From plateau to progress: How to get results again on Ozempic
Ozempic Plateau: What It Is and How to Overcome It
An Ozempic® plateau is when weight loss slows or stops completely when taking the medication.
This could happen anytime during treatment and can be caused by lifestyle factors or physiological changes.
You can overcome an Ozempic® plateau by making lifestyle adjustments, like eating more protein, lowering your caloric intake, doing more movement, and ensuring adequate restorative sleep. Treatment changes might be necessary, such as increasing your dose or switching medications.
Ozempic® plateaus are when weight loss progress slows down or stops altogether when taking the medication. They’re common and can happen as the body adjusts to weight loss.
Luckily, you can overcome Ozempic® plateaus with tweaks to your eating and exercise habits or changes to your treatment plan.
This article was reviewed by Craig Primack, MD, FACP, FAAP, FOMA.
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What Is an Ozempic® Plateau?
An Ozempic® plateau is when your weight loss slows down or stops completely, even when you continue taking the medication.
You might notice this anytime during treatment. One study on Wegovy® (which contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic®, semaglutide) found that weight loss started rapidly and then leveled off after about 68 weeks.
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How Common Are Ozempic® Plateaus?
We don’t have much research on how common Ozempic® plateaus are, but we know weight loss plateaus are common in general. About 85 percent of people trying to lose weight experience stalled weight loss at some point in their weight loss journey.
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Why Do Ozempic® Weight Loss Plateaus Happen?
Ozempic® weight loss plateaus can happen for a few reasons. They can be due to lifestyle changes you can control and metabolic or hormonal changes your body makes as you lose weight.
Here’s what could be behind your plateau.
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Metabolic Changes
As you lose weight, your body adapts by reducing its resting metabolic rate, or how many calories it uses at rest. This makes it harder to remain in a calorie deficit (when you eat fewer calories than you burn), which is needed for weight loss.
You may have also lost muscle mass as you lost body fat, which can further reduce your resting metabolic rate.
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Hormonal Changes
Weight loss can trigger hormonal changes, including:
- An increase in ghrelin, which increases how hungry you feel
- A decrease in leptin, which reduces how full you feel
- An increase in neuropeptide Y, which decreases energy expenditure and increases how much food your body thinks it needs (alters hunger signals)
With more hunger and less fullness, you may find yourself eating larger portion sizes or reaching for snacks more often.
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Lifestyle Changes
You may have unintentionally changed your lifestyle habits, potentially eating more calories or doing less movement. This can lead to slowed weight loss or even weight gain. A lack of sleep or high levels of stress could also contribute to a weight loss plateau.
We’ve covered more reasons you might not be losing weight — there are quite a few possible culprits.
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How to Break Through an Ozempic® Plateau
You can break through an Ozempic® plateau and continue moving toward your goal weight by making a few tweaks to your lifestyle and potentially your treatment plan.
Here’s what you can do.
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1. Make Nutrition Adjustments
Take a look at your eating habits and see if you can make nutrition upgrades. That could include:
- Eating more lean proteins, like chicken, fish, and tofu
- Decreasing overall caloric intake if your intake is higher than your caloric burn
- Swapping refined grains for whole grains, like brown rice, quinoa, and whole-wheat bread
- Adding more fruits and veggies to your meals
- Drinking more water (and less sugary beverages or alcohol)
- Going for healthy snacks, like fruits, hard-boiled eggs, or veggie sticks and hummus
- Tuning into your hunger signals to only eat when you’re truly hungry (instead of grazing when bored or stressed)
You don’t need to count calories to lose weight. But making a few swaps can help you remain in a calorie deficit to encourage further weight loss.
A registered dietitian, weight loss specialist, or another healthcare professional can give you personalized nutrition advice.
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2. Do More Movement
General guidelines state you should aim for at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise per week.
But to maintain weight loss and continue losing weight on Ozempic®, you might want to aim for more exercise than this.
And if you’re not strength training, now’s the time to start. Research shows that combining strength training with cardio exercise is more effective for weight loss and fat loss than either type of exercise alone.
If you’ve been strength training already, try upping the weight you lift or adding another session to your weekly schedule.
Try adding more movement to your day by:
- Taking a brisk walk as part of your morning routine
- Going for long walks, swims, or bike rides on weekends
- Using your lunch break to do bodyweight exercises
- Finding a new sport or gym class you enjoy
- Standing and walking more during the day
- Following a yoga video before bed every night
We’ve got a weekly workout plan if you need more ideas or guidance.
