#96 What Happens When You Stop Ozempic

You’ve seen the headlines.

You’ve watched the stories.

Someone drops 8 stone on weight loss injections, and then gains half of it back in 4 months.

What’s really going on?

In this episode, Max breaks down the most important weight loss study that no one wants to talk about, not about what happens on the injections… but what happens after.

• Weight regain is not random, it’s predictable.
• Cravings come back louder.
• Muscle is lost.
• Blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure rebound faster than the weight.

And most importantly: nothing underneath has changed.

This is the episode every woman needs to hear before she pins her hopes on a jab. Especially if you've already tried the injections… and you’re quietly watching the weight come back on.

Max will show you:

• Why the weight nearly always comes back, and faster than you think
• What metabolic inflexibility really is (and why sugar cravings return like clockwork)
• Why late-night snacking isn’t a food problem, it’s emotional
• The truth about muscle loss, hormone shifts, and how they affect fat loss over 40
• What actually works if you want results that last without calorie counting or restriction

This isn’t about shaming injections.

It’s about understanding why they’re not a solution, and how to finally fix the real problem.

If you want freedom from food, peace in your body, and results that actually stick, this episode will change how you see weight loss forever.

Listen now, before you waste another year on something that was never built to last.

Watch my The Cravings & Fat-Burning Masterclass:  https://www.neverdietagainmethod.uk/register-podcast

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/max.lowery/

Book a Food Freedom Breakthrough Call: https://www.neverdietagainmethod.uk/call-ig

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Study Everyone’s Talking About
• 2:03 What The Review Actually Measured
• 4:15 News Clip And Real-World Stories
• 6:16 The Pattern Of Regain And Health Reversal
• 9:47 Why Muscle Loss Changes Everything
• 13:15 Metabolic Flexibility Versus Sugar Burning
• 18:25 Evening Cravings And Emotional Eating

Transcript

Max Lowery: 0:00

Over the last few days, a major news study has been everywhere in the media. It's been all over the news, headlines, and clips are being shared across social media. And it all comes back to one uncomfortable question about weight loss injections. What actually happens when you stop taking them? This wasn't a small study, and it's not just opinion. It was a large systematic review led by researchers at Oxford, published in the British Medical Journal. They looked specifically at what happens after people stop weight loss medication, not during, after. And across dozens of studies and thousands of people, they tracked weight regain and health markers once the injections ended. And the findings are confronting. On average, people regain weight month after month. Most return to their starting weight within around a year and a half. And the health improvements of blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure unwind even faster than that. That's why you're now seeing real stories on the news. People who lost huge amounts of weight stopped the drug and watched it come back far quicker than they expected. In today's episode, I'm going to break down what this study actually shows, why the weight nearly always comes back when the injections stop, and what needs to change if you want results that last. I'll also explain the approach we use with our clients to help them lose weight without injections, restriction, or calorie counting. So weight loss doesn't become something they have to keep starting over and over again. How do you create a life that allows you to lose weight, eat the foods that you love, and sustain the results? Over the last 10 years, I've helped thousands of people do exactly that. I'm Max Lowry. I'm an author, personal trainer, and weight loss coach. In this podcast, I'm going to share my top tips and tricks from within my one-on-one coaching program. It's my goal to give you the tools and understanding so that you never diet again. So let's look at the study. The study wasn't asking whether weight loss drugs help people lose weight. We already know they do. What it looked at was something far more important. What happens after people stop taking them? The researchers reviewed 37 studies, over 9,000 adults, people using weight loss medication for weeks and months, and then followed them once the medication was stopped. They tracked two things. First, body weight. Second, key health markers like blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure. This was a large, well-designed review of real data. And the goal was very clear to measure how quickly the weight comes back and how long do any health benefits actually last once the drug is removed. That's it. No hype, no agenda, just one simple question. So before I go into the findings, I want to ground this into something real. Because the study hasn't just stayed in academic journals, it's been all over the news and all over social media. You've probably seen it. So I'm going to play a short clip now from Sky News. Not because the clip is evidence, but because it gives context. I want you to listen carefully to what she says about what happened after the injections stopped.

Speaker 2: 2:52

Use the weight loss jabs and the pounds just fall away. But what happens when the treatment stops? New research has some answers.

Speaker: 3:00

It was like all my dreams came true, it's like a miracle cure, it felt at the time.

