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Secondary analysis of a randomized trial

S-LiTE: exercise, liraglutide or both, a year after stopping

One year after treatment ended, those who had received exercise plus liraglutide weighed 5.1 kg less (95% CI, −10.0 to −0.2) and had a body fat percentage 2.3 points lower (95% CI, −4.3 to −0.3) than those who had received liraglutide alone.

Jensen SBK et al. Healthy weight loss maintenance with exercise, GLP-1 receptor agonist, or both combined followed by one year without treatment: a post-treatment analysis of a randomised placebo-controlled trial. eClinicalMedicine, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102475

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Key facts

Drug
liraglutide
Design
Secondary analysis of a randomized trial
Participants
109
Duration
104 weeks
Funding
Helsefonden and the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Registry
NCT04122716
Population
Adults with obesity (aged 18 to 65, baseline BMI of 32 to 43) who lost an average of 13.1 kg on an 8-week low-calorie diet and were randomized to one year of maintenance with supervised exercise, liraglutide 3.0 mg, both or placebo; 109 attended the assessment one year after treatment ended, in Copenhagen.
Primary outcome
Change in body weight from randomization (week 0) to one year after treatment ended (week 104), in the intention-to-treat population.

What it found

One year after treatment ended, those who had received exercise plus liraglutide weighed 5.1 kg less (95% CI, −10.0 to −0.2) and had a body fat percentage 2.3 points lower (95% CI, −4.3 to −0.3) than those who had received liraglutide alone. During the year off treatment, weight regain was 6.0 kg greater (95% CI, 2.1 to 10.0) after stopping liraglutide alone than after stopping supervised exercise. Keeping off at least 10% of initial weight was more likely with the combination than with placebo (OR 7.2; 95% CI, 2.4 to 21.3) or with liraglutide alone (OR 4.2; 95% CI, 1.6 to 10.8), and with exercise than with placebo (OR 3.7; 95% CI, 1.2 to 11.1).

This is a secondary analysis: it uses data from a trial that was already published, so its conclusions carry less weight than that trial’s main result.

Limitations

A post-treatment analysis of a randomized trial, with loss to follow-up (109 of the randomized participants attended). Small sample. It used liraglutide, not semaglutide or tirzepatide, after an initial diet-induced loss. Funded by Helsefonden and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

What it means for you

A year after stopping everything, people who had combined liraglutide with supervised exercise kept their weight off better than those who had taken only the drug. It is a small study with liraglutide, but it supports the idea that exercise helps preserve results. Your doctor can advise you on the kind of activity that suits you.

Further reading

Related trials

  • liraglutide56 weeks

    SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes

    With liraglutide 3.0 mg daily, plus diet and exercise, participants lost an average of 8.4 kg at 56 weeks, compared with 2.8 kg on placebo.

  • liraglutide56 weeks

    SCALE Maintenance

    After losing 6.0% on the diet, weight fell by a further 6.2% with liraglutide and 0.2% with placebo between randomization and week 56.

  • semaglutide and liraglutide68 weeks

    STEP 8

    At 68 weeks, weight changed by −15.8% with semaglutide and −6.4% with liraglutide.

  • orforglipron40 weeks

    ACHIEVE-2

    At 40 weeks, HbA1c fell by 1.23, 1.50 and 1.56 points with orforglipron 3, 12 and 36 mg, compared with 0.81 on dapagliflozin.

Sources

The original paper and the records consulted for this summary, with the date they were accessed.

  1. eClinicalMedicine (The Lancet).Jensen SBK, et al. Healthy weight loss maintenance with exercise, GLP-1 receptor agonist, or both combined followed by one year without treatment. eClinicalMedicine. 2024;69:102475.accessed .
  2. National Library of Medicine (PubMed).PubMed record PMID 38544798 (abstract).accessed .