The GLP-1 Thread: Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro etc.

This class of drugs has been around for while, primarily for treatment of diabetes.. but it seems like they've entered the public discourse in a bigger way

Now being prescribed for weight loss as well, it seems like every week there's some new revelation in the press about some new secondary approval - for problem drinking, cardiovascular disease, kidney or liver disease, sleep apnea.. they've taken on an almost 'miracle drug' status

There's also issues with insurance coverage, with access in general, side effects, knockoffs from compounding pharmacies, etc.

Anyway, they seem thread-worthy (I'm not taking any of these drugs! yet), but maybe not? I was surprised there wasn't one already

these are reportedly great for diabetics, i support that, but the way this shit is marketed and prescribed should be illegal

i am so fucking exhausted with living in eating disorder culture

in general we should ban all marketing for prescription drugs

I think some place do that? in Europe maybe?

yeah, I should've added^^^^^: promotion of unhealthy body norms!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/why-are-people-injecting-themselves-with-peptides

I want to be very clear: the line between "promoting unhealthy attitudes to dieting" and "helping people who struggle with weight management" is very blurred, and I would always want to be careful about how I talk about these drugs and what they do. I don't think anyone should be using, or abusing, these drugs to change how their body and their face looks without good health reasons. I don't like that the conversation ten years ago around body positivity is now a conversation around "ozempic face."

Equally I don't think it's fair that we de-value women for not being skinny, but we then de-value women for trying to do something about it. The conversation about these drugs feels misogynistic in just about every way, because it basically wants women to be skinny and only in a certain way through certain methods. How much of it is about controlling women's bodies and how much of it is about weight alone?

But... I have a friend who has started Wegovy and she swears it has changed her life. She has lost 19 pounds in a few weeks. Her PCOS symptoms are much more controlled. She started these drugs on medical advice - she's a larger woman, she's had health issues because of her weight, she's tried to lose it in different ways unsuccessfully.

The thing that blew my mind was watching her eat after she started on it. We had her round for dinner and being lazy we just ordered pizza. The kind of pizza with thick, delicious, gooey cheese topped with crisp veg and sizzling meat. The kind that makes you hungry just thinking about it. I've never known her to refuse a slice of pizza, certainly not one that looked this good. She said that she knows the food is good, but she just felt full and satiated, that she felt the reward of the taste was not worth the feeling of bloating or greasiness, and it could sit in front of her without being desirable. This is so alien to me because I will always want the pizza slice. And I've never known her to not take the slice. The difference in her relationship with food is incredible - she says the constant background noise of crisps/sweets/biscuits just isn't there, she only gets peckish occasionally and now reaches for fruit instead of treats. I couldn't really get my head around it until I saw it in action.

It's still early days so I don't know how this will work out for her long-term. But I can see a difference - not even so much physically but just in how she feels around food and eating.

As soon as you stop taking it, the unwanted behaviors return. Subscription Capitalism Big Pharm style.

(also we're in Scotland so the way this is marketed and allowed is probably very different from how it is stateside)

in general we should ban all marketing for prescription drugs

One thing that I agree with RFKjr on

just in how she feels around food and eating

from what I've read this is the way these drugs operate. they alter the body's chemistry that regulates hunger and appetite, not what the body does with the food once it gets in.

yeah I should make it clear that I have ZERO judgement on anyone taking these drugs for whatever reason(s), I didn't start a thread to pontificate!

I also know that they're currently really fucking expensive and a lot of insurance won't cover them... feels like it's still a privilege to even have access

It seems to turn the volume down on addictive cravings, too. I've heard people say they stopped biting their nails, and others were able to cut way back on drinking alcohol.

yeah that's what the New Yorker article talks about, in part

As soon as you stop taking it, the unwanted behaviors return. Subscription Capitalism Big Pharm style.

tbf that's just how medicine works, it only has effect if you take it. i doubt big pharma is suppressing a secret formulation of this where you take one pill and it works for life.

I know a couple of people taking these things, and probably a couple of others I suspect are, and yeah, it seemingly curtails alcohol cravings for sure, and also greasy food, which apparently makes you more prone to heartburn than usual when you're getting the shots. So even setting aside the other stuff you're not eating, cutting down or out alcohol and greasy food is never a bad thing, and people that do so will probably lose weight regardless.

Another anecdotal observation, this is the first medication since the first Covid vaccines that I've heard of people outright falsify medical status to get, typically online or via teledoc.

