GLP-1 agonists “shouldn’t be relied on as a magic treatment for treating weight problems,” the medicine can have helpful outcomes for customers.
“Despite the fact that the life-style intervention group ultimately regained weight, the cumulative incidence of growing diabetes was decrease within the way of life intervention group in contrast with placebo group,” Solar wrote. “In observational research, people with weight problems who deliberately misplaced ≥4.5 kg of physique weight by varied methods, starting from dietary modifications to industrial weight reduction packages, had a statistically considerably decrease incidence of diabetes than their counterparts with out weight reduction makes an attempt.”
Solar added that GLP-1 customers ought to pay attention to the results of cessation.
Solar stated that the muse for weight problems remedy ought to give attention to wholesome dietary and way of life practices. Medicines akin to GLP-1 receptor agonists, he wrote, ought to be “used as adjuncts.”
“Such practices not solely assist stop extra weight acquire however can even result in quite a few well being advantages that transcend weight management,” he wrote. “Efficient public well being measures, akin to taxation on sugary drinks, clear meals labeling and subsidies for contemporary fruit and greens, ought to be in place to facilitate the adherence and enchancment of eating regimen high quality.”
