18 Dec 2025 Nutrition is the cornerstone to lasting health and weight management.
What happens when the GLP-1 medications wear off?
Few other drugs have hit the market with the speed and ferocity of the GLP-1 weight loss medications. The rapid increase in users has led to an estimated 1.5 to 1.6 million people in the UK using either Wegovy (semaglutide) or Mounjaro (tirzepatide) for weight management, with 95% accessing them privately (1). This last point is cause for great concern. With so many people accessing these medications privately there is no governance for safe dosing or the necessary wraparound care and support needed to ensure patient safety. The remaining 5% of prescriptions issued by NHS England have grown by 900% since 2020, far surpassing available primary care resources (1).
In March 2025, BANT issued a joint statement with The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM) and the College of Medicine and Integrated Health (CoM) urging policy makers, health care leaders and regulatory bodies to ensure that anti-obesity medications (AOMs) be used safely, effectively and sustainably. We recommended a cautious roll-out of these new medicines with more real-world data to inform safer practice. Nine months later and GLP-1 use has moved forward at an alarming pace, throwing all caution to the wind.
These drugs are dominating headlines and conversations, thanks in part to celebrity culture and endorsements. A recent study of 12,000 UK households revealed that one in five respondents say they would be willing to use GLP-1 medication for life – despite the risk of debilitating side effects, injection fatigue, or financial outlay – highlighting the growing acceptance of medication as prevention in place of traditional nutrition and lifestyle interventions (2). Yet it is precisely this wraparound nutrition and lifestyle support that BANT calls for to ensure sustainable and safe weight loss, support symptom management, and prevent weight gain when people come off medications.
Side Effects & Weight Rebound
The many unpleasant side effects of GLP-1 medications extend to loss of taste, nausea, vomiting, gastro-intestinal problems, diarrhoea, muscle loss and malnutrition, to more serious issues affecting the pancreas, gallbladder, and kidneys. BANT questions whether there has been any serious financial modelling of the on-cost of treating these symptoms on the NHS? This is where BANT nutrition practitioners are perfectly placed to support clients with wraparound nutrition care as well as broader lifestyle overlays to promote lasting behaviour change both for those on GLP-1 medications or those seeking to come off them and maintain the weight loss. It is inconceivable that people are self medicating and putting themselves in harm’s way without any nutritional guidance for what can only be described as a diet-related problem.
Soaring Costs & Risk Factors
A recent analysis of 11 randomised trials involving people coming off GLP-1s, showed people start to regain weight as early as eight weeks after stopping treatment. Patients typically regained approximately two thirds of the weight they had lost within a year of stopping using the medication (1,3). A Medscape article hit the nail on the head when it referred to a fundamental flaw with these ‘miracle drugs – they stop working when you stop taking them’ (4). This sets a dangerous incentive to stay on them indefinitely without any medical evaluation. Given the high cost of private prescriptions, averaging between £100-300 per month, this is also a major financial outlay if lifelong. If we model an average thirty years’ use, this could amount to an eye-watering £36,000 – £108,000 per person. An outlay most individuals cannot sustain privately, and in truth nor can the NHS. Money that would arguably be better invested to fund lasting nutrition and lifestyle support at a fraction of the cost, with practitioners in Primary Care and Neighbourhood Hubs.
It is equally difficult to capture the immensity of public support for a relatively ‘new’ medication in regards to its repurposed use in weight loss and obesity-management, especially considering the short time frame since pandemic scepticism towards pharmaceutical innovations. However, whilst the public is seemingly willing to embrace GLP-1 medications, no questions asked, for the speed and efficacy with which they facilitate weight loss, it appears some medical professionals are uneasy.
Dr Annette Bosworth was recently quoted in a popular podcast episode as saying,
“If you wanted to have legs with no hair how would you accomplish that? Shave.
You would not jump straight to chemotherapy, the most powerful form of hair removal. Is there a price to pay for using GLP-1 medications?” (5).
