Do I need to be on Wegovy for life?

Sounds really daunting.... but questions are being raised around the use of Wegovy for the longer term or "for life".

We usually advocate that Wegovy isn’t a drug that most people will need to be on for life., however, there may be certain scenarios Wegovy is needed for the longer term.

Research suggests that some people have genetic predispositions to obesity due to changes in the structure of their brains. These differences in brain structures can alter our behaviour and increase our desire to eat beyond physical hunger.

In these scenarios, you may need to be on Wegovy for life.

The game-changing medication storming the diet industry....

What is Wegovy?

As most of you now know, Wegovy is a weekly weight-loss injection approved in the UK for weight loss and other weight-related co-morbidities, like high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes.

The active ingredient in Wegovy is semaglutide, the same ingredient in Ozempic and Rybelsus. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, which means it mimics the hormone GLP-1, which helps us feel fuller for longer after we’ve eaten.

Semaglutide is a long-acting medication that reaches a steady state in the body after 4-5 weeks, helping those on the drug feel less hungry all the time.

What about taking a break from Wegovy or reducing my dose?

Theoretically, yes, you can take a break from Wegovy, and can be recommended by clinicians if you've built up a resistance or if you're finding the higher doses too strong in terms of side effects. If you decide to recommence on to treatment after having a short break, you would likely have to start on one of the lower doses again.

For example, the highest dose of Wegovy is 2.4mg, with the lowest dose 0.25 mg. If you took a break from Wegovy, you may need to restart on 0.5mg or 1mg and increase your dose gradually before reaching 2.4mg again.

Alternatively, you may find the sweet spot is 1mg and that dose will suffice for longer term maintenance to help keep that weight off, so you will not need to go beyond that dose.

How do you maintain weight loss after taking Wegovy?

If you're looking to stop Wegovy and want to maintain your hard work, you need to instil healthy eating habits and introduce other healthy habits to your lifestyle, like being more physically active, sleeping well, and engaging in leisure activities that you enjoy.

The main action of Wegovy is to mimic the hormone GLP-1, which helps us feel fuller for longer by communicating with the brain’s appetite control centre, the hypothalamus.

Healthy habits increase GLP-1 levels naturally and also lower circulating levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin.

After using Wegovy, you can keep the weight off by managing your hunger naturally through healthy habits.

Recent research has supported the benefit of cementing healthy habits while taking semaglutide.

Do you need to wean off semaglutide?

Recent research on semaglutide (Wegovy) suggests that some of the weight loss is regained when patients come straight off the medication.

This research supported the suggestion that some people may need to stay on GLP-1 medications for life to avoid regaining the weight they lose on the medication.

However, more recent research has suggested that titrating (or ‘weaning off’) off of these medications slowly helped patients maintain the weight they’d lost 6 months after coming off of the medication.

This approach was combined with developing healthy habits such as eating a healthier diet, improving sleep hygiene, and being more physically active. The patients were on semaglutide for around a year before weaning off semaglutide over the course of 9 weeks. 86 patients were followed up for 6 months after stopping the medication and managed to maintain the weight they lost.

So, it seems that if you want to maintain your weight loss and come off Wegovy, you should wean off of the medication slowly while focusing on developing healthy habits. This could be reducing down the monthly doses until you reach a point where you feel confident in completely stopping or using Wegovy at a lower dose to help maintain that weight loss.

Wegovy isn’t a silver bullet...

Weight-loss injections are most effective when combined with a healthier lifestyle. They can help kickstart weight loss while enabling and motivating you to commit to developing healthier habits.

Wegovy and other weight loss injections, like Mounjaro, can allow you to make lifestyle changes to support long-term weight loss. These medications can help silence food-related thoughts and give you a boost of confidence with more immediate weight-loss results.

They can also buy you the time and headspace to understand why your body may have struggled to lose weight and build new long-term healthy habits. A key focus should be to calm down the feeling of hunger, lower your cravings, and allow you to build healthier habits to keep the weight off for good.

The ultimate goal is to make losing weight feel like an everyday, natural part of your lifestyle without having to actively force yourself to do things. This is why most normal diets fail, as we have to actively push ourselves to not eat, to move more, to ignore the grumbles from our tummies. This medication can truly help make weight loss a more natural part of your every day life.

That's why we are here for you - if you need any advice, support, or just a regular check in to ensure you're getting the best possible results, we'd rather you drop us a message and we can ensure you're getting the best possible results.

Thanks for reading!