In France, 18.1% of adults now live with obesity, which amounts to nearly 10 million people. The arrival of new anti-obesity treatments represents a therapeutic revolution and a major advancement for patients. However, the effectiveness of these treatments requires integration into a comprehensive care pathway rather than being an isolated response. These medications act on appetite, satiety, and certain metabolic mechanisms but cannot durably modify eating habits, address the psychological dimensions of the disease, promote adapted physical activity, or act on the patient's environment. The High Authority for Health and the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) emphasize that the management of obesity must remain personalized and multidisciplinary, including notably nutrition, physical activity, medical and psychological support. The EASO/EFAD/ECPO consensus published in 2026 also highlights the importance of nutritional, functional, and psychological dimensions in the accompaniment of patients treated with these medications.
The results of these treatments are major: in the SELECT study, conducted among 17,604 patients with overweight or obesity and cardiovascular disease, semaglutide reduced the relative risk of major cardiovascular events by 20%. However, maintaining these benefits requires long-term commitment. A meta-analysis published in the BMJ in 2026 shows that after stopping semaglutide or tirzepatide, weight regain reaches an average of 0.8 kg per month, or nearly 10 kg during the first year, with a return to the initial weight projected within about one and a half years. Losing weight is not enough: one must also be interested in what is being lost. The objective is particularly to reduce fat mass, especially abdominal fat, while preserving muscle mass and function as much as possible. The waist circumference is a simple but essential clinical indicator in this regard. The High Authority for Health considers that a health risk is present from 94 cm in men and 80 cm in women. A meta-analysis involving over 2.5 million people also shows that each 10 cm increase in waist circumference is associated with an 11% increase in the risk of total mortality, independent of the BMI. In other words, the number on the scale tells only part of the story. Adverse effects, particularly digestive ones, must also be anticipated and monitored, as they can affect tolerance and the continuation of treatment in some patients.
This evolution does not concern only the responsibility of doctors. It concerns the entire health system. Health authorities must continue to define appropriate usage conditions. Prescribers must have clear guidelines. And patients must be considered not as passive beneficiaries of a prescription, but as actors in a care project built with them. France today has several of the necessary building blocks: major therapeutic innovations, structured recommendations, medical and paramedical skills, and actors capable of organizing long-term care. The RNPC network has been following this logic of associating medical, nutritional, and behavioral dimensions with long-term follow-up for more than twenty years. However, the challenge goes far beyond a network or a method: it concerns our collective ability to organize the management of obesity around the real needs of patients. It is now a matter of making a choice about what we want to do with this therapeutic revolution. We can consider the new treatments as answers in themselves. Or we can consider them for what they are: powerful therapeutic levers, which take their full place when integrated into a global, personalized, and sustainable strategy. The second path is more demanding. It requires more coordination, time, follow-up, and responsibility. But it is also more coherent with what we know today about obesity. The pharmacological revolution is here. It is up to us to ensure that it becomes a revolution in care. Our fight is not against pharmacotherapy. Our fight is against isolated pharmacotherapy.
France Faces Challenge in Integrating New Obesity Treatments into Holistic Care
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obesitysemaglutidehealthcarepharmacotherapyweight-managementmetabolic-health



