The Hard Part Of GLP-1 Weight Loss

Weight loss on GLP-1s can feel like someone finally turned the volume down on your appetite and the constant food noise. But once you hit your goal weight, the real work starts, and a lot of people are not warned about that phase. We walk through what “after” really looks like when you have been using semaglutide or tirzepatide, and why maintenance can feel harder than losing even when you did everything right.

We get into the biology behind regain risk: metabolic adaptation, a slower resting burn, hunger signals coming back, and the body’s drive to return to a previous set point. We also talk about the psychology of success, including the anxiety that can show up right after you reach your goal and the identity shift from “I’m losing” to “I’m maintaining.” If you have wondered whether you will gain weight back when you stop a GLP-1 medication, we lay out the honest answer and what factors make the biggest difference.

We also keep it practical. We talk hydration, protein, and simple strength training options that do not require a gym, like ankle weights and wrist weights, so you can protect muscle and build a routine you will actually repeat. If cost, insurance, or side effects make long-term GLP-1 use unrealistic, you will leave with a framework for a real maintenance plan and the support systems that make it sustainable. Subscribe for more health and fitness strategy, share this with a friend navigating GLP-1 maintenance, and leave a review with your biggest question about the “after” phase.

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Transcript

Why GLP-1s Feel Life Changing

Food Noise And The Oprah Debate

Maintenance Starts After The Goal

What Happens When You Stop

The Anxiety After Success

Metabolic Adaptation And Recalibration

Long Term Medication Plan Decisions

Consistency Plus Simple Strength Training

Support Systems And Real Life Planning

Sponsors And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome to episode three of season two of 247 Health News, hosted by Health Coach Shay. These topics are from my blog at 247healthnews.com, or their topics that I think are important to health and fitness. So today it's going to be something I think is important to health and fitness. And it's kind of like a part two of GLP1s. So because these topics are important to your health, I'll try to break them down so we can apply them to our regular lives and make informed decisions. So again, I am your host, Health Coach Shay. I'm a master trainer and a holistic health coach. So let's do a few disclaimers. My information is not meant to be per to be prescribed or to take in lieu of a discussion with your doctor. As a matter of fact, I recommend that you speak to your health care professional, especially when we're talking about GLP ones. Shouldn't be ordering that stuff off the internet in bulk without talking to your doctor, unless you already have a prescription or something and you're doing it, I don't know. Just be careful. You should always speak to your healthcare professional before making nutrition or fitness changes. I'm a health coach, so I am making recommendations only in that capacity. So I always like to say this is where science meets strategy, because I think your DNA is one of the biggest things that you should be paying attention to when it comes to health coaching. So this is where science meets strategy and your DNA becomes the blueprint for your strongest, healthiest life. So let's get started with this GLP1 stuff. On my last podcast, I explained what GLP1s do, what they are. I thought it was quite interesting that they are an actual thing that you already have in your body, that it just may not be working just right. So today we're gonna talk about what happens after. You know, if you're on semaglutide, trasepatide, or any of the GLP1 medications, you already know how powerful they are. You know, they quiet the food noise, they help you feel full, and for many people, they finally make weight loss feel possible. Sometimes for the first time in their lives, which is off the hook. But here's the thing: weight loss is just the beginning. Your body is going to be completely different. And the moment you hit your goal, a whole new phase begins. One that's rarely discussed, often misunderstood, and absolutely critical for long-term success. So you don't want to be going on and off of this stuff and going back and forth. Um, you know, you have to shift from active weight loss to long-term maintenance. And today we're gonna break it down. We're gonna talk about the biology, the physiology, uh the psychology, the habits, and uh the medication decisions that you're gonna have to make and the support systems that make maintenance not just possible, but sustainable. And we're also gonna talk about something that doesn't get nearly enough attention is uh the role of moi, health coaches, and helping you navigate this new chapter. So whether you're on a GLP right now or talking about starting or already at your weight loss goal and wondering what comes next, guess what? This episode is for you. So GLP1 medications have completely changed the landscape of weight loss. In just a few years, drugs like Ozimpic, or just a few years ago, sorry, uh just like Ozimpic and uh Madaro were mainly used for diabetes. Most people haven't even hadn't even heard about them, didn't know anything about that. Today they're everywhere. And many people, uh, and for many people, they've become the first tool that actually actually works for long-term weight loss. In fact, about one in eight adults, U.S. adults, have tried GLP1 and one uh GLP1 medications. And I mean that's tens of millions of people, that's a lot. One in eight