10 Common Mistakes People Make with Weight-Loss Meds

James Hill:
Welcome to Weight Loss And, where we delve into the world of weight loss. I'm Jim Hill.

Holly Wyatt:
And I'm Holly Wyatt. We're both dedicated to helping you lose weight, keep it off, and live your best life while you're doing it.

James Hill:
Indeed, we now realize successful weight loss combines the science and art of medicine, knowing what to do and why you will do it.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes, the “And” allows us to talk about all the other stuff that makes your journey so much bigger, better, and exciting.

James Hill:
Ready for the “And” factor?

Holly Wyatt:
Let's dive in.

James Hill:
Here we go.

Holly Wyatt:
Today, we're diving into one of the hottest topics in weight loss. We've talked about this topic a lot, GLP-1 medications. These drugs have truly changed the game when it comes to obesity treatment. They've helped millions of people finally see results that they've struggled to get for years.

James Hill:
Yeah, Holly, but here's the surprising part. Even with these powerful tools, Many people unknowingly do things that make progress harder or set them up for setbacks down the road.

Holly Wyatt:
That's why in this episode, we're going to break down the 10 mistakes we see most often with these new weight loss medications. We're going to do five mistakes that tend to happen when they're actually on the medication, or these would be good mistakes to know about if you're thinking about going on the medication. And then we're going to do five more mistakes that show up when people try to come off or off the medication, stop the medication.

James Hill:
Yeah, and the good news is once you can spot these mistakes, you can sidestep them. You can protect your progress and set yourself up for long-term success.

Holly Wyatt:
I agree. So this is exciting because this can bring some awareness to what people may not realize can happen when they're on the medication so they can do something about it. So let's start with the five mistakes we see most often while taking the GLP-1s, while someone's on the medication. All right, Jim, you kick us off.

James Hill:
Well, one of the big ones, and we've talked about this over and over, is relying on the medication alone. Some people believe the drug is the complete solution to health instead of a tool that helps with weight management. So again, these aren't the end-all, be-all magic bullet. They're wonderful tools, but the medication just taking the shot is not going to get you where you want to get. The medications can't do it all, but they can give you a springboard to changing your life in a very, very positive way.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, I think sometimes people think I'm going to take this, the shot or the medication, and it's going to change everything. And I don't have to do anything but take the shot or take the pill. And that's just not true. I mean, it's doing a lot. They really have been game changers, but they don't change some other important things. And one of the things I always say is just changing your weight alone may not change everything that you need in your lifestyle to be happy or to be fulfilled or to live the way you want to live your life.

James Hill:
But the meds give you a great start.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
Because, again, part of the problem has been it's so hard to get the weight off with lifestyle. It takes some time. The meds can give you that huge jump start. But don't stop there. It's not just the meds. Med's a wonderful tool, but you have to look at practicing better eating, practicing movement, and particularly getting the right mind state.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, this is why I think it's a mistake. You can do that, take the medication, and work on those other things. One of the things I tell my patients is if you're going to go on a medication, and every medication has some risks. Now, we've talked about the risk of the GLP-1s, And they appear to be fairly safe drugs, but every drug has risk. And there are individuals who have a serious side effect from these medications. If you're going to take that risk because there's a big benefit, you want the weight loss and there's a benefit behind it, do it. But get the biggest bang for your buck. If I'm going to be at risk, I want the potential biggest benefit I can get. And to me, the way you get that big benefit is to, you know, the medications are helping with that appetite and decreasing food noise and increasing satiety. That's all good. Take that and put the other stuff you need with it. Put the physical activity, put the mind state with it. Use it as a springboard or as a momentum builder so that you can add to it. Kind of like we say weight loss and. It's like let's use the drugs and let's do some other changes while you have the drugs on board to move you forward in the maximal way that possible.

James Hill:
Yeah, Holly, I think one of the sort of limitations of our area has been we want to come up with the one new thing that does everything. And the fact of the matter is what we need are more tools. The GLP-1-based medications are fabulous tools, but they alone aren't the solution. We have other tools. We have lifestyle tools. We have diet. We have physical activity. We have mind state. So, don't think that any one of these is the magic bullet that's going to do it. It's combining tools. But the exciting part is now we have more powerful tools than we ever had, both to get the weight off and to keep it off.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. The medications really work on the appetite. And we haven't had a great tool to help with the appetite. So use that and then combine it with the other tools. I totally agree.

