Ep 93- Why Weight Loss Drugs Are Failing Everyone…
November 20, 2025
Ozempic. Wegovy. Mounjaro. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “Should I try one?”—this episode is for you.
Roughly 12% of Americans have tried a weight loss drug, yet up to 85% stop within two years. Most regain the weight, and many feel worse than before. So why do these drugs seem so promising—and why don’t they work long-term?
Today you will learn…
How GLP-1 drugs actually work
The dark side of GLP-1s that no one mentions
What happens when you stop taking weight loss medications
The sustainable alternative to healing food noise
The Truth About Ozempic, Wegovy, and GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs: What Really Happens When You Stop Taking Them
Over 12 percent of Americans have tried a prescription weight loss drug. Yet as many as 85 percent of people stop using them within two years, and an even higher percentage regain all the weight. If you are wondering what is really going on with drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, you are in the right place.
This article breaks down how GLP-1 drugs work, why so many people feel better at first, and why the results rarely last. Most importantly, you will learn what happens to your body when you stop taking these drugs and what to do instead if you want long-term success with food and weight.
How GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Work
Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications mimic a natural gut hormone called GLP-1, which stands for glucagon like peptide 1. Your body produces GLP-1 after you eat. It regulates blood sugar, slows stomach emptying, and signals fullness.
Natural GLP-1 rises and falls throughout the day in response to your real hunger cues. It lasts only minutes.
Synthetic GLP-1 medications behave very differently. They remain active for an entire week. This creates a constant artificial level of fullness, much slower digestion, and a significantly reduced appetite.
These effects are marketed as benefits, but they come with real consequences.
Why People Start Taking Ozempic or Other GLP-1 Drugs
People are often drawn to weight loss injections because of the promises and early effects.
Common reasons include:
Feeling normal around food for the first time
A quiet mind with reduced food noise
Less frequent or less intense hunger
Consistent weight loss that feels predictable
The hope that losing weight will finally solve everything
There is also a powerful belief many people have. If they can just lose the weight, they will be able to stop the drug and maintain the results. But the body does not work like that.
Why So Many People Stop Taking GLP-1 Drugs
Although many people begin GLP-1 therapy, most eventually quit. Here are the biggest reasons.
1. Severe Digestive Problems
Because food stays in the stomach for much longer than normal, many people experience:
Nausea
Vomiting
Constipation
Pain
Stomach paralysis
In my own support community, a woman shared that she was hospitalized three different times after trying different GLP-1 drugs. Other people report food sitting in their stomach for days. It is not normal for digestion to slow down that dramatically.
2. The Body Adapts and Tolerance Builds
When GLP-1 levels stay artificially high week after week, your body protects itself by reducing sensitivity to GLP-1. This causes two major problems:
The original dose stops working and requires higher doses
When you stop the drug, hunger rebounds aggressively
People describe this rebound hunger as overwhelming, intense, and distracting. Food noise returns louder than before.
3. Emotional Changes and Loss of Pleasure
GLP-1 drugs affect brain areas tied to emotion and reward. Many people report:
Emotional flatness
Brain fog
Disconnection
Lower motivation
Reduced enjoyment of life
Because the same pathways that dull food pleasure also dull overall pleasure.
4. The High Cost
To maintain weight loss, you must stay on a GLP-1 drug indefinitely. That means paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars every month for the rest of your life.
This is not a one-time investment. It is a lifelong bill.
5. Lack of Long-Term Research
In the United Kingdom, health authorities recommend not using GLP-1 drugs for more than two years because there is almost no long-term safety data.
Still, many people stay on these drugs far longer because they fear weight regain.
The Research: Most People Regain the Weight After Stopping
Here is what the research shows.
Up to 95 percent of people regain all the weight they lost after stopping a GLP-1 drug
Weight return happens faster than with dieting
It takes an average of 10 months to regain weight after stopping a GLP-1
By contrast, regaining after dieting takes approximately five years
This means GLP-1 drugs do not fix the underlying reasons why weight was gained in the first place.
Even Dr. Louis Aronne, founder and former chairman of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, said that weight gain after stopping a GLP-1 does not mean the medication failed. The drug works only while you are taking it. Once it is gone, your body returns to its baseline.
This is identical to stopping a blood pressure medication or insulin. The effect stops when the medication stops.
What Happens to Your Hunger When You Stop Taking Ozempic
When you stop a GLP-1 drug, several things happen immediately:
Hunger signals return stronger than before
Food noise becomes louder
Cravings intensify
Your body attempts to recover from what it perceives as starvation
This happens because you were under-eating, but you could not feel it. Your hunger signals were artificially muted.
The moment the mute button is removed, your body tries to restore balance by pushing you to eat more.
If you want to understand this more deeply, listen to my episode on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. It explains exactly why this rebound occurs.
Rapid Weight Loss Often Includes Muscle Loss
GLP 1 drugs cause rapid weight loss, but a significant portion of that weight is muscle. Losing muscle lowers your metabolism. This means:
You burn fewer calories at rest
You must eat fewer calories to maintain your weight
Your body becomes more efficient at storing food
If two people both weigh 140 pounds, but one has always been 140 and the other dropped to 140 rapidly, the rapid loser will almost always have the slower metabolism.
Slow, steady, sustainable weight loss protects muscle and metabolic health.
Why GLP-1 Drugs Fail as a Long-Term Weight Loss Solution
Here is the core problem. GLP-1 drugs do not teach you:
How to understand hunger
How to handle cravings
How to stop emotional eating
How to balance meals
How to rewire binge eating patterns
How to respond to urges
How to build body trust
Without these skills, the moment you stop the drug, the old habits return.
This is similar to people who win the lottery and lose the money. They never learned how to manage money. They got a result without building the skills required to keep it.
You cannot outsource eating wisdom to a medication forever. To keep long term results, you must learn to eat like a natural eater.
So What Is the Real Solution?
If you have medical reasons for taking a GLP-1 drug, there is no shame in using it with support. But every responsible physician, obesity specialist, and researcher says the same thing: medication alone will never be enough. You must address the mindset and psychology behind your eating patterns.
That is what I help clients do inside The Confident Eater program.
Some of my clients take GLP-1 drugs while they learn the tools. Some eventually stop them. Some never take them at all.
But all of them learn how to:
Rebuild body trust
Stop binge eating
Understand true hunger
Eat in a satisfying, sustainable way
Change their relationship with food at the root level
This is the work that actually lasts.
Final Thoughts
GLP-1 weight loss drugs can create a temporary change, but they do not solve anything permanently. They mute hunger, but they do not teach you how to listen to your body. They reduce appetite, but they do not heal emotional eating. They cause weight loss, but they do not create natural eating patterns you can maintain for life.
If you want a solution that lasts, you must change your brain, not just your appetite.
You do not need a lifelong drug, and you do not need to fear your hunger. You can learn how to feel normal around food again. And I would love to help you get there. Join The Confident Eater Program and change your relationship with food for life.