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3. Build More Muscle
You might have lost muscle as you lost weight, making it harder to continue your weight loss progress. To help, try building more muscle and maintaining what you’ve already got.
You can build muscle by:
- Strength training. Incorporate bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, dumbbells, or weight machines into your weekly workouts. Slowly increase the weight as your strength increases.
- Eating more protein. Protein helps you build and maintain muscle as you lose weight. It also helps you feel fuller, making it easier to stick to nutritious food choices. Go for lean proteins like chicken, turkey, tofu, and fish.
How much protein should you eat? In general, Craig Primack, MD, an obesity medicine physician and the senior vice president of weight loss at Hims & Hers, recommends aiming for at least 100 grams of protein per day while losing weight.
You can use a protein calculator to get a personalized protein intake recommendation.
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4. Get Enough Sleep
A lack of sleep can spike your appetite and tank your motivation to exercise. Aim for seven to nine hours a night to make sure sleep deprivation isn’t messing with your weight loss efforts.
You can improve your sleep by:
- Waking up and going to bed at the same time every day (yes, even on weekends)
- Avoiding caffeine, alcohol, and large meals too close to bedtime
- Taking time to wind down before bed, ideally without screens
- Reserving your bed for sleep and intimacy only
We’ve got more sleep hygiene tips if you need additional pointers.
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5. Lower Your Stress Levels
High levels of stress can raise your appetite, disrupt your sleep, and increase cravings for sugary and fatty foods.
Practice stress-management techniques like:
- Journaling
- Meditating
- Spending time in nature
- Hanging out with loved ones
- Doing physical activity — bonus points if it’s in nature or with friends
Sometimes, you need to take bigger steps to lower your stress levels, like cutting back at work, hiring more childcare, or reaching out to a therapist.
If slowed weight loss is stressing you out, know that it is possible to overcome an Ozempic® plateau. You may just need to find the right tweaks to encourage further weight loss and stay patient and consistent. Hang in there.
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6. Reach Out to Your Healthcare Provider About Medication Adjustments
If you’ve stopped losing weight on Ozempic®, seek medical advice. Your prescribing healthcare provider may recommend increasing your dose (if you’re not on the highest dose available yet) or switching your medication to one that may be more effective for you.
Some other GLP-1 drugs (that’s glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) for weight loss include:
- Wegovy®. Wegovy® contains a higher dose of semaglutide than Ozempic®. It’s FDA-approved specifically for weight loss.
- Mounjaro® and Zepbound®. Mounjaro® and Zepbound® contain the active ingredient tirzepatide. Tirzepatide targets two hormones, unlike semaglutide, which targets one.
Your healthcare provider might want to check for other factors that may be making weight loss more difficult, like insulin resistance, thyroid dysfunction, or even menopause.
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Ozempic® Plateau: Final Thoughts
Ozempic® plateaus are common. They can happen even if you’re sticking to your new healthy habits and medication plan.
Here are the key takeaways to keep in mind:
- You might hit a semaglutide plateau anytime during treatment. Everyone reacts differently to GLP-1 medications and other weight loss drugs. But one research study on Wegovy® shows that weight loss tends to level off after about 68 weeks of treatment.
- Make lifestyle tweaks to encourage further weight loss. Increase your protein, strength training, and the amount of general movement you do. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and keep stress in check, too.
- Reach out to your healthcare provider. They may recommend increasing your dose (if you’re not on the highest dose of Ozempic® yet) or switching to a different weight loss medication, like Wegovy®, Mounjaro®, or Zepbound®.
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FAQs
Find answers to frequently asked questions about Ozempic® plateaus below.
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Does Ozempic® Stop Working?
Ozempic® doesn’t exactly stop working, but you may notice your weight loss slows down and your appetite isn’t as suppressed. This isn’t necessarily because Ozempic® is not working anymore, though. It’s more likely that your body has adjusted to weight loss and is burning fewer calories or increasing your appetite through hormonal changes.
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How Long Can an Ozempic® Plateau Last?
There’s no set timeframe for how long an Ozempic® plateau can last. It depends on your lifestyle habits and how your body is adjusting to weight loss. If you make diet and exercise changes, you might notice continued weight loss sooner than if you don’t make any changes.
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Can Ozempic® Stop Working Suddenly?
Ozempic® probably won’t stop working suddenly, but you may notice that your weight loss gradually slows down over time — especially once you get closer to a healthy body mass index (BMI). In a study on Wegovy® (which contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic®), weight loss gradually leveled off around the 68-week mark.
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This article originally appeared on ForHers.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.