Speaker 2: 3:06

Rosie lost eight stone using Wagovi. But when the weight loss began to slow, she quit. The jabs were too expensive for not much benefit. But in just four months, she's put back on four stone, half of what she lost. She eats healthily during the day, but without the jabs, she's found she can't control the sugar cravings in the evenings.

Speaker: 3:25

I'm just trying to figure out what to do. It's difficult when all the price of everything has gone up so much as well. It probably does mean that I'll need to be on those kind of drugs for life. But it's how to afford that because I can't get it through the NHS.

Speaker 2: 3:40

It's a dilemma many people are now facing. A new survey shows almost one in ten British adults has recently used weight loss jabs or is seriously considering them. But separate research shows around half stop treatment within 12 months, most likely because of cost or side effects. On average, they then regain all the weight they lost in one and a half years, underlying signs of ill health will things like diabetes risk return even faster in just 1.4 years. Scientists at the University of Oxford say the NHS and people buying the jabs privately may have to face up to the cost of lifelong treatment.

Max Lowery: 4:16

Here's what the researchers found when people stopped taking weight loss medication. First, weight regain was not random. It followed a clear pattern. On average, people regained about 0.4 kilos every single month once they stopped taking the drug. That doesn't sound dramatic at first, but month after month, it adds up quickly. At that speed, most people were back to their starting point within about a year and a half. In other words, the weight didn't creep back on, it came back predictably. When the researchers looked at the newer drugs, the pattern was even clearer. People lost more weight while taking them, but they also regained weight faster once they stopped. In those cases, people returned to their weights closer to a year rather than a year and a half. This next point is what really matters. While people were on the drug, their health markers improved. Blood sugar went down, blood pressure improved, cholesterol levels dropped, which they usually do when you lose weight. But once the medication stopped and the weight came back on, the improvements didn't last. Blood sugar rose, cholesterol climbed back up, blood pressure increased. The researchers estimated that most of these health markers returned to where they started within about one to one and a half years, but actually slightly quicker than the weight coming back on. So the final takeaway from the study is very clear. If you stop the medication, most people regain the weight and the health benefits fade even more quickly than the weight regain. This doesn't mean the drugs don't work, it means they only work whilst you continue injecting yourself every single day. And that's a very important difference. So let's talk about the real reasons why this happens. Why does the weight come back on after you stop taking the medication? Firstly, muscle loss is a big deal and it changes everything. When people lose a lot of weight quickly, they don't just lose fat, they also lose what's known as lean mass, which is essentially muscle. In a study on people who were taking GLP1 medication, they looked at a body composition analysis, and roughly 75% of the weight loss was fat mass, which is good, but 25% was lean mass. So that 25% number really matters because lean mass is not just cosmetic, it's incredibly functional. And since I exclusively help women over the age of 40, I want to tell you that you need to retain as much muscle as possible. Let's talk about that. So the more muscle you have, the more energy your body uses, even when you're doing nothing. Your resting metabolic rate is strongly linked with lean body mass. So if you lose a chunk of muscle during rapid weight loss, your engine shrinks. That means you burn fewer calories at rest than you used to, which means long-term weight loss much, much harder. And this is especially important for women because women generally have less muscle to begin with and they lose muscle more easily with age and the changes of the perimenopause and menopause, especially if they're not doing any strength training or eating enough protein. And it's not just about weight regain. Less muscle can mean lower strength and poorer balance, higher risk of falls and injuries as you age, lower mobility and independence in later life. So if a woman loses weight fast, regains fat, but does not regain muscle, she can actually end up in a worse place than when she started. Less strength, less confidence in her body, and an even harder time maintaining weight. And with that reduction of muscle mass and increase in body fat, the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and metabolic disease also increase drastically. That is why any serious long-term weight loss plan has to do everything to protect muscle mass. GLP1 medications do not protect muscle mass. The second reason why the weight comes back on is because appetite suppression does not fix what's known as sugar burning mode. This is the part most people completely miss. Weight loss injections work because they turn down hunger signals, they quiet food noise, they make eating less feel easier, but they do not change how your body fuels itself. To understand this, you need to understand metabolic flexibility. Your body has three main fuel sources. First, sugar or glucose that comes from the food you eat. Even nutrient-dense whole foods gets broken down into simple sugars so your body can use it for energy. It's quick, it's easy, but it runs out fast. Second, we have stored sugar, which is called glycogen. This