Coming off

Weight after stopping a GLP-1

What happens to weight after a GLP-1 medicine is stopped? Two kinds of evidence answer this: a trial that followed people for a year after stopping, and a 2026 review that pooled dozens of studies. Both are averages; they can't predict what will happen to you.

The STEP 1 extension

327 people from STEP 1 were followed for a year after treatment ended. By week 68 they had lost 17.3% (semaglutide) or 2.0% (placebo); by week 120 they had regained 11.6 and 1.9 percentage points, leaving net losses of 5.6% and 0.1%^[1]. Improvements in heart and metabolic measures moved back toward where they started for most measures. The authors note all extension analyses were exploratory^[1].

The 2026 meta-analysis

West and colleagues pooled 37 studies with 9,341 participants. After weight-management medicines were stopped, weight came back at an average of 0.4 kg a month, with a projected return to starting weight in about 1.7 years; heart and metabolic markers were projected to return to baseline within 1.4 years. Regain was faster than after behavioural weight-management programmes^[2].

For the newer medicines (semaglutide and tirzepatide), regain was about 0.8 kg a month, with a projected return to baseline at about 1.5 years — based on only eight studies with at most 12 months of follow-up after stopping, so the longer-term figure is a model projection^[2].

What this does and doesn't tell you

These are group averages. Obesity Canada's 2025 guideline describes these medicines as part of a long-term strategy and tells patients that stopping can lead to weight regain and a loss of health benefits^[3]. Your own trend, logged over weeks, is the clearest picture of what is happening for you — see after your goal.

General information, not medical advice. Decisions about continuing or stopping a medicine are for you and your prescriber.

Light Years draws this smoothed line from your own weigh-ins, on your device. Open my tracker or browse the other guides.