James Hill:
And they don't, for example, make you more physically active. So if you're losing weight on the meds, that's great. But if you're not physically active, you're avoiding another positive way to improve your health.

Holly Wyatt:
Totally agree. Definitely a big mistake people make. All right, you ready for number two?

James Hill:
What's number two?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, we've been talking about this on the podcast, but the second biggest mistake we see people make while they're taking the drug, while they're taking the GLP-1s, is they ignore protein and nutrition quality. They don't really concentrate on what they're eating. The medications allow them to eat less. They don't need to eat as much. They're not as hungry, but they don't think about the food that they are eating. They simply, whatever they feel like eating, they eat less of it. They lose weight. They think that's success. And they don't say, hmm, what would be the most important thing for me to eat when I am hungry, when I am able to eat a meal. They don't really think, am I getting enough protein or am I getting enough vitamins and micronutrients? So I see this mistake all the time, Jim.

James Hill:
Yeah, Holly, the medications really help you reduce your appetite, and eat less. And in a way, on these medications, you can lose weight regardless of what you eat. You can eat a really crappy diet and you lose weight. So I think here is the real opportunity for the nutrition field. The meds are doing the heavy lifting on getting the weight off, but nutrition can improve health well beyond that. So looking at things like protein, fiber. We've done a couple of episodes on the importance of fiber and other things, activity, the mind state. So yes, there's a lot that can be done with diet over and above just losing weight.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. This to me is similar to the patients that have bariatric surgery. We counsel those patients that when you eat, you put protein first and you make sure that you're getting some nutrient-dense foods that have a lot of vitamins, so vegetables, things that we know your body needs. You're not going to want as much food, but make sure the first food you eat is protein, has vitamins in it. So pay attention to what you're eating. And the other reason to do this is that muscle loss that we've been talking about.

James Hill:
Yes. Having more protein in your diet, particularly if combined with some exercise, will help you minimize loss of muscle. You're going to lose some muscle when you lose weight anyway. But what you want is to lose as little as possible of muscle. Protein can play a big role in that.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So that's an important one. You need to be paying attention to how much protein you're eating and are you getting the vitamins and the nutrients you need and not just eating empty calories. You can lose weight eating empty calories, but the type of weight you'll lose, you'll lose potentially more muscle and how you feel will be different. So concentrate on what you're eating, the quality of your diet also.

James Hill:
And Holly, you and I oftentimes recommend that if you can, work with the registered dietitian on your diet. Your physician is going to prescribe your drugs, but most physicians aren't experts in nutrition. And if you have the opportunity to work with the registered dietitian, they can help you modify your diet to work hand-in-hand with the GLP-1 medications.

Holly Wyatt:
Absolutely.

James Hill:
All right. You want number three? Oh, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
This is yours.

James Hill:
You gave this one to me. Skipping physical activity. Okay. You do not need to exercise to lose weight on the GLP-1 meds. In fact, Holly, you do not have to exercise to lose weight in any way. You can go on a diet. You can get a popular diet. You will lose weight without physical activity. While physical activity isn't essential for the weight loss part, it's essential in weight loss maintenance and it does things over and beyond weight loss. We talk a lot about physical activity burns calories. That's what people want to focus on. Sure, it burns calories, but that's not the real big effect of physical activity. Physical activity optimizes your metabolism. So many people come to us and they think their metabolism is broken, etc. And over the years, we've learned that, in fact, if you stop moving and if you gain weight, your metabolism does suffer. It becomes sluggish, and physical activity can bring your metabolism back to its optimum state. So, yes, weight loss is important, but weight loss without physical activity, if you do that, you're missing something important.

Holly Wyatt:
I think what you're talking about is going to fit really well when we get to coming off the weight loss medications.

James Hill:
Yes.

Holly Wyatt:
But I also think that there's a reason to put physical activity in while you're actually losing the weight, for one, to be ready for that, but also that muscle again, that losing that muscle.

James Hill:
That muscle, Holly, and this is where resistance training is important. I'm generally a fan of aerobic activity in most situations, but what we know is adding in some resistance training, some weight training, using resistance machines, that combined, again, with what we talked about before, high protein intake can actually reduce the amount of muscle you lose. And any time, well, in any situation, the more muscle, the better. Muscle burns calories. It makes you look better. You want to avoid loss of muscle when you can.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. It's the functional part. It keeps you functioning really well. And so this kind of brings up the idea that you care about the quality of your diet. And you care about the quality of your weight loss. I don't know if we've used that term. It's not just about how many pounds you lose. It's about how many pounds, but what are you losing? And you really want to target fat loss. The quality of your weight loss is impacted by physical activity. So you want to do some physical activity.

