Weight loss jabs 'may be needed for life' unless key changes are made by users

People who shed pounds using must make lasting behavioural changes - or take them for life to avoid piling the weight back on, research suggests. Analysis by Oxford University experts looked at data from 11 studies involving more than 6,300 patients who were using the drugs. They typically lost 8kg but returned to their original weight within 10 months if they stopped taking them.

Some 1,465 patients were taking newer, stronger jabs and , and lost on average twice as much weight (16kg). But they also regained around 10kg within a year if they halted treatment, and were expected to regain all the weight lost in around 20 months.

Study co-author Professor Susan Jebb, an expert in diet and population health at University of Oxford, said: "These drugs are very effective at helping you lose weight, but when you stop them, weight regain is much faster than [after stopping] diets.

"Is it going to be worth the investing in these drugs if they only have them for a short time and then they pile all the weight back on, or does the NHS have to accept that these are going to be long term therapies?"

The study did not look at why people regained weight, by Prof Jebb said it was possible that because the drugs curb hunger, people taking them do not have to actively practice restraint to lose weight.

"So when the drugs are then taken away, you haven't got those sort of behavioural strategies in place that help keep the weight off."

National guidance currently says people should not use the injections for longer than two years.

Prof Jebb added: "Either people really have to accept this as a treatment for life, you're going to have to keep going forever, or we in science need to think really, really hard, how to support people when they stop the drug."

The research was presented at the European Congress on in Malaga, .

Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said the findings showed weight loss jabs were "not the quick fix which many users believe it to be".

He added: "It shouldn't surprise anyone if people regain weight having used GLP-1 drugs without seriously attempting to improve their lifestyle."

Professor Jane Ogden, an expert in health psychology at Surrey University, said that once patients come off the jabs, "there's no point just throwing people back out into the world of their own lives, carrying on their own behaviours from before."

"They're going to need psychological counseling, behaviour change, nutritional support from that moment on to help them sustain healthier behaviour in the long term, to keep the weight off."

Professor Jason Halford, former president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, said: "We need to ensure patients have the support to make the changes in their behaviour they need to sustain the benefits of treatment. [Weight loss jabs] are an adjunct to behavioural change, not a replacement."