is stored in the muscle and the liver. Think of it like a small backup battery. It helps between meals, but it's limited. And third, you have fat. This is your long-term fuel reserve. You carry tens of thousands of calories of fat on your body. It burns much slower, but it lasts for a very, very long time. A healthy, flexible body can switch between these fuel sources easily. Sugar when needed, fat when sugar runs low. No issues, no drama. That ability to switch is called metabolic flexibility. A simple analogy that makes it clear: imagine your body is a hybrid car. A good hybrid can run on petrol or electric. If one runs low, it switches smoothly to the other and you barely notice. A metabolically flexible body works the same way. If sugar runs low, it switches to fat. Energy stays stable, and hunger, mood, and energy levels stay constant. Now imagine a car that only runs on petrol. If the petrol gets low, the alarms go off, the engine splutters, you panic and search for fuel. That is what sugar burning mode looks like in the body. And modern life pushes people into sugar burning mode. So do the changes of the perimenopause and menopause. The modern food environment has made this worse. We snack all day, we graze, we eat little and often, we sip calories, we never really let fuel run low. And this has become completely normal to the point where our bodies expect a constant stream of food. And instead of being flexible, it becomes dependent. You're probably wondering, am I metabolically inflexible? Well, if you resonate with any of these statements, you probably are. So if you need to eat often just to feel okay and function, if you feel shaky, irritable, or tired if meals are delayed, if if you think about food constantly, if you eat when you're not hungry, and if you feel out of control around food, especially later in the day, this is not a willpower problem. It's a metabolic flexibility problem. The hormonal changes of the perimenopause and menopause make metabolic flexibility more likely as well. Short term, metabolic inflexibility leads to weight gain, feeling out of control of food, and long term, it raises the risk of metabolic disease and even Alzheimer's. So the injections suppress the appetite, they turn down hunger signals, they reduce food noise. And that feels amazing if you've been stuck in sugar burning mode for years. For the first time, the alarms go quiet. But here's the key point the drug is doing the work, not your metabolism. Your body has not learned how to switch fuels, it's just been muted. So what happens when the drug is removed? The old system comes back online. And because food intake has been lower for months, the body is now extra alert. So what happens? Hunger ramps up, cravings ramp up, food thoughts come back louder. And I've heard people say things like, My appetite came back with a vengeance. I couldn't stop thinking about food, and I felt completely out of control with food again. And they're not weak. It's their body is doing exactly what it was trained to do. It's still a petrol-only engine, and suddenly the petrol supply feels uncertain, so it panics. And this is why appetite suppression alone is not enough. Unless someone rebuilds metabolic flexibility, unless the body learns it can safely burn fat again, the moment the drug is removed, the system snaps back. And that is why the weight so often comes back too. Thirdly, there is an emotional and psychological reason that the cravings and weight loss come back. Remember what that woman in the Sky News clip said. She said that when she stopped the injections, her late night sugar cravings came back. And that detail matters more than most people realize because late-night cravings are rarely about hunger. They're about coping. This is exactly what I see with clients who come to me after stopping weight loss medication. During the day, they feel fine. It's the evenings where things fall apart. And there's a reason for that. During the day, you're busy, you're distracted, you're performing, you're holding it together. But in the evening, everything slows down, stress catches up, emotions surface, and food has always been the fastest way to change how you feel. So when someone says, I eat well all day but lose control at night, this is not a food problem. It's an emotional regulation problem. And it follows a very simple habit loop. Something triggers a feeling, stress, fatigue, loneliness, overwhelm. And that feeling is uncomfortable. Food creates relief, not because it solves the problem, but because it changes your state very quickly. And over time the brain learns this pattern. You feel something uncomfortable, eat something, feel better for a moment, and that loop gets stronger every time it's repeated. And here is the key point weight loss injections interrupt this loop by removing the urge, but they do not replace the coping strategy. So while you're on the drug, it feels like the problem is gone. But it's not gone. It's just someone has pressed pause on it. I know many of you listening to this probably don't identify with being an emotional eater. And that's because you have the wrong image in your head. You're probably thinking, Bridget Jones' diary, crying on the sofa, eating a tub of ice cream with a lights off wrapped in a duvet after a breakup. And yes, for some people that's what emotional eating looks like. But usually that's not how it looks for most of the clients that I work with. Real emotional eating is quiet, normal, and socially acceptable. It's eating when you're not hungry because you're stressed and want relief. It's eating when you are tired and want comfort. It's eating because you deserve it after a hard day. It's snacking because you're bored and want stimulation. It's grabbing food