James Hill:
And Holly, you could even extend that and talk about the quality of your physical activity.

Holly Wyatt:
Sure.

James Hill:
Some aerobic stuff, some movement during the day, and some resistance training. So I think in all three situations, diet, weight loss, and physical activity, you both look at quantity, but you also look at quality.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, and this is a perfect example where the weight loss medications don't really care about the quality. They're just helping with it.

James Hill:
They get the weight off.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, they just help to get the weight off. You have to add in this part where you really start to tailor, this is the type of weight loss I want. This is the quality of the weight loss I want. All right, are we ready for number four?

James Hill:
Oh, number four, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. And this one, I think people can probably think about what's coming next, but not working on getting your mind right. So once again, you're just concentrate on losing weight by eating less food. And while that's happening, you're not thinking about and improving your mindset. The GLP-1s, they quiet hunger, they decrease food noise. But they don't do anything about how you handle stress or how you handle triggers or how you handle your daily life. So if you only really focus on eating less food and that's what's happening while you're losing the weight and you ignore this mind state, you miss a huge opportunity to grow in this area, to become more emotionally resilient and to develop better habits that are gonna help you throughout your life. And especially if you come off the medications, you don't want to go back to using food because a lot of times people use food to combat stress, when they're triggered. And so you want to start making this mind state stronger, not only because you may need it in the future if you're not on the medications, but also because it's going to make your life better in the moment, even if you stay on the medications.

James Hill:
Yeah, I think you and I are coming to believe that this may be the most important part of long-term weight management because you can have a wonderful diet plan, you can have a wonderful physical activity plan, but if you don't stick to it, you're not going to get the impact, just like with the weight loss medications. If you don't take them, they don't have an effect. So getting your mind right is the real key to long-term success. Short term, you don't need it, but long term you do because life is going to throw challenges and opportunities your way. And if your mind is right, you're going to get through the challenges and you're going to maximize the opportunities.

Holly Wyatt:
That's a great way to put it, because even if you're going to stay on the medications, there's big advantages to working on your mind state, working on your mindset, working on emotional resiliency, because things are going to happen in your life. So yes, short term, but long term, even if you're staying on the medications, I think it's a mistake not to work on getting your mind right, not to work on strengthening this.

James Hill:
It's critical for long term success. All right, number five. Oh, this one is so important. Failing to plan for the future. You know, lately, Holly, you and I have had a chance to talk to many people who are going on or have gone on the weight loss medications, and we've asked them, what's your long-term plan? And what's surprising or maybe not surprising is that most people don't really have one. They go on the medication, their goal is to lose weight, and they don't really think beyond that, okay? One of the things that's becoming clear, the medications will produce the weight loss. So if you're thinking, my goal is to go on the medication and produce weight loss, great. But what we want you to do is to start thinking about, okay, what happens next? What happens when you reach your goal weight or you reach a weight that is satisfying to you? And I think you have several options. There's no one right way. The medications were really developed with the idea of you take them and you take them basically permanently. And Holly, most of the data suggests they work. You take them, you're going to lose weight, maybe even over a period of a year or so. And if you keep taking the meds, you are likely going to keep that weight off.

James Hill:
A second strategy is that when you get near your goal weight, you decide, okay, the meds have been great, but I really want to try to keep it off with lifestyle. Okay? That's a second approach, and we're going to talk about that in a second, to do that when you have to have a plan. And the third approach might be, and this is where we need more research, a combination of lifestyle and medication. We need to understand what's the advantage of low-dose medications or episodic medications. You don't use them all the time. Or start with lifestyle and use the medications when things get tough. Some exciting possibilities for the future. But if you're going on the meds, at least give some thought to what are you going to do when you reach your goal weight?

Holly Wyatt:
Right. At least think of the possibilities. And like you said, it may be staying on the medication, but let's still have a plan what that's going to look like. I know so many people say, let me just get the weight off and then I'll deal with it. No. Now, when you're on the medication and losing weight, that's the best time to start planning, not waiting to the end, not waiting till you're in the moment where, oh, you know what? I am going to need to stop this medication. And you haven't even given any thought to that or you have lost the weight, but you haven't really planned how you're gonna keep it off and you really haven't worked on your diet or your mind state. So having a plan, realizing there will come a time when you'll stop losing weight, what you're gonna do—stay on the meds, go episodic on the meds, come off the meds—but you will stop losing weight at some point. And what is your plan at that point?

