As millions of people successfully lose weight with the help of a new generation of powerful weight-loss drugs, a common question has emerged: what comes next? The latest research results show that people now have more options for dealing with the troublesome “yo-yo effect” of weight regain, including the potential benefits of a humble gut bacteria supplement.
Two studies released on Wednesday by the weight-loss drug giant Eli Lilly (LLY) indicate that while medication remains the best way to maintain weight stability, some patients may be able to reduce their dosage or switch to oral weight-loss drugs. Another smaller but insightful trial found that a bacterium called Akkermansia muciniphila (commonly known as AKK bacteria) can help people who lost weight through dieting alone to maintain some of their weight-loss results.
Researchers assessed whether patients could reduce the intensity of treatment to some extent while still preserving their weight-loss results. Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, stated that more options need to be provided so that people do not feel trapped. Louis Aronne is also a consultant for Eli Lilly and co-led a trial in which patients switched from injectable weight-loss drugs to Foundayo, Eli Lilly’s newly launched oral GLP-1 weight-loss medication.
In the study, Eli Lilly provided the oral weight-loss drug Foundayo to patients who had previously used its injectable weight-loss drug Zepbound or Wegovy, a weight-loss drug from rival Novo Nordisk. The data showed that patients who switched from Zepbound to Foundayo regained an average of 5 kilograms after one year, while those previously using Wegovy regained only 0.9 kilograms on average. Louis Aronne explained that this difference is likely because Zepbound itself leads to more significant weight loss, and Foundayo’s mechanism of action is closer to that of Wegovy.
In another separate trial involving only Zepbound, Eli Lilly reduced the drug dosage for patients to a lower level. The results showed that these patients regained an average of 5.6 kilograms after one year, while those who maintained a high-dose treatment kept their weight-loss results.
The third study was conducted by a Dutch research team and published in the medical journal Nature Medicine. The patients first underwent an eight-week diet, during which 84 of the 90 participants lost at least 8% of their body weight. Subsequently, this group resumed a healthy but normal diet for six months. Half of them took a pasteurized AKK bacteria supplement daily, regaining on average only about 14% of the weight they had lost through dieting. The other half, who took a placebo, regained about one-third of their lost weight on average. Although the overall weight loss was less than that achieved with prescription weight-loss drugs, the group taking the AKK bacteria supplement still weighed an average of 3.1 kilograms less than at the start of the study.
