In this Article:
01: What do I do if I want to come off my weight loss treatment? 02: What happens when I stop taking my weight loss treatment? 03: How can I prevent weight gain after coming off my treatment? 04: Can I come back to my weight loss treatment later?What do I do if I want to come off my weight loss treatment?
Depending on your individual circumstances and how your weight loss treatment is progressing, you might be thinking about managing your weight in other ways. The first thing you should do if you’re considering stopping your weight loss treatment is to consult your clinician.
As a Pharmacy2U patient, you’ll need to submit a consultation form, and your clinician will review these factors so they can provide a recommendation:
How long you’ve been on your weight loss treatment
How close you are to, or how long you’ve been in your healthy BMI range
Your individual circumstances, including age, ethnicity, and gender
Any side effects you’ve experienced and their severity
Please remember that our clinician will make their recommendation based on what’s best for you, your health and your weight loss goals.
What happens when I stop taking my weight loss treatment?
To understand what happens when you stop, it’s important to know what happens to your body when you’re on weight loss medication. Depending on which medication you’re on, such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, they work by mimicking the actions of naturally occurring gut hormones like GLP-1 and GIP that regulate appetite and blood sugar levels.
When you stop taking your weight loss medication, your body will experience hormonal changes. This means you might well see an increase in your appetite, so the likelihood of putting the weight back on you have previously lost increases.
One study from 2022 found that after 68 weeks of weight loss treatment injections, the average patient saw a drop of 15% in their body weight, but within one year from the end of their treatment, patients saw an average of two thirds of their prior weight loss returned.
How can I prevent weight gain after coming off my treatment?
As part of your weight loss treatment journey, it’s important that you pair your medication with positive lifestyle changes, such as implementing a healthy, balanced diet and a regular exercise routine, to help you boost your weight loss goals and results.
Maintaining your weight loss results, with or without regular medication, is always a challenge, but there are things you can do to help:
Create and maintain a healthy relationship with food
Implement a regular exercise routine
Manage your mental and emotional wellbeing
Set realistic, achievable goals, particularly for diet and exercise
Seek advice or treatment for any underlying health conditions
Can I come back to my weight loss treatment later?
If you choose to pause your weight loss treatment, you can request to restart your journey with Pharmacy2U at any time. All prescriptions are subject to a clinician’s review of your current health status, including BMI and eligibility criteria. We store your weight loss history to support this assessment, but your clinician will ensure any renewed treatment aligns with UK prescribing guidelines.
If you do return to us after moving to another provider of weight loss medication, we will need written proof of your weight loss history with that provider. Once you’ve submitted your consultation, you can ask questions you may have by visiting ‘My Account’, then ‘Online Doctor’, and finally ‘My Inbox’.