James Hill:
And people have options. It's not just one size. People can figure out a plan and that works for them. If you're on the medications, you feel great, you don't have side effects, you may want to stay on them. In other situations, you may say, well, the meds have done their job in getting the weight off, but I want to maintain my weight without the meds, with lifestyle.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. I would just say at this point, start thinking about what that looks like.

James Hill:
Yes. You don't have to make a permanent decision, but you do have to think about the fact that you're going to reach a point where you do need to decide how you want to maintain your weight.

Holly Wyatt:
Because the reason for that is you would may do some things different before you get to that point. So you don't want to wait to that point because you may do things earlier to make that transition or whatever happens earlier.

James Hill:
A great example there is making sure your physical activity is ramped up before you stop. If you stop the meds and you hadn't been exercising, you're going to have some issues. But if you've ramped up your exercise, then it's going to be easier to maintain your weight without the meds.

Holly Wyatt:
Definitely.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. So let's now go to part two.

James Hill:
Oh, yeah.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. These are five mistakes that we see people make when they stop the medication. So, you know, Jim, we've talked about lots of reasons why people may need to stop the medication. Sometimes they can't afford the medication. Sometimes they are having some side effects they just don't want to continue to experience for a long period of time. And sometimes people just, you know, they want to try. They want to say, you know, I would like to see what it feels like to not take this medication or be on a medication for the rest of your life. Like you said, there's nothing wrong with saying, I'm going to take the medication or I'm going to continue to take a lower dose of the medication. But I know in what we're seeing out there, people are choosing to stop the medication.

James Hill:
And that's okay. It's your choice. You don't have to justify it to anybody. You have to make a decision that's best for you. There's no right or wrong decision. And again, the good news is you have options.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. All right. So let's go. Five mistakes people make when stopping the GLP-1s. And this is kind of flowing from what we just talked about, but they stop the medications without support and without a plan. They just stop them.

James Hill:
And what happens when you do that, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:
You regain the weight. We know.

James Hill:
You regain the weight.

Holly Wyatt:
I feel confident about that one. Now, you don't regain the weight overnight or in one week, but the studies have shown there is good data to show if you just stop the medications and you don't do anything else, if you just stop them, which is unfortunately what I think a lot of people do. Let me stop them and see what happens. We do know that the majority of people regain the weight and they regain it pretty quickly. Like I said, not overnight. That's not how you regain weight. But it's not like you keep it off for a long time before it starts to return. It starts to return almost immediately. So quitting abruptly without coaching or monitoring, a clear strategy, a plan, support almost always leads to weight regain.

James Hill:
And Holly, sometimes people, while they're on the medications, they're not hungry, etc. And they say, oh my gosh, I can do this. I've got it. Well, the medications are still having an effect. When they go away, things are going to change. And that's why you have to have a plan. And you know, Holly, where a good plan is? It's in a book.

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, Jim.

James Hill:
It's in a book that's coming out in December where you and I have spent the last year of our lives developing a plan to help people keep the medication off. And again, this will help you because in the book, we give you many, many options, but we help you develop your own personal plan.

Holly Wyatt:
You know, you made a good point about when you're on the medications, you feel a certain way, but I would say don't be fooled.

James Hill:
Right.

Holly Wyatt:
Don't be fooled. The data shows good data. There's some things we always say, we don't have data on that. I mean, there are things we don't have data. We have data on this. I feel confident. There's always exceptions to the rule, but the odds are very much against you if you don't have a planned support, if you haven't made changes, if you haven't planned ahead, that you're going to regain the weight. So instead, don't make this mistake. Work with your provider. Work with your healthcare professional. Set up some accountability and have a structured plan before going off the medications.

James Hill:
The good news is, Holly, people can do this. It is totally possible to do this. You and I have done years of research around weight loss maintenance. So we 100% believe that if you want to go off the meds and keep your weight off, as long as you have a good plan, you can succeed.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. People say no one can maintain a weight loss. And that's the fighting words for me because I've seen too many people successful.

James Hill:
We've helped so many people do that.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. All right, Jim. Takeaway number two.

