Effect of Continued Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Placebo on Weight Loss Maintenance in Adults With Overweight or Obesity: The STEP 4 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Studied

Randomized withdrawal trial comparing continued semaglutide with switching to placebo, with lifestyle intervention in both groups.

Who / model

803 adults with overweight or obesity and no diabetes entered a 48-week comparison after a 20-week semaglutide run-in.

Studied dose & schedule

Dose and schedule have not yet been extracted for this summary.

Found

After initial weight loss of 10.6%, weight fell another 7.9% with continued semaglutide but rose 6.9% after switching to placebo. Confirmatory secondary measures of waist size, blood pressure and physical functioning also improved. Digestive events occurred in 49.1% versus 26.1%; adverse-event treatment withdrawals were similar, 2.4% versus 2.2%.

Limits

Only participants who reached the maintenance dose during the initial treatment period were randomized.

Read summary source ↗ · Prepared 9/16/2026 · AI-assisted, source-based summary