Some Patients Keep Weight off With Fewer GLP-1 Injections, Study Finds

Key TakeawaysSome patients maintained weight loss even when spacing out their GLP-1 shotsMost folks in the study had maintained their health improvementsExperts warn the findings are based off a small group of people, however.FRIDAY, March 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Some patients taking popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs may be able to keep the weight off while taking injections less often, according to a small new study.The idea began when Dr. Mitch Biermann, an obesity and internal medicine specialist at Scripps Clinic in San Diego, started noticing a pattern among his patients.Several told him they had begun spacing out their injections instead of taking them every week, and they were still able to maintain their weight loss.“By the time the third person told me they were taking it every second or third week and still maintaining their weight, I started recommending it to other patients,” Biermann told The New York Times.Curious whether the approach could work more broadly, Biermann reviewed medical charts from patients who had tried stretching out their dosing schedule.The small study, published recently in the journal Obesity, looked at 34 patients who had already lost weight on GLP-1 medications. After they began taking injections less often, most continued to maintain their weight and health improvements.After 36 weeks of follow-up, the results were encouraging:Most patients kept their weight off.Blood pressure and blood sugar levels still improvedAdditional weight lost during the study came from fat, not muscleOnly four patients gained weight after spacing out their injections, and this group eventually returned to once-every-week shots.On average, participants had already reduced their body mass index (BMI) from 30, which is the level considered obese, to 25.2, which falls in the overweight range. By the end of the study, the average BMI had dropped further to 24.6, which is considered a normal weight.Patients in the study used several different schedules:17 patients took injections every other week.Six took them every 10 to 14 days.Seven folks stretched the interval beyond two weeks, with the longest gap reaching six weeks.While on these schedules, most either continued to lose small amounts of weight or maintained their weight. Only five people gained back a small amount. One participant, Scott McMillin, 65, had struggled with his weight for years.After starting weekly Wegovy injections in late 2023, he lost 20 pounds and brought his blood pressure and cholesterol back into healthy ranges.However, when McMillin tried stopping the medication completely, he quickly regained 10 pounds.So, he restarted weekly injections and later tried spacing them out to once every two weeks.“It made no difference for me whether I was taking injections every week or every two weeks, and I just thought, well, less is better,” McMillin told The Times.He now exercises regularly on the elliptical and follows a routine of two meals a day with no snacks in between.It's important to note that the study was small and the patients were mostly white and privately insured, meaning the results may not apply to everyone. The research also looked at existing medical records and had no control group, so it was not the "gold standard" randomized clinical trial.Experts also stressed that patients did not stop the medication entirely. They simply took it less often and only after they had already reached their weight loss goals.Dr. Fatima Stanford, an obesity specialist at Harvard Medical School, told the Times that "individuals who agree to reduce treatment frequency may already be more adherent, more confident in their behaviors or metabolically more responsive."About 12% of patients who tried spacing out injections eventually went back to weekly doses after gaining weight back.Still, Stanford said the study does "reframe the conversation." "Chronic treatment does not necessarily mean maximal weekly dosing forever.” More individualized dosing plans may be more effective, she added.GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic have transformed obesity treatment. But many people worry about the idea of lifelong weekly injections, especially because the medications can be expensive and insurance coverage varies.Only about 6% of Americans report using GLP-1 drugs, even though roughly 51% of U.S. adults meet the eligibility criteria.“The number one question patients give me about this drug is, ‘Will I have to take this every week forever?’” Biermann said.More informationYale Medicine has more on GLP-1 medications for weight loss.SOURCE: The New York Times, March 4, 2026.What This Means For YouGLP-1 weight-loss drugs can help people lose lots of weight, but many patients wonder how long they must stay on them and how often to take the drugs..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Some Patients Keep Weight off With Fewer GLP-1 Injections, Study Finds

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