James Hill:
Number two relates a little bit to a plan because people underestimate what's going to happen to their appetite when they stop the drugs. Your appetite is going to come back. Most people on the drugs say, hey, it's no problem eating less. I'm not tempted. I don't have food noise, etc. When you stop the medications, your appetite will come back. The food noise will come back. You have to be prepared for that. Don't fall into the trap of, “Oh my gosh, I'm managing my appetite fine on the meds. I don't overeat.” That will change when the meds come back. So you have to have a plan for managing your appetite.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, Jim, I would specifically say this is what people don't recognize. They've got to have a plan to manage what people are now calling, and this is a term that's out there, their appetite rebound.

James Hill:
Yes, it will rebound.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. Question out there is how strong does it come back? But it comes back.

James Hill:
It comes back. And here's the key, Holly, While you're on the meds, your appetite is low. It's going to rebound. If it rebounds to the level it was before you lost weight, guess what's going to happen?

Holly Wyatt:
Oh.

James Hill:
Going to gain the weight back.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
So it is going to come back and that's okay. What you want to do is to have it come back not as strong as it was before weight loss. And there are strategies you can use to do that.

Holly Wyatt:
And one thing I would say at this point is when I've talked to people who are on the medication and their appetite is under control and I say, okay, what is your strategy going to be? “I'm going to eat less. I'm going to eat this way even when I'm not on the medication.”

James Hill:
It's not going to work.

Holly Wyatt:
That isn't going to work. So that is a mistake right there, saying I'm just going to eat less, eat the same amount that I've been eating on the medication for the rest of my life, even when the medication is not on board. And I know they feel like they can do it because the medication is on board at that point, but odds are very much against you being able to maintain your weight with low levels of caloric intake for a long period of time.

James Hill:
And there are things you can do, Holly, to limit this rebound. We talked about high protein, high fiber. There are foods and dietary patterns that can help reset your appetite at a lower level than it was before. Your appetite is going to increase. That's expected. But you can make sure it doesn't increase to the level it was before.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. And knowing that's going to happen. The mistake they make is they don't think it's going to happen or they think they're going to be able to handle it and keep it low without doing anything else, without a plan, without a strategy.

James Hill:
Yup. What's three, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:
All right, number three, I'm surprised you're letting me do this one. This is right up your alley.

James Hill:
I'll correct you if you get it wrong.

Holly Wyatt:
Okay, number three is people make the mistake of letting their metabolism stay inflexible. And I think they make this mistake for a couple reasons. One thing, they may not be aware that the difference between a flexible and an inflexible metabolism and why they need it. And two, they may not think that they can change their metabolism. They may think their metabolism, you're kind of stuck with the metabolism you have. But we know both of those things aren't true. So when you stop the medication, that's when you really, really want a metabolism that's flexible, that can adjust to what you're eating. You're going to eat more calories where hopefully you're going to have a plan so you don't go back to eating as many calories as you were before the medication, but you're going to increase your food intake and you're going to want a metabolism that not only can burn some of those calories, but also, and this is the flexible part, can adjust to when you eat a little bit more carbohydrate or protein or fat, can adjust so that you can stay in energy balance. Everybody's talking about protein now. That's the hot topic, right? You see it everywhere. I predict, Jim, I'll make a prediction on the podcast. Are you ready?

James Hill:
I'm ready.

Holly Wyatt:
I think the new hot thing that's going to come out on social media is this concept of a flexible metabolism.

James Hill:
Oh, cool.

Holly Wyatt:
You'll love that.

James Hill:
I love it.

Holly Wyatt:
It's coupled with protein intake. This flexible metabolism, that's what you want to create. And I think the physical activity, like we've talked about, is a key piece. I think there's other things you can do, too, to work on making your metabolism flexible. And I tell people, you can change your metabolism. It's not set. You can do things to make your metabolism better.

James Hill:
Okay, Holly, I can't help myself. I'm going to bring in the car analogy.

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, no, Jim.

James Hill:
Are you ready for this?

Holly Wyatt:
I'm ready.

James Hill:
Well, you can always edit it out if you don't like it.

Holly Wyatt:
I won't edit it out.

James Hill:
But think of your metabolism as a car engine, okay? And car engines differ. So you have a Prius that has a car engine. You have a Ferrari that has a car engine. Those are very different. And that's sort of genetics, you know? You might be different than me. But if you don't maintain those engines, whether it's the Prius or the Ferrari, if you put bad fuel, if you don't maintain it, you let the spark plugs get gunky, it doesn't work well. What we're saying is that's your metabolism and what physical activity and to some extent weight loss can do is to retune that engine. If you're a Prius, you're never going to be a Ferrari, but you can optimize your engine in the metabolism you have.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And I think you can make a bigger change than people think.

