Millions Are Coming Off GLP-1s and a Practitioner Says There Is a Solution For People Dealing With Food Noise

A BMJ review of 37 studies found weight returns within about two years, and faster after medication than after behavioral programs.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, October 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — When people stop taking GLP-1 medications, the food noise returns. Research published in January in The BMJ, pooling 37 studies, found participants regained roughly a pound a month and returned to their starting weight within about two years.

The same review reported that weight came back faster after stopping medication than after behavioral weight management programs, regardless of how much had been lost.

Sandy Zeldes, a Certified Nutrition Consultant and Advanced EFT Practitioner who has worked with people on cravings and emotional eating for more than two decades, said the finding matches what she has seen since GLP-1s became widespread.

“The medication turned the volume down. It never answered the question,” Zeldes said. “So when the volume comes back up, people assume they have failed at something. They haven’t. Nothing was ever resolved. It was quieted.”

Food noise, the persistent intrusive thinking about food, has become measurable. Researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center presented findings at the European Congress on Obesity this year using a validated Food Noise Questionnaire, offering the first empirical evidence that GLP-1 medications reduce food noise more than behavioral programs alone.

Zeldes said that finding is not in tension with her work.

“The drugs do exactly what they say. That is not in question,” she said. “The question is what happens in the 18 months after somebody stops, and right now the honest answer is that most people are not prepared for it.”

A 2026 analysis of people who discontinued GLP-1 treatment found that only 14% adopted structured lifestyle changes. More than a quarter switched to a different weight loss medication and nearly one in five restarted their original prescription within about six months.

Zeldes said the people who reach her have usually tried a long list of things first.

“They tell me they have done therapy, diets, cleanses, nutritionists, functional medicine, the medication, sometimes surgery, and they still cannot control the wanting,” she said. “Every one of those approaches was aimed at hunger. This was never really about hunger.”

She said the reasons are rarely about food at all.

“The wanting is doing something. It is regulating something, or soothing something, or standing in for something,” Zeldes said. “Until you know what, you are managing a symptom.”

Research published by Stanford Medicine in June found patients themselves resisted the idea that GLP-1s work like a cure. Participants described them instead as tools that made room for change rather than producing it.

“That is the most useful sentence anyone has written about these drugs,” Zeldes said. “The room is real. What people do with it is the part nobody is helping them with.”

Zeldes trained as a professional chef before earning her Certified Nutrition Consultant through Bauman College. She studied Emotional Freedom Techniques with its founder, Gary Craig, and is listed in EFT practitioner directories. She works with clients on the patterns underneath cravings rather than on restriction or meal planning.

You can learn more at sandyzeldes.com

Sandy Zeldes
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