of 300 billion people, right? So what makes it different? What makes GLP1s different? They don't just rely on willpower, they work on your biology. Remember what I said GLP1s mimic a hormone in your body that is already produced, and that hormone helps regulate appetite, digestion, blood sugar, and fullness. But what people really notice is something called food noise disappearing. The constant mental chatter about food, what to eat next, whether to snack. Think about food even when you're not hungry. Gee whiz. For many people, it finally goes quiet. And for the first time, eating feels calm, not obsessive, not stressful, just normal. And that's why these medications feel so life-changing. But here's what most people don't expect. Weight loss is only the first chapter. What comes next is where the real challenge begins. Now, I want to drag you back, you have to Google this, and uh, I want to make sure you really understand that food noise. Um, Oprah was talking about it. Now, whether you like her, love her, or hate her, whatever it is, um, she was right about that. Um, I'm not sure I agree with her assessment that uh you need to have it, you need to be on GLP1s forever, like heart medicine. Um I definitely don't agree with that. I'm not gonna say I'm not sure. I don't agree with that at all. Um, however, people who have food noise, it makes me wonder. Um, is that why she's on it? Did she have some really bad food noise and now she's just on a low dose GLP1s just so she can get rid of the food noise? I don't know if it can go down that far. I'm I'm I'm not sure. I would actually have a conversation with my doctor about that. Um so let's, you know, I I and I feel I feel for folks who died. I mean, I eating is is is can be boring to me and can be, I don't know, I'm I'm going off on a tangent, but eating can be boring to me. I like to taste foods that sort of, you know, make me excited to eat them and things like that. And I don't I don't think I have food noise. Um, but I have studied up on this because like I said, I'm a health coach and I really am concerned um with quick fisk quick fist fixes. I get nervous about those and I like to really dig dig into them and and explain. So when, like I said, when I found out this was a hormone that was produced in your body, I thought, okay, well, that's better at the very least. You're not taking something artificial. It's something that's produced, well, it is artificial, but it's something that's produced in your body. So that makes me feel a little better about it. Um, so anyway, let's go, let's talk about this maintenance. Uh sorry, that was an aside tangent, because it just makes me think about, you know, what we're putting in our bodies and how we're starting to question everything that's made outside of our own homes. And that's not natural. So just think about that. But if you're gonna go on them, I think that's a personal choice. And if you have been on them, uh it's all okay, but you have to remember um, first of all, do you have the money to be on them forever? And if you don't, what about the maintenance after? So let's talk about it. Um, because this is where so many people struggle, not just on GLP1s, but with any weight loss. I lost my 50 pounds, and now I gotta keep it off. What do I do? And it's not because people fail, it's because biology kicks back in. When you lose weight, your body adapts, your metabolism slows down, you burn fewer calories at rest, your hunger hormones increase, your fullness hormones decrease. And guess what? Your body starts trying to return to its previous weight. So, those of you who don't want to be gym heads, you run into a problem because you might have been doing that extra thing to get that weight off, and you want to stop doing that extra thing. But if you don't do that extra thing, all of that other stuff happens. So it's it's really the survival of your system. Your body doesn't know you're trying to lose weight, it thinks you're starving, so it pushes back. And this is why maintenance often feels harder than losing the weight. You have to get it so get it to a point where your body understands this is the new normal. And let me tell you, I know something about that. Uh small aside, I'm a stroke survivor and I had a big major stroke. So it is, it is uh the new normal is hard. Believe me. So during weight loss, you have momentum, you see progress, you feel motivated. But once you hit your goal, the momentum slows and your body starts resisting. And if you stop the medication or even reduce it, those hunger signals may come back. Sometimes subtly, sometimes very quickly. I spoke to a we uh woman recently, I don't know why she did this, but uh good example, she took the medication for a month, she lost, I guess, a good bit of weight, and she just stopped. And I was like, okay. And now she wants back on the medicine because all the noise came back. And I tried to explain to her that you can do something for seven days and it forms a habit, but your biology is not like that. Your biology needs 90 days, six months to change and to recognize its new normal and sometimes longer. So you have to understand again that if you regain the weight, it's not it's not personal failure, it's psychology, is I'm sorry, it's it's physiological, right? Um, and when you understand that, you can stop blaming yourself and start building a real strategy to go forward. So again, people ask, what happens when you stop the GLP ones? Um, you know, because people want to know. Especially, think about it. What did I say before? The people who are on GLP ones have lost the weight, could be for the first time ever. So their big question is if I stop the medication, will I gain the weight back? Um, the honest