James Hill:
Oh, absolutely. And the thing about your metabolism, Holly, it's operating 24-7. So tiny, tiny improvements in metabolism day in and day out can be the difference between success in keeping weight off and failure.

Holly Wyatt:
So I think recognizing this, and if you're coming off the medications, you really, really need this metabolic flexibility. The mistake is to allow your metabolism to stay inflexible. And Jim, how do they do that? What's the biggest way they do?

James Hill:
You and I have followed for decades people who successfully keep their weight off. And one of the big factors that jumps out over and over are high levels of physical activity. Physical activity exercises your metabolism. Just like, you know, you lift weights, you exercise your muscles. When you're physically active, you force your metabolism to do what it does. Take in food, convert it to energy, store fat, get fat out.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. Work like it's meant to work.

James Hill:
Use your muscles. It helps your metabolism work the way it was meant to work. In car analogies, it takes you back to the factory settings. It makes your engine as optimum as possible. And it's to the point, I think you and I believe that it's the rare individual who can keep their weight off without high levels of physical activity.

Holly Wyatt:
And to me, this is exciting. People tend to think of physical activity as just burning some calories. And then you look, oh my gosh, I walked for three miles and I only burnt 300 calories. And they don't get excited about it. To me, this is a reason to get excited about physical activity because it's not just burning those calories, it's changing your metabolism.

James Hill:
And Holly, it relates very much to the next thing we're going to talk about, which is mind state. If you look at physical activity, there are two ways to do it, saying, “Oh, my gosh, I have to do all this physical activity. How awful.” The other way to look at it is, “Oh, I can do this physical activity. It's going to help keep me keep off 70 pounds. And all I have to do is probably devote an hour a day to this.” It's totally how you look at it. Are you looking at the glass half full or half empty?

Holly Wyatt:
All right, that was a perfect segue into what's the mistake number four that we see people make when they're stopping.

James Hill:
Number four is neglecting mind state and emotional resilience. Now, the GLP-1 meds, they don't change how you cope with stress, with triggers, or emotions, okay? Without strengthening your mind, your old patterns and cravings can sneak back in. So on the GLP-1 medications, you're losing weight, you're successful, great. Now you come off the medications. You have the appetite rebound to deal with, but you also have your old patterns of dealing with stress, triggers, and emotions.

Holly Wyatt:
And food is a very common way people deal with that emotional eating. And when they feel a certain feeling, they pull out the bag of chips. Not that that would be me. But when the satiety and the appetite's coming back, you can revert back to that unless you have some other strategies to use instead of doing that.

James Hill:
Life is going to challenge you in maintaining your weight. No question. And you have to be ready for it. And Holly, you know what? You can get better. You can use your mind as medicine. You can practice resiliency. You can reframe setbacks as overcoming challenges. And you can build mental routines that keep you steady when those challenges hit.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. So just like you can change what you're eating to support this, to support coming off the medications, and you can increase your physical activity, you can work on your mind. You can change your mind state. You can develop emotional resiliency skills. But it takes some effort. It takes some planning. You've got to realize this and you've got to have some strategies to do this. But to me, this is one of the most important pieces because life happens. Everybody's going to get curveballs. And if you go back to the old ways, most people that have used to cope with that, it's going to lead to some weight regain.

James Hill:
And Holly, this is something you can do while you're on the meds to prepare yourself for going off them.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, all of this is if you kind of can start it before it actually happens. It's kind of a continuum. But for sure, if you're going off of them, you for sure need a new strategy to deal with stress and life events and not go back to what you used in the past that probably contributed to your old weight. You need new strategies to help maintain the new weight.

James Hill:
Yeah, and check out our new book in December and learn what a Voyager mind state is and how to get it.

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, State-of-Slimmers know that already. All right, are we ready for number five, the last one?

James Hill:
Last one, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
All right, so this is the last mistake people make when they stop the GLP-1s. This is a big one, Jim, and this is one that people may not want to hear. But they treat it as an end instead of a transition. They think it's over, right? I don't have to do anything. I've got the weight off. It's over. they don't really realize that the journey is never over. You're going to have to do some things around your weight, probably for the rest of your life. Now, it doesn't have to be hard. It doesn't have to be punishment. But to think about, oh, when is this journey over? When do I don't have to think about it at all? People ask me that all the time. When will I no longer have to worry about my weight, think about my weight, do anything about my weight? And guess what I tell them, Jim?

