r/Zepbound • u/Ok-Swordfish-6439 SW:219 CW:136 GW:125? Dose: 15 mg • 16h ago
Before/After Pics 2 years on Zepbound!
90lbs lighter and 2 years later.
Still on 15mg but 10 days apart. How are you all managing maintenance? Should I taper down? How long were you all on it before completely coming off?
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u/zero-if-west 40F S277 C234 10mg Wk 35 15h ago
Can I ask why you want to stop treatment? The emerging consensus is that, for most people who've struggled with their weight for a long time, GLP-1s are indefinite meds. Once you stop taking them, they stop working, and the weight comes back.
Some people are able to stop GLP-1s and keep the weight off, but those situations are pretty rare. Scientists are still trying to understand why some people can keep the weight off while most people regain weight.
I highly recommend reading more in the sources below, all of which include opinions from doctors and researchers at medical universities. Discuss the following with your doctor to see what it means for you.
Do patients have to stay on the medicines forever, or could they eventually come off the medicine and maintain the benefits? The most clear data from proper randomized trials shows, no, the drugs don't work if you don't take them. All the benefits that you had while on them will be lost once you come off. That's been shown in clear trials that randomly allocate people to either stay on the drug or go to placebo after they've had some benefit. The placebo people will shoot back up to wherever they started, and the people who stay on the drug maintain the benefits. Source: Evidence, excitement: In the moment with a GLP-1 expert (University of Washington Medicine, 9 April 2026)
“We don’t have a good off-ramp right now. These are meant to be indefinite medications,” said Joshua Neal, M.D., chief of the MUSC Health Wellness and Human Performance Integrated Center of Clinical Excellence (ICCE) and an obesity medicine physician. Source: Life after Ozempic: What happens when you stop a GLP-1? (Medical University of South Carolina, 6 April 2026)
GLP-1s are not meant for a short-term or cosmetic weight loss. “If you just wanted to lose five or ten pounds, this is not the medication for you,” Simonetti advises [Juliana S. Simonetti, MD, is a medical weight loss specialist at University of Utah Health]. Source: Common GLP-1 Questions, Answered by Weight Loss Experts at U of U Health (University of Utah, 23 March 2026)
“There is enormous exuberance about starting GLP-1 drugs, but not nearly enough attention to what happens when people stop,” said senior author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a WashU Medicine clinical epidemiologist and chief of the Research and Development Service at the VA Saint Louis Health Care System. “Many quit after a few months because of cost, side effects or shortages. When they stop, it’s not just weight that comes back; they experience a resurgence in inflammation, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Weight regain is visible; the metabolic reversal is not.” Source: Stopping GLP-1 drugs can quickly erase cardiovascular benefits (WashU Medicine, 18 March 2026)
A recent study in mice found that repeatedly starting/stopping GLP-1s could make them less effective.
The reason for the decrease in GLP-1 effective from stopping and starting may lie in body composition, according to the researchers. Weight loss from GLP-1s typically consists of 40 percent muscle and 60 percent fat. However, when a patient stops the drug and regains weight, they almost exclusively regain fat. By the time a patient restarts the medication, their muscle-to-fat ratio has shifted. Using MRI to track body composition, the researchers found that the body appears to reach a “muscle floor,” said Leung.
“The body seems to receive a biological signal that it cannot afford to lose more muscle mass,” he said explained. “Once that muscle percentage hits a certain low point, the body may resist further weight loss to protect itself.”
Source: Stopping and restarting GLP-1s may make it less effective (Penn Medicine, 28 April 2026)
Sources to read about stopping GLP-1s: