Concurrent Lifestyle Intervention Enhances Semaglutide Weight Loss, with Qiaochu Xue, PhD, MPH

Concurrent lifestyle intervention was associated with greater weight loss in people with overweight or obesity receiving semaglutide treatment and less regain following discontinuation.

These findings were from an emulated trial from data from the VA MOVE! Program, a Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP)-style lifestyle intervention (LI) led by Hui Shao, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health, and the School of Public Health at Emory University. They were presented by Qiaochu Xue, PhD, MPH, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center,at the 2025 American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Sessions, held June 20-23, in Chicago, Illinois.

The analysis included 2,403 participants from VA MOVE! who initiated semaglutide from 2019 to 2024 that were matched 1:3 to those without LI, using high-dimensional propensity score matching to balance baseline characteristics. Xue and colleagues used generalized mixed-effects models to assess body weight trajectories from semaglutide initiation through 12 months following discontinuation.

The investigators found that individuals with concurrent LI achieved greater weight loss before semaglutide discontinuation (-8.3% vs. -7.4%, P <.001). Furthermore, at 12 months following discontinuation, LI participants had greater net weight loss (-5.8%) compared to nonparticipants (-3.3%; P<.01).

"Most of the phase 3 clinical trials have reported that semaglutide has some weight loss effect for most of the type 2 diabetes patients, or even overweight or obesity patients, but we don't know if during their semiglutide usage period if adding the MOVE program, that combined lifestyle intervention and the medication will increase the weight loss benefits,” Xue told HCPLive in an interview during the ADA meeting.

Xue has no disclosures to report.

REFERENCE

Xue Q, Li P, Staton E, et al. 2199-LB: Weight Loss Maintenance following Semaglutide Discontinuation—The Role of Concurrent Lifestyle Intervention. Diabetes. 2025;74(Supplement_1). doi: 10.2337/db25-2199-lb