I'm sure some stop the drugs because of the side effects (or switch from Wegovy to Zepbound in the hopes of having fewer side effects).

But I think the main reason so many stop them is that insurance stops covering them - they have certain weight loss goals that patients need to meet in order to qualify for continued coverage.

If insurance cuts them off due to insufficient weight loss, they either quit the drug or pay for the $1,000+ monthly out of pocket. And how many people do you know who can afford to plunk that kind of money into a weight loss drug every month?

They're not learning new eating habits at all - they're allowed to eat whatever junk they can tolerate, and as much food as their stomach can tolerate on those drugs. There's no real thought involved, no real lesson involved other than "this food made me puke, so I can't eat it while I'm taking this drug"

There are some people that the drug starts to wear off the last day or two of the week before it's time to inject another dose, so with less of the drug in their system at that point, their appetite starts to return with a vengeance - that last day or two before the next injection they can end up with out of control eating.

I can understand someone who doesn't get that effect thinking that when they stop taking the drugs that they'll be able to continue to feel full on very small portions - but for those who experience the full blast return of appetite at the end of every single week on the drug, it's magical thinking when they convince themselves that they'll be able to keep the weight off without taking the drug for the rest of their life.

So when they go off the drugs, they're either eating much larger portions of the same junk they ate while taking the drugs, or straight back to all the foods they missed that they couldn't tolerate while on the drugs.

Either way, after months and months of semi-starvation calorie levels, they will be just as hungry as they were before the artificially induced calorie control. It's no wonder they regain so much weight.