The Next Competitive Advantage in Obesity Care Will Be Sustaining Weight Loss

For decades, obesity treatment faced a frustrating gap between what was clinically desirable and what was realistically achievable.

Diet and exercise remain fundamental, but sustained, substantial weight loss has been difficult for many patients to achieve. GLP-1-based therapies reduce appetite and increase satiety, enabling levels of weight loss that were previously difficult to achieve.

In a recent multicentre observational study of 260 adults with obesity treated with tirzepatide, 94% achieved at least 5% weight loss after six months. Nearly four in five lost at least 10%, while almost half of participants lost at least 15%.

Yet only 80% of participants completed six months of treatment. A 2026 Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism study points to the same challenge: at six months, roughly 60% remained persistent with treatment and met the study's adherence threshold.

Mr. Kaya notes that while the pharmacology works, medication alone is unlikely to be enough. The next challenge is building the clinical, behavioural and digital infrastructure that keeps patients engaged, supports adherence and turns weight loss into a durable health outcome.

Obesity Care As a Continuous-Care Problem

Traditional obesity care is often episodic: a consultation, a prescription, and a follow-up appointment. But significant weight loss does not automatically create the conditions for maintaining it.

Patients can remain physically inactive, consume inadequate protein, lose muscle mass, or return to the routines that contributed to weight gain. Mr. Kaya has observed that if treatment stops before stronger habits are established, weight can return.

The STEP 1 extension shows why weight loss and weight maintenance have to be treated as separate stages of care. After 68 weeks of semaglutide 2.4 mg, participants regained an average 11.6 percentage points of body weight over the following year after treatment was withdrawn. This was roughly two-thirds of their previous weight loss.

Several cardiometabolic improvements also moved back towards baseline. It doesn't mean that the medication failed. Achieving weight loss and maintaining it are different clinical problems. The latter requires continuous focus and adherence.

The regulatory approach is moving in the same direction. Wegovy's current prescribing information includes long-term weight maintenance in its indication.

In March 2026 the FDA approved a higher-dose Wegovy formulation for weight loss and long-term maintenance of weight loss in certain adults with obesity or overweight and a weight-related condition.

This makes ongoing monitoring and support a core part of obesity care. Treatment response, adherence, weight trajectory, nutrition, and physical activity need to be assessed over time.

A Dedicated Business Model Emerges

GLP-1 therapies have not made fitness and nutrition less relevant, as many industry experts initially believed. As medication makes weight loss easier to initiate, patients increasingly need support to preserve muscle, improve physical capacity, establish sustainable routines, and stay engaged with treatment.

'This has already emerged as a trend that drives a new audience to fitness apps. People suffering from obesity are often intimidated by gyms, resistance training, or bodybuilding culture.

'After losing a meaningful amount of weight, their goals often change. They become less focused only on the number on the scale and more interested in how their body looks, how strong they are, and how they can preserve or build muscle,' specifies Furkan Kaya.

'This raises the need for solutions that provide knowledge and personalised fitness track to improve the quality of the body. This new-to-the-fitness-industry audience looks for guidance on how to train, how much protein to consume, and how to track progress'.

Eventually, a new business opportunity for healthcare and fitness technology developers emerges: building the infrastructure that supports GLP-1 therapy over the long term.

Three priorities drive the market:

1. Build around the medication. Resistance training, adequate protein, nutrition, and consistent activity can help patients preserve muscle and turn weight loss into broader improvements in health and physical capacity.
2. Make care continuous. Wearables, connected scales, and personalised fitness apps can track activity, weight, and other indicators between clinical appointments, helping identify declining engagement or early weight regain.
3. Turn data into action. Technology should translate changes in weight, activity, body composition, or training into specific recommendations: when to adjust a training plan, increase activity, review nutrition, or seek additional support.

The end goal is personalised nutrition and training support, which can be more effective than monitoring alone. A 2024 JAMA randomised clinical trial found that participants receiving wireless feedback plus telephone coaching lost 4.8 kg over six months, compared with 2.8 kg among those receiving wireless feedback alone.

The lesson is straightforward: collecting data is not enough; patients need personalised guidance that helps them act on it.

The Future Belongs to the Ecosystem

Better drugs will continue to improve obesity treatment; therefore, clinical care will remain essential. But as the effectiveness of medication becomes less questionable, the competitive advantage in the healthcare and fitness industries will come from what happens around it.

Mr. Kaya believes that the strongest models will connect medical treatment with nutrition, resistance training, body composition, activity, and behavioural support in a single care journey.

Their value will not be another isolated feature or source of health data. They will introduce the ability to turn those inputs into timely, personalised decisions that keep patients progressing.

This points to a broader shift in obesity care: from helping people lose weight to helping them build and maintain better health. The companies that can connect treatment with the daily behaviors that determine long-term outcomes will be best positioned to compete in the next phase of the market.