James Hill:
It never ends.

Holly Wyatt:
It never ends. But it's not a bad thing. But it never ends. So when the medication stops, many people will slip back into their old environment and their old eating patterns and their old routines. And that just won't work. You haven't cured it. And if you go back to what you were doing before, you're going to go back to the old weight you were before, which means you're going to regain.

James Hill:
You know, Holly, I go back to the National Weight Control registry where these people have made permanent changes in their lifestyle. And they tell us almost to a person that their quality of life is much higher afterwards. So this idea that you're going to have to live this lifestyle that's just awful and just horrendous and just really, really hard, that's not what we see. We see that these people learn to adopt and maintain a lifestyle that enriches their quality of life.

Holly Wyatt:
But the key is they don't go back to the lifestyle they had before they lost the weight.

James Hill:
And they tell us they would never go back.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. And so that's the mistake is they come off the med, not only does their appetite return, everything returns to the same. I say, if you're a new person and you're in a new, and let's call it a new body state, right? You have a new weight, you have a new body state. If you return to your old way of living, if you haven't made any changes to your environment, to your habits, to the people you hang out with, to what you eat, to how you move, to how you think, if you haven't made any changes, you're going to return to the old weight. You got to prioritize that. The mistake is seeing this as a finish line instead of a beginning to a new phase, a new wonderful phase.

James Hill:
I love that. It's the beginning of how you're going to live your life forever.

Holly Wyatt:
So you got to reframe it. You got to think about it differently. You know, you got to think about, yes, this is that phase two or the next part. And you can get excited about it. New routines, new environments, a new mindset, a new body. You got to do that. You got to have that shift. You can't think about returning to the old or this is just an ending and you don't need to do anything else moving forward.

James Hill:
Wow, that's 10 good ones, Holly. Do we have any listener questions on this one?

Holly Wyatt:
I think we had some listener questions I think fit into this category that we can answer. Let's see. I'll take the first one. This was a question. What's the smartest way to use my time on GLP-1s so I'm ready if I ever come off? I like this question. Smartest way. Because we've talked about a lot of things or I should be doing all of them, you know, and it really would probably depend on you. And in our new book, I will say we give you some profiles to try to say, here's all the things you could do. But if you kind of fit under this profile, we have like a constant food seeker and a sedentary sitter. And we have these kind of profiles. And if you tend to be under a profile, there may be some strategies that would fit you best, would help you best. But without that, I would say while I'm on the medication and I'm planning to come off at some point and I want to be ready, I think I would definitely make sure that physical activity is getting up there and I would work on my mind. If anything, I could wait a little bit to start. I would plan, but the drug is doing the major lifting on the appetite at this point. And so if I was going to focus my energy and my time, I think physical activity, it's hard to say which is one and two. But I think physical activity for sure, and then also working on my mind state.

James Hill:
I agree. Okay, I'll take one. If I notice weight creeping back, what's the first and most effective thing I could do instead of panicking? Well, not panicking is a good first step. And we recommend that people monitor their weight. Get on that scale. Get on the scale every day, once a day. Look at the weight. No single day's weight is important. What's important is the trend. Average your weight over a week or so. And if the trend is going up, then you need to think about what you're going to do about it. And again, you've got a plan. You've got a diet plan. You've got an exercise plan. Hopefully, you have a plan for your mind state. So the first thing is to take stock of where you are. Do you feel like you're sticking with your diet plan? Maybe your exercise has dropped off a little bit. So you have to be a little bit of a detective to say, has there been an area that I've dropped off on that I need to do? One of the things I think, Holly, you always say is lots of times you're going to see this on the diet side is that people relax their diet a little bit and they're not sticking to their plan. Be a detective. If your weight creeps up, figure out which of those diet, physical activity, or mind state you need to get back on track with.

Holly Wyatt:
I agree with what you're saying. I think first off, congratulations, awareness, you see the weight creep and give yourself a pat on the back. Don't beat yourself up for the fact that the scale is going up. Give yourself some kudos that you are recognizing it early and you know you can take some action. And then if you're off the medications and the weight is creeping back and I wanted to do something right away, I definitely would try some of the things that I can do for the food. I would definitely work on in the book some of the food plays, but, you know, doing an appetite reset meal, really trying to see what easy ways can I decrease the amount of calories I'm eating off the medication, even if I'm off the medication. So I would probably look at everything. I love to be the detective, but I would really focus on the nutrition piece if the weight was creeping back up.

