Obesity is recognized as a chronic health disease. For this reason, you should think about it much like you would other health conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes. If you take a medication to manage your blood pressure and then abruptly stop taking it, there is a risk that your blood pressure is going to be elevated. Much like other disease processes, when medications are used for weight loss, stopping these medications can potentially cause you to regain weight.

Without implementing the proper lifestyle changes there is a high risk of regaining weight after discontinuing medication. Certain medications are intended for short term use and other weight loss medications are intended to be taken long term. For instance, GLP1 inhibitors such as Saxenda, Wegovy, Ozempic, or Mounjaro are all intended to be taken long term. These medications can help you lose weight, but they also help you to maintain your weight loss. Phentermine on the other hand, is not intended to be taken long term and will be discontinued.

Staying on a medication for weight loss is an effective tool to help maintain your weight loss. Medications for weight loss should only be discontinued once you have spoken with your prescriber and you both agree that it is no longer needed or is no longer appropriate to continue. Once medications are stopped it is important to continue to follow the guidelines and tools given to you throughout the medical weight loss program to maintain your weight. Making appropriate lifestyle changes through diet, exercise, stress management, and sleep hygiene are crucial for maintenance of weight.

Patients who are not able to take weight loss medications long term should consider weight loss surgery. Please contact us if you’d like more information about medical weight loss or surgical options.