#566: Can We Maintain Weight Loss? Pharmacology and Behavior – Tara Schmidt, RD
Sigma Nutrition Radio
Danny Lennon
4.8 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
GLP-1 receptor agonists have changed the landscape of obesity treatment, offering levels of weight loss once thought unattainable without surgery. But what happens after the weight is lost? And can we really talk about success without talking about maintenance?
While much of the public discourse fixates on dramatic weight loss numbers, the harder question is what comes next. Can lifestyle interventions alone sustain weight loss after GLP-1 cessation? How do metabolic adaptations and behavioral relapse factor in? And what does the data actually show about relapse rates, nutritional adequacy, and lean mass preservation when using these medications?
In this episode, Danny sits down with Tara Schmidt, dietitian at the Mayo Clinic, to examine the intersection of pharmacology and behavior in long-term weight management.
Tara Schmidt is a registered dietitian and an instructor of nutrition at Mayo Clinic. As the lead dietitian for the Mayo Clinic Diet, she provides guidance rooted in evidence-based principles. She hosts the Mayo Clinic On Nutrition podcast and co-authored The Mayo Clinic Diet: Weight Loss Medications Edition.
Timestamps
- [05:17] Understanding weight loss maintenance
- [08:44] Defining success in weight loss maintenance
- [11:54] Predictors of maintenance: self-monitoring and behavioral strategies
- [23:37] Pharmacological interventions: GLP-1 receptor agonists
- [31:06] Dietary considerations for those taking GLP-1 RAs
- [37:07] Addressing misconceptions about weight loss drugs
- [42:48] Final thoughts and takeaways
- [48:49] Key ideas (Premium-only)
Links/Resources
- Subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium
- Go to episode page
- Join the Sigma email newsletter for free
- Enroll in the next cohort of our Applied Nutrition Literacy course
- Visit sigmanutrition.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 566 of the podcast. You are very welcome. |
| 0:07.7 | My name is Danny Lennon and today we have another interview with an expert on a very interesting topic |
| 0:14.1 | that I'm sure will be relevant to many people listening. And we're going to focus in on a couple of |
| 0:20.6 | issues, the concept of weight loss |
| 0:22.9 | maintenance, how that can actually be achieved, what degree of success is possible or realistic, |
| 0:29.5 | and some of the debates that go around how possible it is or not through a variety of different |
| 0:34.6 | interventions. And then we'll also bring into that discussion one of the things that has completely changed |
| 0:40.7 | that conversation in recent years, which is now the emergence of the GLP1 receptor agonist |
| 0:46.4 | medications that are used in obesity treatment and management, and how that maybe changes |
| 0:51.9 | some of the previous parameters we would have had around things |
| 0:55.0 | like weight loss maintenance, how these now tie into it, and what way we should think of |
| 0:59.9 | the use of pharmacology like this alongside lifestyle and dietary interventions or in lieu of |
| 1:06.6 | them and some of the debates that are currently going on? So to talk through some of these |
| 1:10.7 | concepts, I'm going to be talking with Tara Schmidt, |
| 1:13.8 | who is a registered dietitian and instructor of nutrition at the Mayo Clinic, |
| 1:18.3 | where there she is the lead dietitian for the Mayo Clinic diet, |
| 1:22.2 | and in addition to providing a variety of educational-based roles there, |
| 1:27.0 | including being the host of the Mayo Clinic on Nutrition podcast and co-authoring a new section of the Mayo Clinic diet book. |
| 1:37.0 | She has much experience as a dietitian in practice and can speak to some of these issues particularly well. So hopefully this |
| 1:46.2 | proves to be an insightful and interesting conversation for you. If you want to go a bit deeper and be |
| 1:52.0 | able to not only revise over some of the topics we're going to get into in this conversation, |
| 1:57.2 | but also to be able to get a bit more context and have a set of detailed study notes for this episode |
... |
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