answer is some people do regain the weight. Some people regain a little, some people regain more. But it's not guaranteed. Here's why you regain, or why you can regain while you're on a medication, it's helping regulate your appetite, reduce cravings, slow down digestion, and help you feel full sooner. So when you stop, those side, those effects, I almost said side effects, those are the effects of the medication. So it's not side effects, it's effects of the medication, they start to fade. Your hunger may increase, cravings may return, you may feel less full after eating. And I wanted to liken that to if you were just working out to lose the weight, and you were doing these heavy workouts to help get the weight off, and you slow down those workouts, but you're at this smaller weight, your body's gonna need more fuel to keep going. So your hunger is going to increase, cravings may go up because you're going to feel hungry. But anyway, but here's the important part not everyone has the same experience. So it depends on things like your habits, your stress, your sleep, and your your environment. So the takeaway is stopping GLP ones do not doom you, but they do require a plan and of course support. Um so let's talk about a little bit of something that people don't think might happen. Um the emotional side of reaching your weight loss goal, you know, you might think you're just gonna feel happy and you're done. And yes, there's relief, there's pride, but also now sets in that anxiety, right? Right in there, you're looking, you're feeling the fear that you might regain the weight. And whatever your perfect is, you're gonna feel the pressure to stay perfect, right? And now there's and you know, and even there's some some confusion. Okay, so what do I do now? Because your identity has been, I need to lose weight, or I'm losing weight. And now it becomes I'm maintaining. And we're not talking about that, and that's a completely different mindset that you have to have. And when you start seeing maintenance as a new phase and not an ending, is because it's much more manageable. So you have to be really mindful that maintaining is a stage. Um, there's one concept that can completely change how you see this process uh metabolic adaptation. After weight loss, your body becomes more efficient. You burn fewer calories, you feel hungrier. Yes, I said that, you feel hungrier, and you feel less full, and it doesn't go away right away. Your body is still adjusting for months, sometimes longer. Remember at the beginning of this, I said three months, maybe six months, maybe a year, you need metabolic change. So your body is still adjusting for months, sometimes longer. So if maintenance feels harder than expected, again, that's not you failing. That's your body recalibrating. Your biology is recalibrating. You have to make sure that your biology is ready for the smaller size or whatever you've done with your weight, how much ever you've lost, whatever you got a smaller waist, whatever you've done, you have to make sure your biology has adapted to it. You lose 60 pounds in six months, and your biology, your your biology is not ready. It it could it could not be ready. So you ask the question, so should I stay on the medication long term? For some people, that might be the solution. That might be a yes. Many experts now view GLP1s like a like long-term treatments. Similar, see, here we go, similar to blood pressure and cholesterol medicines. A maintenance dose can help regulate your appetite and prevent regain, prevent you from regaining the weight. But we have to make sure that that's right for you. Some people can't deal with the costs, the insurance, and the side effects, or simply prefer not to stay on it. So there's no right answer. The key is having a plan that works for you. Um, I talked to another person today about the medication and I asked them to do their own re research. Because the thing is you have to be mindful that you need to do research, not only just on which medications to take, but what's your after plan? What are you gonna do after the medication? What's the answer for you? And when is your end? That's something to discuss with your doctor as well. When is your end? When when might I be finished with this? How fast, in your in your mind, you know how fast your body adjusts to things, right? You have to stay, you know, there's so many. I mean, we can go back to those side effects. People talk about uh being nauseous, uh getting the flabby skin, and all of that kind of stuff. The other conversation I had today was I asked um the lady, was she working out? Um we talked about the GLP once. And do you was she drinking water? Because you need to be drinking enough water to keep your body hydrated, and you need to be doing some workouts to get your skin tight. So you have to be mindful of all of those things. So, you know, the big deal here is maintenance is not about perfection, it's about consistency, right? I have an uh episode early on when I started doing this, a little little shirt short episode called 10 Small Changes You Can Make Today to Prevent Weight Gain. Go listen to that one. It's 20 minutes. It's not even 20 minutes, it's like 19 and a half minutes. Listen to that one. And then I have another one that's even shorter, 12 minutes, almost 13. Weekend Warriors Workout. Is it still good? Can't are and those two uh episodes talk about being consistent doing specific things. If you are working out Friday, Saturday, Sunday, well, that's three days a week that you're working out. And if you are picking two to three out of the ten small changes that you can do to help prevent weight gain, uh weight gain, and you're doing those two to three things uh