Weight Regain Seen After Cessation of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists in Adults With Overweight, Obesity

THURSDAY, March 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Adults with overweight or obesity regain much of their lost weight after cessation of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), according to a review published online March 4 in eClinicalMedicine.

Brajan Budini, from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues characterized the trajectory of weight regain after GLP-1 RA cessation in a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), nonrandomized interventional studies, and observational studies reporting weight outcomes after cessation of GLP-1 RAs in adults with overweight or obesity. Forty-eight relevant studies were included.

The researchers found that after cessation of GLP-1 RAs, weight consistently rebounded. The nonlinear meta-regression included six RCTs with 3,236 participants and used a mixed-effect exponential recovery model with random effects applied to the rate constant. Sixty percent of the weight lost during treatment was regained one year postcessation. Weight trajectories were extrapolated beyond 52 weeks; weight regain was estimated to plateau at 75.3 percent of the weight lost on treatment. The rate constant was 0.0302 per week, corresponding to a 23.0-week half-life. A moderate risk for bias was seen in most studies.

“Our projections show that even though people regain most of the weight they have lost, they still maintain some of the weight loss, but what we currently don”t know is if the same proportion of lean mass is recovered,” Budini said in a statement. “If the regained weight is disproportionately fat, individuals may ultimately be worse off than before in their fat-to-lean mass ratio, which may have adverse consequences for their health.”

Two authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text