Most people quit their GLP-1, and most of them plan to come back

Fewer than 1 in 4 people who start a GLP-1 medicine are still taking it a year later, according to insurance claims analyzed in a JAMA research letter. Seventy-four percent of those who stopped told market researchers they are likely or very likely to come back.

Cycling on and off has quietly become an ordinary way these medicines get used, helped along by celebrity use, pills arriving at lower prices, and online sellers who need neither a doctor nor an insurer to sign off. One ad shows a woman being told brief use is fine because she wears a size 4, and that is the culture these medicines now live inside, a long way from the chronic condition they were built for.

Body composition is where specialists keep landing: as much as 40 percent of the weight lost on a GLP-1 is lean mass, and when someone stops, fat returns faster than muscle does. For a household that quit over cost or a lost insurance plan, that arithmetic lands twice on the same people.

That does not mean cycling has been shown to hurt anyone. Cardiologists who looked closely say muscle quality improves on these medicines, with less fat infiltration and stronger fibers, and what stays open is whether the research catches up before the habit hardens.

Read the full story at NPR ↗

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