Do you regain weight after stopping Wegovy?

Short answer

Yes. One year after stopping Wegovy, 2/3 of the lost weight came back, and after stopping the newer weight-loss shots, people returned to their starting weight in about 1.5 years. People who exercised while on a drug from the same family regained less after stopping.

Do you regain weight after stopping Wegovy?
'Weight lost on the shot → stays off after stopping' — does this formula hold?
Wegovy (semaglutide) is a weight-loss shot taken once a week. It is easy to assume you can stop once you hit your goal weight. We checked what happens to body weight after stopping.
One year after stopping
2/3 of the lost weight came back
228 people who lost 17.3% of their body weight over 68 weeks on the shot stopped both the shot and lifestyle coaching. A year later, 11.6 percentage points had come back, leaving them only 5.6% below where they started. For someone starting at 100 kg, that means dropping to 82.7 kg, then climbing back to about 94 kg.
Would staying on it have helped?
Those who stayed on lost 7.9% more; those who stopped gained 6.9%
803 people who lost 10.6% over 20 weeks were split: one group kept taking the shot for 48 more weeks, the other switched to a fake shot. Those who stayed on lost 7.9% more, while those who switched regained 6.9%. Both groups kept getting lifestyle coaching.
The other shot was the same
Those who stopped Mounjaro gained 14.0% in 1 year
Of 670 people who lost 20.9% over 36 weeks on tirzepatide (Mounjaro), those switched to a fake shot regained 14.0% over 52 weeks, while those who stayed on lost 5.5% more. 89.5% vs 16.6% kept at least 80% of the weight they had lost.
How fast does it come back?
Newer shots: 0.8 kg a month, back to start in about 1.5 years
A 2026 analysis that pooled 37 studies with 9,341 people found weight rose by 0.4 kg a month on average after stopping weight-loss drugs. With newer shots such as semaglutide and tirzepatide it was 0.8 kg a month and 9.9 kg in the first year, returning to starting weight in about 1.5 years. Weight lost through diet and exercise programs took 3.9 years.
Health markers went back too
To starting levels within 1.4 years
In the same analysis, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure returned to starting levels within 1.4 years of stopping. Another analysis that pooled 18 trials found that after stopping semaglutide, weight rose 8.21 kg and the top blood pressure number rose 7.09.
Those who had exercised regained less
In the year after stopping, shot-only regained 6.0 kg more
After losing 13.1 kg on a diet, people spent 1 year on exercise, a daily shot from the same drug family (liraglutide), both, or a fake shot. In the year after everything ended, the shot-only group regained 6.0 kg more than the exercise-only group, and the combined group was 5.1 kg lighter than shot-only.
Summary: stop, and the weight comes back
The formula breaks at the 'stays off after stopping' link
After stopping the shot, 2/3 of the lost weight was back after 1 year, and with newer shots people were at their starting weight in about 1.5 years. Those who stayed on the shot kept the weight off. Those who exercised while on the shot regained less even after stopping.