New Study Hints at Why Diets and Weight-Loss Drugs Often Don’t Last

New epigenetic research suggests a possible explanation for why many diets and weight-loss medications do not produce lasting results: fat cells may keep a memory of obesity even after pounds are lost.

In a mouse experiment, researchers examined a chemical process in fat cells in which the hormone asprosin, found in tissue and linked to hunger, activates changes in DNA and appears to create a kind of biological memory inside the cell, according to the Washington Post.

Drugs such as Ozempic have become widely used in the United States because of their dramatic effects. A Gallup poll released in July found that 11 percent of U.S. adults were using GLP-1 medications for weight loss, up from 3 percent in 2024.

Still, many users say the benefits fade after they reduce or stop treatment, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

One study published in JAMA found that 83 percent of tirzepatide users who lost weight regained at least 25 percent of that loss within a year after stopping the drug.

The idea that cells can retain an obese-state memory as a kind of “status quo” may help explain that rebound. Researchers say understanding how to switch these cellular processes on and off could improve future obesity treatment.

“If we understand where that memory is coming from, maybe eventually we’ll have some way to stop that,” Seth Field, a professor of medicine in endocrinology at Case Western Reserve University and an author of the study, told the Washington Post.

A separate Mayo study found that about one in four participants produced lower levels of GLP-1 and other hormones that help people feel full after eating.

“Obesity is a complex disease driven by different biological mechanisms,” said the study’s senior author, Andres Acosta, M.D., Ph.D., a gastroenterologist and director of an obesity research program at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. “Our findings suggest we can begin identifying which patients are most likely to respond to specific therapies rather than treating obesity as a single disease.”

The Trump administration’s pharmaceutical program, TrumpRx.gov, also offered “massive discounts on popular medications used to treat obesity and infertility” such as GLP-1 drugs, a White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Senior citizens without access to GLP-1 coverage to treat obesity gained access for just $50 per month,” the official added. “In the two months since the launch of this program, 600,000 seniors have saved a total of $216 million dollars on these life-changing medicines.”

Despite the popularity of these quick-fix drugs, GLP-1 medications have also helped drive higher health-care costs, according to previous DCNF reporting. Some U.S. small-business insurers have stopped covering them because of their rising use and high prices.

“The main reason for rising health insurance costs is simply that ‘healthcare’ includes more and more things every year,” Chris Pope of the Manhattan Institute told the DCNF.

“This is most obvious in the case of drugs, such as Ozempic, which didn’t even exist a few years ago,” Pope said. “They cost thousands of dollars per course of treatment, and millions of patients are now using them. Insurers often pick up most of this cost. A similar dynamic exists with new hospital services: whenever a hospital upgrades its equipment, opens a new building, or deploys a new surgical procedure which previously didn’t exist, spending on hospital care increases enormously.”