How Long Can You Stay on Ozempic (semaglutide)? A person can stay on Ozempic® so long as they are tolerating the medication and it is deemed appropriate by their treating provider. There is no specific time frame when someone should stop taking Ozempic as it is a medication that is intended for chronic (long-term) use.
Semaglutide must be taken consistently to see long-term weight loss effects. As soon as someone stops taking the drug, their body fat and former appetite tend to return. Experts recommend working with a provider versed in obesity medicine to create a plan for improved lifestyle and long-term adherence to the drug.
Possible Long-term Effects of Semaglutide
Semaglutide is the first drug approved for chronic weight management since 2014. Most of the well-known long-term effects happen in rare cases. In reference to the study, only about 10% of the 1,951 participants in a 68-week period experienced these long-term disorders.
Duration of Semaglutide Therapy
The recommended dosage of semaglutide medication must be increased to its effective level of 2.4 mg during the 16 to 20 weeks of the therapy to include its weight loss benefits and other advantages and to reduce the impact of common side effects like gastrointestinal disorders.
Yes, you'll lose weight with semaglutide – until you stop taking it. Then, evidence shows you're likely to regain the weight: one year after discontinuing the use of semaglutide, there was significant weight regain among participants. In fact, participants regained two-thirds of their prior weight loss.
Ozempic and its sister medication, Wegovy — approved for weight loss for people who are obese or overweight with weight-related medical conditions — are considered long-term or lifelong treatments.
Ozempic has become famous for its weight loss potential, with people losing as much as 7% of their body weight on 1 mg Ozempic within a year or so of taking the medication. And, follow-up studies show they continue losing weight two years after starting the medication.
Semaglutide improves body composition by helping patients lose weight and reduce excess fat, including stubborn belly fat. It also increases the proportion of lean body mass. In general, the more weight you lose with semaglutide, the greater the improvements you'll see in your overall body composition across all areas.
Gastrointestinal disorders, namely nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and constipation, were the most frequently reported adverse events and occurred in more participants treated with semaglutide than with placebo (125 (82.2%) of 152 versus 82 (53.9%) of 152, respectively) (Table 3).
More often than not, foods outlined above make it harder for semaglutide medications to control insulin release, making it well worth your time to limit your exposure to added sugar, fatty, greasy meals, refined carbohydrates, alcohol and excessive sodium.
If you stop taking Ozempic, the weight you lost will likely return, fast. People who ceased use of semaglutide gained back, on average, a full two-thirds of the weight they had lost on the drug within one year, according to an August 2022 study, the Wall Street Journal reports.
But that rapid feeling of satiety produced by semaglutide goes away as soon as people stop taking Ozempic, says Kushner. “Once Ozempic is stopped, all of the benefits from the medication cease,” Kushner says.
An early study of 2,000 obese adults compared people using semaglutide plus a diet and exercise program with people who made the same lifestyle changes without semaglutide. After 68 weeks, half of the participants using semaglutide lost 15% of their body weight, and nearly a third lost 20%.
A 2022 study found that most individuals gain weight back a year after stopping the medication.
However, semaglutide is approved for weight loss under the name Wegovy. Ozempic has a smaller dose of semaglutide than Wegovy. It's important to note that if you start taking either of these drugs for weight loss, your body may get used to it, establishing a new normal. This can cause your weight to plateau.
To this end, Ozempic and the other GLP-1 agonists are just like any other weight loss trick: they work as long as you use them. Once you stop, without the proper plan in place to keep the weight off, there is nothing keeping it from coming back.
Drug interactions with semaglutide, when you take it with other medications, can cause hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. And this can cause drowsiness, restless sleep, shakiness, and feeling weak and tired.
Semaglutide improves postprandial glucose and lipid metabolism, and delays first-hour gastric emptying in subjects with obesity.
There is a potential risk of kidney injury associated with both Wegovy and Ozempic use since semaglutide is cleared out of your blood through the kidneys.
It is important you discuss your alcohol use with your doctor while taking Wegovy; your provider may recommend avoiding alcohol completely. While not well studied in humans, animal models of alcohol addiction have shown that the active compound in Wegovy (semaglutide) reduced alcohol intake.
Eat Smaller Portions More Often. Semaglutide will make you feel full on far less food, so plan to eat small meals throughout the day. If you eat too much in one sitting, you can end up with nausea, heartburn, or other unpleasant GI issues. And always keep some over-the-counter medicines at hand in case you need them.
While taking semaglutide, some people begin to see results within the first eight weeks, but most begin to see results within 12 weeks.
Age, amount of regular exercise, dietary habits, and other medical conditions that impact weight can play a role in why someone may not be losing weight despite taking a weight loss medication like Wegovy.