Do you stay on a weight-management medicine for life?

The NIDDK describes obesity as a chronic condition and prescription weight-management medicines as long-term treatment rather than a short course. That framing is not a commercial one; it follows from what happens when treatment stops, which is that weight is commonly regained.

It is closer to how blood pressure or cholesterol medicines are discussed than to a course of antibiotics. The medicine manages something ongoing rather than resolving it, so removing it generally returns the situation to where it was.

That does not make the decision automatic. Cost, side effects and how you actually feel on treatment are all legitimate and all change over time. What it does mean is that stopping is a clinical decision with a predictable consequence, and worth planning with a prescriber rather than doing quietly.