The new year is a time that many people endeavour to make positive changes to improve their health and lifestyle, and over the past two years, a particular prescription medication available at specialist weight loss clinics has helped to make these commitments stick.

According to a study by researchers from University College London, around 1.6m people in Great Britain used weight loss injections such as semaglutide (Wegovy) in the first year they were available, with another 3.3m people interested in using them over the next year.

It is also the time that many people who started to use semaglutide as soon as it became available on the NHS may be required to stop using it, according to NICE guidelines.

It is important to take the process of stopping your weight loss medication as carefully as you did the process of starting the medication. To understand why, here are the answers to some common questions we get asked about the end of the process.

How Do You Stop Using Weight Loss Medication?

Weight loss medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) provide a number of effects which work together alongside health, lifestyle and dietary changes to make it easier to lose weight over time.

Because these medical and lifestyle effects work in tandem, it is important to take a gradual approach to coming off of the medications and maintain your fitness, diet and support regimens in order to ensure that the weight comes off and stays off.

The positive of this is that after many months of doing the work, you are in a better position to keep going and make it second nature.

The Process Of Coming Off Weight Loss Medications

  • You will have a discussion with your doctor about the process of coming off a weight loss medication, what to expect and how to handle some of the effects, such as food noise.
  • You will gradually reduce your dose from your maintenance dose down to nothing.
  • You should maintain your existing diet.
  • You should maintain your exercise routine, or increase it if you feel able to.
  • There should be follow-up appointments to see how you get on without it.

Can You Abruptly Stop Using Weight Loss Medication?

It is not advisable to suddenly stop using any prescribed medication without consulting your doctor, and when it comes to weight loss medications, stopping taking your injections without an exit plan can cause you to regain some of the weight you have lost.

Whilst there are no physical withdrawal symptoms associated with ceasing use of GLP-1 receptor agonists like Wegovy and Mounjaro, the health benefits and effects caused by the injections, such as feeling fuller, lower blood sugar and cholesterol, and less food noise, will stop.

Your appetite tends to return once the medication completely leaves your system, which typically occurs two to three months after the medication ends.

How Do You Silence Food Noise?

An effect of weight loss medication is to reduce food noise, the mental preoccupation with food caused by a mix of physical, neurological and psychological factors.

The best way to stop food noise is to reduce the amount of time you think about food. This includes focusing on your exercise, planning nutritious meals ahead of time, practising mindful eating to change your relationship to your food, focusing on your sleep and minimising stress factors that can lead to less-healthy food choices.