The drugs work by temporarily altering hunger mechanisms in your body. “They provide a synthetic form of the GLP-1 hormone that helps you feel less hungry and more satisfied,” says Christopher McGowan, MD, an obesity medicine specialist based in Cary, North Carolina, and the founder of True You Weight Loss.
“The net effect of more insulin and less glucagon is improved blood sugar control and improvement in diabetes,” Dr. McGowan says.
“This evolutionary process makes your body think you’re dying by not getting enough food, so it tries to help you,” says Janese Laster, MD, a nutrition and obesity medicine expert at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, and the founder of Gut Theory Total Digestive Care. People often report a rapid onset of hunger and weight regain, even though they continue the same lifestyle modifications, McGowan says.
It’s worth noting that weight regain can happen following weight loss, no matter what weight loss strategy you use. “No matter how you lose weight, whether through diet and exercise, gastric bypass, or these medications, the physiological changes are the same, which means weight regain is a possibility,” Dr. Laster says.
So how common is it for a person to regain weight after they stop Ozempic or a similar medication?
“This is the reason we emphasize the need to stay on these medications long-term,” McGowan says. “It’s not to be pessimistic, but realistic, as these are fantastic treatments when you can stay on them.”
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