Similarly, General Practitioners at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Annual Conference 2025 have also called for prescribing to come with ‘dedicated funding, resources, and multidisciplinary input, including nutritional and psychological support’ (6). BANT echoes their call for greater clinical stewardship in prescribing GLP-1 medications, with structured monitoring and wraparound nutrition care. If the NHS is to roll out GLP-1 medications more widely and erode the privately purchased prescriptions it is critical that nutrition practitioners are employed within Primary Care Networks to ensure client safety.
Multi-factorial causes of Obesity
There is also the need to address underlying factors of weight management, diet, food poverty and the multi-factorial causes of obesity, all of which GLP-1 medications fail to act upon. If the people taking these medications fail to change their diets or optimise daily habits then when the drugs stop working they have nothing to fall back on.
Nutrition practitioners can provide the foundational dietary education that is currently lacking at a national level and can support individuals to approach weight-loss from all angles. This is critical for the four out of five people surveyed who choose not to stay on the medication for life.
The speed with which GLP-1 medications are being rolled out has left a gap in service provision for wraparound care. Whilst GP’s are providing some support, there is a recognised shortage of dietitians within the NHS and not enough practitioners to meet demand.. Yet BANT represents over 3,000 Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners who are currently not working within a primary care setting due to lack of joined-up-thinking. In BANT’s opinion, this is an intentional failure to address the needs of patients by omitting nutrition practitioners qualified to deal with diet and lifestyle related illness.
Nutrition Practitioners & Wraparound Care
BANT nutrition practitioners are specifically trained in sustainable weight loss and behaviour change and can provide the necessary support to ensure safe use of GLP-1 medications, and safe transition from medications to long-term weight maintenance.
General Practitioner’s can already refer to any practitioner who is on the Voluntary Accredited Register held by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). These services have historically been chargeable to the patient, exacerbating health inequalities, but GPs can and should use the ARRS funding to engage Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners, – the cost of which will be off-set by the longer-term savings of relieving the burden of obesity and obesity-related conditions.
END
References:
- https://www.nesta.org.uk/data-visualisation-and-interactive/silver-bullet-or-sticking-plaster-weight-loss-drugs-and-the-uks-obesity-crisis/, accessed 08 December 2025
- https://www.kantar.com/uki/inspiration/fmcg/2025-wp-glp-1-agonists-the-next-big-disruptor-in-society, accessed 08 Nov 2025
- Han Wu, Wenjia Yang, Tong Guo, Xiaoling Cai and Linong Ji, Trajectory of the body weight after drug discontinuation in the treatment of anti‑obesity medications, BMC medicine, 2025. Accessed 08 December – https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-025-04200-0
- https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/what-comes-back-when-stopping-glp-1s-2025a1000wtd , accessed 08 December 2025
- 1:26:48 Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Drugs, DOAC Nov 24, 2025
- https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/gps-urge-specialist-clinics-weight-loss-drug-use-2025a1000v3b , accessed 08 December 2025
NOTES TO EDITORS:
BANT is the leading professional body for Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioners in one-to-one clinical practice and a self-regulator for BANT Registered Nutritionists®. BANT members combine a network approach to complex systems, incorporating the latest science from genetic, epigenetic, diet and nutrition research to inform individualised recommendations. BANT oversees the activities, training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of its members.
Registered Nutritional Therapists are regulated by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) that holds an Accredited Voluntary Register (AVR) for the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). A report by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Professional Standards Agency made a key recommendation that AVR practitioners have the authority to make direct NHS referrals, in appropriate cases, to ease the administrative burden on GP surgeries. BANT nutrition practitioners are the key workforce asset to harness 21st century lifestyle medicine to tackle the rising tide of stress-related fatigue, obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, dementia and other chronic diseases.
To find a BANT nutrition practitioner, please click here
BANT WELLBEING GUIDELINES:
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Alongside these guidelines, the BANT “Food for your Health” free open-access resources are available to educate and guide the public towards healthier food choices in prevention for diet-induced disease. Download a wide range of food and lifestyle guides, recipes, infographics, planning tools and fact sheets and start making healthy choices today.
