You’ve Lost Weight Taking New Obesity Drugs. What Happens if You Stop?

Many patients are eager to discontinue Wegovy or Zepbound when their weight loss plateaus. But doctors say it’s difficult to go cold turkey.

Susana Parks was delighted when she lost 40 pounds on Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, Zepbound. But now that she is at her goal weight, she has questions: Can she stop taking the drug? And if she does, how can she maintain her weight loss?

“I can’t stop cold turkey or I will gain it back — that is clear,” said Ms. Parks, 60, of Bend, Ore. “Do I go to a lower dosage? Do I take it every two weeks instead of weekly? How do I maintain?”

These questions are becoming common, obesity medicine specialists say, as more and more people lose weight with obesity drugs. Some struggle to pay for the medicine, have difficulty finding it to purchase or just don’t want to stay on a drug longer than they believe they need to.

When doctors are confronted with these queries, here is what they advise — and what they can’t say.

Dr. David Cummings, a weight-loss specialist at the University of Washington, has been asked this question by many patients. He explains that the makers of the drugs conducted large studies in which people took the drugs and then stopped.

“On average, everyone’s weight rapidly returned,” Dr. Cummings said. And, he said, other medical conditions, like elevated blood sugar and lipid levels, return to their previous levels after improving.