weekly, consistent, consistent. You don't need to do everything, you just need to do something. Um and I I I recently, more of a another tangent, I recently was um uh reading about um how they're talking to us about how we need to do more cardio and walking just ain't getting it, right? I'm sorry, not more cardio, more weight training, right? And people, when you say weight training to some people, they're like, forget about it, right? They're they're they're uninterested, they don't want to have anything to do with any kind of uh picking up weight. Or or running around and going to the gym and doing that. That's not what it has to be. You don't have to be, you know, throwing dumbbells around the gym. What you can do is get you some ankle weights and do some leg lifts, get you some wrist weights and do some arm curls that while you walk and you can still walk. Those things are very much the same and they help tighten up your muscles on your body and do good. Pressing your head, I'm sorry, pressing your head, pressing your arms over your head with wrist weights on is which is weight training. Okay? So I think we get because it's so much on the TV about people getting buff and lifting and doing all this stuff, we get really um, we get really deeply concerned about going to the gym. I have a lot of other reasons about going to the gym that I get deeply concerned about. I'm a little bit of a germaphobe, so I don't want to be in there with everybody else sweating. So I'm kind of freaky about that. I can understand if that's your your deal. I can understand if that's your deal and you don't want to go to the gym. For what you pay to go to the gym monthly, you can pick up probably three varying sizes in ankle and wish rate weights, and you're good for a while. Start with, I don't know, whatever you need to start with that's good for you, and use them like I said, and you'll be good to go. I promise. Uh you're talking to a health coach, that is a perfect, especially if you're like me and over 50. Especially. But anybody can do that. If if the gym hell get down, it don't have to be your get down. It's all good. So let's see, what else? Well, let's wrap this up. So reaching your weight loss goal on a GLP one is a major milestone. Um, but I want you to make sure that you understand it's not the end of the journey, it's just the beginning of the new thing, the maintenance phase. You have to remember this phase requires that you understand your biology, you build sustainable habits, and you stay connected to support. And it's tough to know what that looks like because what is your support? Do you walk with your significant other? Do you guys cook meals the same way? I talked to my mom the other day, and it was more about pricing than anything else. And she said she was gonna go completely vegan, and I was kind of freaking out. I was like, well, mom, you know, at your age, you need some you need some protein, right? You need some protein. And what about your husband? You guys need some protein. She's like, he agrees, and you know, she's gonna start looking at more protein-rich vegetables and beans and all of that sort of stuff. She's trying to grow everything. So you have to have a plan for everything. And it's unfortunate because uh off on another tangent again. It's unfortunate because when we think about all these plans, we have all this other life going on. You gotta go to work, you might have to take care of the kids, and the kids require certain meals. Um, but I want you to remember too that they generally require the same meals that you do. If you go vegan and you need protein, and you're taking your kids with you, make sure you got protein for them too. Everybody needs that stuff. So you have to it, everything requires a plan and you have to be compassionate with yourself and responsible and recognize that in the maintenance part of the weight loss program, whether on GLP ones or not, your body is still adjusting, and that's a normal thing. Remember, if you're in this phase right now, you're not failing, you're not behind. It's a transitional situation, right? So keep in mind that you just need the right support, um, you need a long-term plan because success is absolutely possible, right? So you need to make sure that you're paying attention to all the things. If you're just taking a shot and just happy to be dropping that weight because it's gonna drop off, and you're not thinking about what's gonna happen, maybe you are an Oprah and you have long money. But I I know in this day and age not everyone does. So you do have to think about what's gonna happen after this. If you have a finite amount, let's say you say you got six months of money, okay, then you need a you know, a five-year plan. I got six months of money to get this weight off of me. I'm gonna drop it off, and I need to make sure that I know what I'm gonna do after that six months to maintain this weight. So again, I am Health Coach Shay. I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to me. Uh let's talk about a little bit of our sponsorship here. So we have uh Sage Life Therapeutics is one of my sponsors. They sell great uh supplements, especially if you're on your maintenance plan. They said they sell great supplements. We have a great uh Whey, uh Dreamsicle, vanilla, and a great chocolate. So take check that out. Um my friends over at My Healing365. Um they are a full telehealth clinic, but they do have GLP1 treatments plans that you can look into. And then let's see, who else? Who else? My my off-brand, uh my my not health folks. Uh well, we'll talk about it. You'll see them in the comments of of this uh of this podcast. So, as always, thanks for being here and take care of yourself. Thank you. Have a great day.