The waiting room of a busy endocrinology clinic on a Tuesday morning looks strangely hopeful. Some people have bright eyes and some have clenched jaws as they look at before-and-after pictures on their phones. A nurse calls out names, and people roll up their sleeves and hold pens over credit card slips. The promise is always the same: one little shot will finally make the weight that has been bothering you move.
A few months later, the same people come back. The jeans are looser, the faces are thinner, and the compliments are coming in. But behind the smiles, a quiet question is buzzing in the background, like a fridge that only makes noise when the room is quiet.
What happens when the shots stop?
When the shot wears off, life goes back to normal.
If doctors are being honest, the first thing they tell you is that injections to help you lose weight don’t make you less hungry. They turn it down. They turn down the volume on thoughts about food, late-night cravings, and the constant battle in your head over “Should I eat this?”
Then one day, the pen runs out, the prescription ends, or the price is just too high. After a few weeks, you start to feel that old hunger coming back. You keep it under control at first. You’re proud and careful.
Then life gets busy again, and the quiet hunger turns into a steady beat.
A big follow-up study on people who stopped taking semaglutide and other GLP-1 injections showed a harsh truth. They had already gained back about two-thirds of the weight they had lost after being off the drug for a year. Many were back to where they started by the time they were 18 to 24 months old.
You could almost guess what the story is behind each percentage. Someone like Clara, who is 42 years old and lost 18 kilos in less than a year. Her blood sugar got better, her knees hurt less, and she had more energy. She told herself she could “maintain alone” when the money stopped coming in.
At first she did. The old weekend pizzas came back after that. It was a stressful month at work, I missed walks, and I went on vacation with buffets. The scale slowly went back up.
It’s not laziness or a lack of will that’s going on. These drugs change the signals between your gut and brain, which slows down digestion and makes food less rewarding. Your body, which is smart and stubborn, doesn’t just accept this change.
Hormones that control hunger and fullness go back to their normal patterns after the injection stops. Your metabolism is stuck between two modes because it has gotten used to a lighter body. You feel hungrier, but you’re burning a little fewer calories than you were before the diet.
That’s how the “baseline” weight, which your body protects like a default setting, slowly comes back.
Instead of going after the magic pen, play the long game.
Doctors who see the rebounds every week often say what everyone else is thinking: these shots only work as part of a long-term plan. Not a great plan for Instagram. A boring one in real life.
One useful way to get ready is to see the months on the drug as a time to train, not just a race to lose weight. It’s easier to try new things when you’re not as hungry. That’s when you should start making “automatic” habits, like eating breakfast that fills you up, going for a walk after dinner, and going to bed at a time that doesn’t mess with your hormones.
It might help to think of the medicine as a way to practise living without it.
A lot of people make the same mistake: they depend on the drug 100% and their routine 0% while getting the shots. The size of the meals gets smaller, but the structure stays the same. Emotional eating is only stopped, not understood. Your social life slowly changes to fit the new “diet version” of you… until it doesn’t.
Then, when the shot stops, there’s nothing to lean on. Like air rushing back into a hoover, old habits come back quickly. You are not weak. You are only human, and you work in an office full of pastries and get food delivered at 10 p.m.
Let’s be honest: no one really weighs every meal and keeps track of every bite every day.
Some experts are beginning to talk more directly about what they expect. Not as a way to sell things, but as a way to give patients emotional support when they stop taking the drug.
A London-based obesity doctor says, “Weight-loss injections are very powerful tools.” “But they don’t fix the problem. When you stop a long-term treatment for a chronic condition, the condition usually comes back. Weight is the same.
A few simple anchors can help you stay grounded:
Before you stop, talk to your doctor about a “transition phase” instead of going cold turkey.
Maintain two or three habits that you won’t change, such as eating protein at every meal, taking a break from moving once a day, and turning off screens 30 minutes before bed.
Expect to gain some weight back, but don’t see it as a failure. It’s just part of the process. Then do something right away when a few kilos come back, not wait for ten.
Accepting the fact that weight is never “done”
A lot of people say to themselves, “I thought this time it was finally over.” That dream of crossing the finish line, getting a new body for good, and throwing away the scale. When you stop getting shots, the rebound hurts twice: in your jeans and in your pride.
But there is another way to think about it. What if the goal wasn’t a certain number on the scale, but a range in which you can move up and down without getting scared? A place where you can live, hang out, party, make mistakes, and fix them without feeling bad.
*Mannequins and robots usually have weight that never changes, not real people.
| Key point | Detail | Value for the reader |
|---|---|---|
| Weight tends to return near baseline after stopping injections | Most patients regain a large share of lost kilos within 1–2 years off treatment | Sets realistic expectations and reduces guilt when rebound appears |
| Use treatment time as a “training window” | Build routines and food patterns while hunger is quieter | Gives tools to better manage the transition after stopping |
| Think long-term, not “magic cure” | View obesity as a chronic condition that needs ongoing care | Helps you design a sustainable plan with your doctor and not feel like you failed |
