The market for weight management has expanded quickly, and the quality of what is on offer varies enormously. Prescription medication, coaching subscriptions, meal replacement programmes and telehealth services now compete for the same customer, often using similar language. The following questions are designed to separate a properly run clinical service from a marketing operation.

About the assessment

1. Who assesses me, and what are their qualifications? For anything involving prescription medication, the answer should be a doctor or nurse practitioner registered in New Zealand. You are entitled to know their name and to look them up on the Medical Council register. A questionnaire reviewed by an unnamed clinician is a weaker standard than a video consultation.

2. What blood tests are done before I start? A reasonable baseline includes HbA1c, lipids, liver function, kidney function, thyroid function and full blood count. These establish your metabolic starting point and screen for conditions that change the treatment plan. A service that prescribes without any blood work is skipping a step that exists for safety reasons.

3. What would make me unsuitable for this treatment? A clinician who can answer this specifically, including personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma, previous pancreatitis, pregnancy or planned pregnancy, active gallbladder disease and certain eating disorder histories, is screening properly. Vagueness here is a signal.

4. How is my full medical history and medication list taken into account? Interactions matter. Some diabetes medications need dose adjustment when a GLP-1 is added. Slowed gastric emptying affects the absorption of other oral medications, including some contraceptives in specific circumstances.

About the ongoing care

5. How often will I be reviewed, and by whom? Monthly review during the dose escalation phase is a reasonable standard. Review should involve an actual clinical conversation, not just a repeat prescription being issued.

6. Is nutritional and exercise support included, or extra? Preserving muscle mass during weight loss requires adequate protein and resistance training. Programmes that include dietitian or nutritionist access are addressing this. Those that do not are leaving a significant part of the outcome to chance.

7. What happens if I get significant side effects? Nausea, constipation and reflux are common early and usually manageable with dose adjustment and dietary changes. You want to know who you contact, how quickly they respond, and whether that contact costs extra.

8. How are supply shortages handled? Global supply of GLP-1 medications has been intermittent. Ask what happens if your dose is unavailable.

About the money

9. What is the total cost over twelve months, including everything? Not the monthly medication price. The full figure including every consultation, dose escalation, blood test and courier fee. Providers of weight loss treatments price these components differently and a lower headline can be a higher total.

10. Does the price change as my dose increases? Some pricing models scale with dose strength, others hold flat. Over a year of titration this can be a meaningful difference.

11. What is the cancellation policy, and is there a lock-in period? You should be able to stop. Minimum contract terms in a medical service are worth questioning, because the clinical decision to continue or stop should not be constrained by a commercial commitment.

About stopping

12. What is the plan for coming off treatment? This is the question most often skipped and arguably the most important. Weight regain after stopping GLP-1 medication is well documented in trial follow-up data. A service that has a genuine answer, whether that is a structured taper, a maintenance dose strategy, or intensified nutritional support during the transition, is thinking about your outcome rather than your subscription. A service that has no answer has not thought past the acquisition.

A note on marketing language

Some phrases reliably indicate a service worth scrutinising more closely. Guaranteed results, in any form, cannot be honestly promised for a treatment with substantial individual variation in response. Before-and-after photography without disclosure of the timeframe and the accompanying programme tells you nothing. Pressure to commit quickly, countdown timers and limited-time pricing are sales techniques, not clinical ones.

Conversely, a service that tells you clearly that treatment may not be suitable for you, that explains what it does not offer, and that publishes its clinical criteria is behaving like a healthcare provider. That is the standard worth holding out for.