because you are procrastinating and want a distraction. It's eating because you feel lonely and food feels like company. It's reaching for sugar because you feel anxious and it takes the edge off. It's pouring a glass of wine to switch your brain off at night. That is emotional eating. It's not a huge drama. It's not chaos, rock bottom, or extreme binging. It's just a pattern that has repeated multiple times during the days and the week. And most people have never been taught to see it for what it is. If food has been your main coping tool for years, then appetite suppression feels incredible. For the first time, you're not thinking about food, you're not fighting cravings, you feel calm around eating. It feels like freedom. But here's the problem: nothing underneath has changed. Your life is the same, your stress is the same, your triggers are the same, your emotional skills and coping strategies are the same. The only difference is that the urge has been turned down. So when the medication stops, the urges come back online. Because you've been eating less for months, your body and brain are now extra sensitive. So the cravings don't just return, they're even louder than they were before. And this is why the weight comes back so fast. Not because the person failed, not because they lacked willpower, it's because they never actually addressed the root cause of the weight gain. They just injected themselves and hoped for the best. Really quick one for me, guys. I don't run ads on this podcast, and I do aim to give you as many high-value tips and tricks as I can for free. All I ask in return is that you help me spread the word. That way I can help as many people as I can to never diet again. The way to do that is to rate, review, and share this podcast. A review will only take 30 seconds, but it would mean the world to me, but more importantly, it could help change the life of someone else. So I want to be very clear about this. This episode is not about saying weight loss drugs are evil. They're not. For some people, they can be incredibly helpful and sometimes even life-saving. They make sense if you have a lot of weight to lose. You are morbidly obese and on the verge of death. If someone needs short-term weight loss before surgery, it can be powerful. And if someone is medically vulnerable and not able to lose weight themselves, then it can be a very powerful intervention. But here's the problem. Most people are being sold these drugs as a solution rather than a tool. A solution implies permanence. A tool implies it is used alongside something else. And the study makes this very clear. If the drug is the only thing changing, then the result only lasts while the drug is present. That's not a moral judgment. That's just what the data shows. So the honest question isn't do these drugs work? It's what is being built while the weight is coming off. Because if muscle is being lost, if metabolic flexibility is not improving, if emotional coping is not changing, then the drug is doing all the work. And when the drug stops, the work stops too. So this is why when we work with clients, weight loss is never the goal on its own. The goal is protecting and rebuilding muscle, restoring metabolic flexibility, reducing food noise without suppressing appetite, rewiring how stress and emotions are handled, creating structure so evenings start feeling like a danger zone, shifting identity so results last forever, teaching them how to eat their favorite foods and lose weight, teaching them how to lose weight without tracking calories or restriction, and changing how they think about food, exercise, and life. Because if those things aren't changing, then the weight loss is temporary. And that's why I'm now working with more and more women who have done the weight loss medication and the weight is starting to come back on. And that's not because the drugs didn't work for weight loss, it's because nothing underneath had changed. And once we address the root causes, the panic around food settles, the cravings calm down, and weight loss starts feeling like something they have to fight forever. So there's an old saying that fits this conversation perfectly. When something seems too good to be true, it often is. And the biggest shame in all of this isn't the medication itself. It's what women miss out on when weight loss becomes something that's outsourced to an injection. Because the women I work with don't just lose weight. They learn how to trust themselves again. They build confidence in their own decisions. They create momentum instead of constantly starting over. They challenge limiting beliefs they've carried for years. They stop seeing themselves as broken. And those changes don't just stay in the kitchen or how they see themselves in the mirror. It's how they show up at work, in relationships, it's how they set boundaries, it's how they speak to themselves, it's how they show up for life, and it's the example they set for their children. And that's why this work matters and why I do what I do. You don't get any of those benefits when you just take an injection. You don't build the skill, you don't build the self-trust, you don't build the resilience, you just suppress a signal. So the real question isn't should I take weight loss injections? The real question is what type of person do I want to be? Do I want to be the person who does the hard thing, learns the skills, changes from the inside out, knowing that the reward is not just weight loss, but a better life? Or do I want to be the person that takes the shortcut, hoping the problem disappears and stays dependent on something external to feel in control? There's no judgment. It's just a choice. And it's a choice this study quietly forces us all to confront.