James Hill:
Yeah. Good point.

Holly Wyatt:
Here's one more question that I think fits really well and I'm getting this question a lot so I want to make we get it in. Everyone talks about appetite rebound, very popular right now. How do I know if I'm coming off the meds, if what I'm feeling is normal hunger versus rebound hunger versus more that, you know, how do I know what I'm feeling? And there's some research studies that are looking into this because we don't really know. Does your hunger come back more than it was before? Or is it simply the same amount as it was before? And I don't think we know the answer to that. And it's hard because you've now had a period of time on the medication where your appetite has been suppressed. And then when you come off the drug and the drug does have a long half-life, so it'll slowly come out of your system and it comes out of your system and you start to have hunger and you haven't felt hunger in a long time, it could feel like really different. But it's hard to know, is it more than I had before, the same amount as I had before? And so we don't really know that, but we do know that the hunger's coming back. And so to what degree is what I think we need some additional research on.

James Hill:
Cool. All right, Holly, vulnerability?

Holly Wyatt:
Okay.

James Hill:
Let's both answer this. If you're going to start a GLP-1 today, what's one thing you know you'd absolutely do for sure to set you up for success?

Holly Wyatt:
I would make sure I had a plan to maximize the weight I was going to lose. I would want to really look at the quality of that weight loss, and I wouldn't just go on the medication and not do anything else. I would really put it together with the other pieces because I would want to get the biggest bang for my buck, and I would want that weight loss to be as much fat and the least amount of muscle as possible.

James Hill:
Yeah, I think my answer is very similar. I would start by looking at my long-term goals. Long-term goals, I would assume if I'm going on the meds, I'm going to lose weight. I hopefully will reach my goal, but I'll hopefully lose a lot of weight. What then? How am I going to keep it off? And even more importantly, what's my real win here? Is it reaching a number on the scale or is it enriching my quality of life? And what would that look like? So if you go in saying, hey, I want to get weight loss. Okay, you're going to get weight loss. Now what? Is that number on the scale going to make you happy? I think there are some other things you can work on while you're losing weight that increase your quality of life.

Holly Wyatt:
I love that answer. You would go for the why first. Your motivation, the why.

James Hill:
I'd go for the why first. Why are you doing this?

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, that's a better answer than mine, Jim. I got to admit.

James Hill:
Well, of course.

Holly Wyatt:
It's better. All right, let's do the flip side. I like this flip side. What's one thing you know you would not do for sure based on what we've seen and learned?

James Hill:
This one's clear for me. I would not avoid physical activity. Thinking that I don't need it, I'm losing weight, I'm happy. I don't need this physical activity stuff. That's a big mistake because down the road, you're going to pay for that one.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
What's yours?

Holly Wyatt:
I wouldn't wing it. I just see so many people winging it. I would spend some effort and time and really strategize. If I had a dollar for every time people say, once I lose the weight, I'll figure it out. I'm like, no, no, no, don't do that for sure.

James Hill:
All right, Holly, this was good. I love these, the 10 things we went through. They're all very, very relevant. So to kind of to summarize, GLP-1s can open the door, but the habits you build while you're on them matter just as much.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, when you stop, I think the key is to be prepared. Recognize that you need to do some things and those things are going to help you with a plan, with tools, with awareness, you can be successful. There's going to be some challenges. You need to be ready for them.

James Hill:
And so success isn't about avoiding mistakes entirely. It's about recognizing them early and adjusting quickly. This is great. Thanks, everybody, for joining us on Weight Loss And. Let us hear from you. We'd love to hear your story. If you're on the GLP-1 meds, what are the challenges? What are the opportunities you see? See you next time.

Holly Wyatt:
Bye, everybody.

James Hill:
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Weight Loss And. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of weight loss with us.

Holly Wyatt:
If you want to stay connected and continue exploring the “Ands” of weight loss, be sure to follow our podcast on your favorite platform.

James Hill:
We'd also love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions by reaching out at weightlossand.com. Your feedback helps us tailor future episodes to your needs.

Holly Wyatt:
And remember, the journey doesn't end here. Keep applying the knowledge and strategies you've learned and embrace the power of the “And” in your own weight loss journey.