Weight regain is not a failure of willpower and it is not a mystery
The variance around the mean regain trajectory is large and unexplained, exactly as it is for the weight loss.
Clinical Trials
Page 19 of 26 of this archive, newest first.
Page 19
LEADER misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
SURPASS-3 extension data: what happens after the trial stops
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
The withdrawal trials, read as designs rather than warnings
Three randomised withdrawal designs have tested what happens when treatment stops. Their results are consistent and they are consistently misreported.
LEADER misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
What we would need to randomise to answer this properly
The recommendation survives scrutiny. The reasoning offered for it frequently does not.
LEADER extension data: what happens after the trial stops
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
What the placebo arms of the withdrawal trials actually tell us
What was withdrawn, from whom, after how long, and what was measured afterwards.
Why the bone question is harder than the muscle question
What the Journal would want measured before treating this as settled in either direction.
TRIUMPH-1 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Stepping down against stopping: two decisions treated as one
These agents produce no dependence and no withdrawal syndrome. What a taper would be for is therefore a real question rather than an obvious one.
STEP 5 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
STEP 8 misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
SURMOUNT-1 extension data: what happens after the trial stops
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
A guide to the results that will resolve themselves
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
STEP 2 extension data: what happens after the trial stops
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Weight regain is not a failure of willpower and it is not a mystery
Regain begins immediately, proceeds at a decelerating rate, and does not usually return to baseline within the observed follow-up. Each of those three clauses matters.
Every fortnight, every third week, seasonally: an unstudied practice
An absence of evidence is not evidence of harm. It is also not a licence.
FLOW misses on a secondary endpoint the coverage has not mentioned
A design note rather than a result: what the comparator was, and what that permits you to conclude.
Stepping down against stopping: two decisions treated as one
The best argument for tapering is behavioural rather than pharmacological, and it deserves to be made on its own terms.