“Each diabetes and weight problems are thought of continual illnesses that require long-term therapy,” Dr. Kushner says. “The purpose is to take the remedy together with following wholesome life-style adjustments to realize and keep well being advantages — lowered physique weight and improved blood sugar management.”
Listed below are 5 issues to count on whenever you cease Ozempic.
1. Your Urge for food Will Return
“I used to have the ability to eat half a pizza, however now on semaglutide, I take a number of bites and really feel full,” says David Shafer, MD, an attending plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Northwell Well being in New York Metropolis. “If I miss a dose, my consumption will increase as I lose the impact of feeling full.”
However that fast feeling of satiety produced by semaglutide goes away as quickly as individuals cease taking Ozempic, says Kushner.
“As soon as Ozempic is stopped, all the advantages from the remedy stop,” Kushner says. “If the affected person skilled a discount in urge for food and physique weight that resulted from consuming a lower-calorie weight-reduction plan, the person’s urge for food will enhance again to baseline when the remedy is stopped, making it more durable to comply with a decrease calorie weight-reduction plan.”
2. You Will Regain Weight
Whether or not individuals take Ozempic for weight problems or kind 2 diabetes, remedy needs to be only one piece of a therapy plan that additionally consists of wholesome life-style adjustments like consuming a balanced weight-reduction plan and getting loads of train.
“Ozempic ought to all the time be taken together with making wholesome life-style adjustments in weight-reduction plan and bodily exercise,” Kushner says. “These adjustments needs to be continued even after stopping the remedy and may help keep among the well being advantages seen with physique weight and blood sugar management.”
In a single examine, a structured train plan helped individuals preserve weight off for a complete yr after discontinuing GLP-1 drugs.
3. ‘Ozempic Face’ Will Go Away
Speedy weight reduction spurred by Ozempic can change the pores and skin and scale back fats quantity all around the physique, together with within the face. Many individuals who shed dramatic quantities of weight with Ozempic discover their face can tackle a gaunt, shrunken, and dehydrated look that’s been dubbed “Ozempic face.”
These adjustments may be addressed with injectable facial fillers administered by a board-certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon, says Joshua Zeichner, MD, an affiliate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York Metropolis.
Stopping Ozempic will even reverse facial adjustments attributable to the drug. “Ozempic face will go away when you achieve again the burden you misplaced from the drug,” Dr. Zeichner says. “The face can get full the best way it used to, simply as you’ll be able to regain the burden in your physique.”
4. Facet Results Will Subside
Ozempic has different widespread unwanted side effects, together with nausea, constipation, vomiting, heartburn, fuel, headache, and dizziness.
Not everybody experiences unwanted side effects, they usually could also be delicate for others. They will also be prevented or minimized by ramping up dosage extra slowly from the bottom starter dose of Ozempic to the upper dose that’s sometimes used for ongoing therapy, Kushner says.
The way you eat — and what you eat — additionally makes a distinction. “Unwanted effects may be vastly mitigated by lowering dietary fats, consuming smaller parts, and never skipping meals,” Kushner says.
Anybody who experiences unwanted side effects however nonetheless sticks with therapy would see these unwanted side effects go away once they cease taking Ozempic, Kushner provides.
5. Blood Sugar Climbs
For individuals with kind 2 diabetes who take Ozempic to handle their blood sugar, halting therapy could trigger blood sugar to rebound to round pre-medication ranges, says Beverly Tchang, MD, an endocrinologist and an assistant professor at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Drugs in New York Metropolis.
“Since Ozempic treats the continual illness of diabetes, individuals can probably see a worsening of their diabetes once they cease Ozempic,” Dr. Tchang says.
As a result of Ozempic helps individuals eat much less, a halt to therapy could make them devour extra energy and eat bigger parts, resulting in a rise in blood sugar, Tchang says. And even when individuals handle to keep up the consuming habits they developed whereas on Ozempic, their blood sugar would possibly nonetheless rise once they cease therapy, as a result of the drug boosts the manufacturing of insulin, a hormone concerned in blood sugar management.
These realities are among the many causes many medical doctors have expressed concern over Ozempic shortages probably pushed by individuals utilizing the drug to shed undesirable kilos. These shortages are harming individuals with kind 2 diabetes who want the drug for blood sugar management.
The excellent news is that folks with diabetes nonetheless produce other medicines they will take as an alternative of Ozempic, together with a number of in the identical household of medicines as semaglutide, Tchang notes. Ozempic is what’s generally known as a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, a category of medicine that additionally consists of liraglutide (Victoza), dulaglutide (Trulicity), and exenatide (Bydureon).
