What happens when you stop
What happens if you stop taking a GLP-1?
On the two labels here that tested it, the weight comes back and so does most of what else the drug had moved. The largest result is Zepbound: after 36 weeks on the drug, the people randomly assigned to stop gained 14% of body weight over the following year while those who carried on lost 5.5% more — 19.5 points between the same patients, decided by nothing but whether the drug continued. 13 of the 15 drugs on this site have never been through a trial of this shape, and that is worth saying plainly rather than assuming the same thing happens.
Tested by stopping it
| Drug | On it first | Stopped | Carried on | Kept of the loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zepbound | 36 wks, −20.9% | +14% | -5.5% | 46% |
| Wegovy | 20 wks, −10.4% | +6.9% | -7.9% | 40% |
“Stopped” and “carried on” are changes from the day the drug was withdrawn, not from the start of the trial. “Kept of the loss” converts both to kilograms first, because the loss and the regain are percentages of different weights and dividing one by the other overstates the regain.
Never tested this way (13)
These labels carry no randomized withdrawal trial. Their trials compare the drug with placebo from the start, which measures what happens if you never take it rather than what happens if you stop. Anyone telling you the figures above apply to these is reasoning by analogy, which may well be right and is not a measurement.
- Compounded semaglutideno trial of its ownsemaglutide was measured as Wegovy →
- Compounded tirzepatideno trial of its owntirzepatide was measured as Zepbound →
- Contrave
- Foundayo
- Mounjarotirzepatide was measured as Zepbound →
- Ozempicsemaglutide was measured as Wegovy →
- Phentermine
- Qsymia
- Rybelsussemaglutide was measured as Wegovy →
- Saxenda
- Trulicity
- Victoza
- Wegovy pillsemaglutide was measured as Wegovy →
Why this sits on a price site
Because it decides what the prices mean. Every comparison here comes to a yearly figure, and a yearly figure reads like the cost of getting somewhere. On these two drugs it is closer to a subscription: Zepbound at $5,837 a year at maintenance, Wegovy at $4,537 a year at maintenance, for as long as the result is wanted. No other comparison in this category prints the withdrawal figure beside the price, and the two facts only mean something together.
Questions
- Which weight-loss drugs have been tested by stopping them?
- 2 of the 15 on this site: Zepbound and Wegovy. Both labels carry a randomized withdrawal trial, where everyone takes the drug first and only those who reach the maintenance dose are then randomly assigned to continue or to switch to placebo. The other 13 have no such trial on their label, so what happens when they stop has not been measured this way.
- Why does it matter which trial design was used?
- Because the usual trial answers a different question. A placebo-controlled trial compares taking the drug with never taking it, and its result is the number every comparison page quotes. A withdrawal trial compares carrying on with stopping, in people who have already lost the weight — which is the situation a person is actually in when they ask whether they can come off.
- Does this mean the drugs are for life?
- These trials do not say that and this site will not. Each measured about a year off the drug (52 weeks for Zepbound, 48 weeks for Wegovy), in people who had tolerated it for months, with no attempt at a taper or a lower maintenance dose. What they establish is narrower and still worth knowing: stopping is not a neutral event, and a monthly price implies it is.
- How long does it take for your body to go back to normal after Ozempic?
- No trial has measured it for Ozempic: its label has no stopping study, and the one trial of stopping semaglutide is on Wegovy's label — the same molecule under an obesity label, tested at 2.4 mg. The drug clears first: Ozempic's label says semaglutide stays in the circulation for about 5 weeks after the last dose, and Wegovy's says about 5 to 7 weeks after the last 2.4 mg or 7.2 mg injection. What follows was measured only on Wegovy's label: after 20 weeks on the drug, the group switched to placebo regained 6.9% of body weight over the next 48 weeks while those who stayed on lost 7.9% more, and in the placebo group waist circumference rose 3.3 cm and systolic blood pressure 4.4 mmHg. The trial ended there, so it does not say how long a full return takes, or whether one happens.
- Why are people stopping Wegovy and Ozempic?
- Mostly the price. A Cleveland Clinic review of 288 patients who stopped semaglutide or tirzepatide within their first year found 47.6% stopped over cost or insurance, 14.6% because they could not tolerate the side effects, 11.8% because a shortage left them unable to fill the prescription, and 2.4% to switch to a compounded version (Gasoyan et al., Obesity, October 2025). How many stop depends on when they started. In a US health-record cohort of 125,474 adults, 64.8% of those without type 2 diabetes stopped within a year (Rodriguez et al., JAMA Network Open, January 2025). Prime Therapeutics, a pharmacy benefit manager, reports one-year persistence rising from 33% of people who started in 2021 to 63% of those who started in early 2024, which it attributes largely to the shortages ending.
- Do you have to taper off a GLP-1?
- Neither label that tested stopping asks for a taper: the dosing sections for Wegovy and Zepbound give no schedule for coming off, and both withdrawal trials moved people straight from the maintenance dose to placebo. The labels differ on coming back. Wegovy's says that after 2 or more missed weekly doses the escalation starts again at a lower dose; Zepbound's gives a rule only for a single missed dose — take it within 4 days, otherwise skip it. Whether a slow taper reduces the regain has not been tested in a randomized trial; the only figures are observational, from one Danish online clinic, and are on the Wegovy page.
Where these withdrawal trials are read from
Each trial named here is in the drug's own FDA label, and these are the registers those labels are read from.
- DailyMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine — The register every FDA label quoted on this site is read from, with the version history that dates each one.
- Drugs@FDA: FDA-approved drugs — What is approved, for which indication, and when — the register behind every approval date here.