The main study into the effectiveness of semaglutide (Ozempic) was 72 weeks duration. In practice, most pts plateau after about 60 weeks. It's licensed for use for a maximum of 2 years, after which about 98% of patients regain at least two-thirds of the weight they have lost within a year (see link below if you're interested). Even worse, all the cardiometabolic benefits which accompany the weight loss - lower BP, better glucose control and insulin secretion/response, lower LDL cholesterol etc - are entirely reversed once stopping semaglutide. In practice, the overwhelming majority of patients regain
all the weight that they had lost, for entirely predictable reasons.
I'd said in a previous post that the acid test as to whether or not she's taking a drug like ozempic (not that it's anyone's business but hers) is if she manages to keep the weight off for about 18-24 months. She's a classic yo-yo dieter, and in previous cycles, she's lost and regained a couple of stone in a 6-9 month period (again, a very classic pattern). If she suddenly loses a lot of weight
and manages to keep it off, then you can be pretty sure that something has changed this time...
To explore changes in body weight and cardiometabolic risk factors after treatment withdrawal in the STEP 1 trial extension. STEP 1 (NCT03548935) randomized 1961 adults with a body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2 (or ≥ 27 kg/m2 with ≥ 1 weight‐related ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov