Most people quit GLP-1s within a year, the Danish registry data says it plain

Posted by tiredmira in Weight Loss & Metabolic - 1 points, 4 comments.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260401-why-weight-loss-drugs-arent-a-quick-fix

New Danish registry data, basically showing that most people stop their GLP-1 within a year. Not a trial, just real world claims data on a huge population, which is actually more useful than another small RCT for once.

My take, for whatever it is worth. This tracks with what I keep seeing in my own tracking and reading other people's logs. The weight comes back fast when you stop, side effects wear people down, cost is brutal, and nobody really talks about what happens in month 9 when the honeymoon is over and you still have to eat chicken breast for dinner.

The article leaves out one thing I want to know, though. Of the people who quit, how many had actually titrated up to a maintenance-ish dose versus bailing at 2.5 or 5 because the nausea never settled. That detail changes the story a lot.

Anyone here past the 12 month mark and still going? What actually made you stay on?

Comments

• grinder265: Ngl the nausea is the biggest hurdle for most. I know a few people who just couldnt handle the sulfur burps or the constant feeling of being stuffed and bailed early. For me i think the mental fatigue of the food noise disappearing is great until you realize you actually have to plan your nutrition manually again. The regain is REAL if you dont have a plan for the exit. Do you think the dropout rate is higher for people using it for weight loss versus those who actually have the metabolic issu
• weekendnate: Yeah the GI stuff is what I hear about most too, not the appetite suppression itself. People can white knuckle the diet part but feeling sick every time you eat is a different game. On dropout by indication. I suspect the T2D cohort sticks it out longer because there's A1c on the line, not just a number on the scale. Pure weight loss users are way more likely to quit when the "I tried it" story is complete, even if they're 15 pounds up from their lowest. Your point about the exit plan is the
• tiredmira: Yeah the T2D vs pure weight loss split is basically what I was getting at with the titration question. People with A1c staring back at them have a different quit calculus than someone who just wanted to drop 20 lbs for a wedding 😅 The "I tried it" thing is so real. I noticed in my own logs that the weeks I was most tempted to stop were not the hungriest weeks, they were the ones where I felt fine and started telling myself I was "cured." That is a scary pattern to notice in yourself.
• tiredmira: The food noise piece is so real, it kinda freaks you out when it comes back because you forgot what it was like to just... Think about food constantly 😅 about weight loss vs metabolic use. My gut says dropout is higher in the weight loss group, because the motivation is a number on a scale and not a lab value. Once you hit it, the why to keep paying and feeling nauseous kinda evaporates. But I dont think the Danish data splits it out that way, would be a much better paper if they did. For me

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.