Equally I don't think it's fair that we de-value women for not being skinny, but we then de-value women for trying to do something about it.

ok who is doing this

i doubt big pharma is suppressing a secret formulation

gastric bypass?

i am genuinely a person who believes all diets are eating disorders, i do not have a calm or equivocating attitude about this shit

But I can see a difference - not even so much physically but just in how she feels around food and eating.

what you’re telling me is that she eats less, which is therefore good. what i am suggesting is that idk this might not be good

It seems to turn the volume down on addictive cravings, too. I've heard people say they stopped biting their nails, and others were able to cut way back on drinking alcohol.

i was reading it also may have chilling effect on relationships as well by reducing the reward signals gained from those connections.

whoa wild

but we then de-value women for trying to do something about it
ok who is doing this

there has been an element of this, in the sense that's these drugs are 'cheating' or you didn't lose weight the old fashioned way, by starving yourself in a steam room on a treadmill.. I'm not saying that, but some folks are understandably shy about broadcasting their use

Probably veering off-topic a little bit but I'm currently reading Ultra-Processed People and it makes a pretty convincing case that ultra-processed food is responsible for obesity and a bunch of other modern diseases.

the reason I am personally so interested in this stuff:

I'm from a family of larger people. Not just, "a bit overweight" but the kind of people who in attract judgemental looks when out and about. I've got distant aunts and cousins who are breathless at rest in their 40s and 50s. One cousin had a gastric band fitted. In my late 20s I started to feel the change and now in my late 30s I'm an obviously fat man, maybe not obese in the way you think when you hear that word but easily in the medical sense.

I wasn't always like this. At 22 I was about 10 stone, and then I started taking an anti-depressant that caused me to completely lose my appetite (not a common reaction, I know). I remember one day I couldn't eat anything but half a yoghurt bar because I felt so sick at the prospect of putting food in my mouth and swallowing it. I was down to 8 stone, which for a man of my height was close to malnourishment territory.

I've been both a skinny person and a larger person, and even when I was a skinny person I had a slight belly because I've never been toned or athletic. I haven't changed my eating habits in the 15 years or so as my weight has fluctuated and changed.

I'm always thinking about sweets, I love sugar, and I'm only half-joking when I say I can't cope if I don't have something in a cupboard to snack on every night. I'm curious about the prospect of silencing that food noise and if it would help me control it, but equally I do not want to go back to looking like a weak-looking skinny shell of a man. I want to be healthier and I don't think it's wrong that I'm curious to try something that would help me in a way that other techniques have failed.

xxp yeah 100% theres an element out there who see "taking a pill" as a lack of willpower, lazy, vain, etc. lots of folks out there who project morality onto bodies, weight, food.

society tells women they have to be skinny, which is unfair in itself, but then women become skinny they're accused of "cheating" becuase they're using weight loss drugs instead of doing it the "proper" way ie starving and exercise. It is basically shit to be a woman because you will always be commented on and scrutinised and it is massively unfair and I do not think any woman should ever feel pressured to lose weight for their appearance.

Wanting to not have increased risks of heart disease, cancer, strokes - that's a different conversation. My friend has had gallbladder and kidney issues due to their weight, and that's why they're pursuing this.

I'm curious about the prospect of silencing that food noise

yeah I just heard a radio interview with a woman who said that taking the drug freed up a lot of time.. that she was normally semi-obsessed with what the next snack or meal would be, and the drug just silenced all that internal chatter. She left her family to mostly fend for themselves food-wise, and she found she had so much more free time in life

My pal has also said that their food expenditure has decreased by a noticeable level.

what i am suggesting is that idk this might not be good

any medicinally active substance is going to have unwanted side effects, usually including some serious ones. even aspirin with more than a century of widespread and unrestricted over the counter use has some potentially severe or fatal side effects. Americans have a well-known penchant for overuse and abuse of every drug under the sun (if a little is good, more is always better) and nothing much is going to keep capitalists from profiting from that. otoh, there are undoubtedly people whose fundamental health will benefit from these drugs alongside people who'll just treat them like the newest fad diet or an alternative to cosmetic surgery. in short, GLP-1 drugs are a land of contrasts.

“ As soon as you stop taking it, the unwanted behaviors return. Subscription Capitalism Big Pharm style.”

I see this attitude all the time and it pisses me off because tons of medications work this way. If I stop taking my SSRI my severe anxiety will come back. Lifelong medications with side effects are a balance that you carefully weigh: how badly do the side effects affect my quality of life/length of life vs how badly does the disease.

I started ozempic about 3 years ago, because my A1C was over 7 and I was pretty fat. The food noise stopped almost immediately. If you’ve never experienced food noise, lucky you, but it’s hard to explain. It’s not exactly addiction, not exactly obsession or compulsion, it’s… a noise. A constant one.

I didn’t consciously change my eating habits or start exercising. I just ate when I felt hungry and stopped eating when I was full, I was more ok with foregoing snacks and sugar. I ate a lot less and I lost 25lbs in 3 months. It was awesome! I was still fat but I was way more comfortable in my body (physically, just easier to do a lot of things carrying less weight) and I was back just inside a size that isn’t impossible to find nice clothes in.

But I remained on the low dose for a couple of years because my labs were still good even though the food noise came back within 18 months and I gained the 25lbs back. I was on seroquel up until I started ozempic, so it’s possible just going off that was enough to return my labs to normal.

I didn’t have really any major side effects - just occasional and brief bouts of nausea and a couple episodes of really severe gastric distress - but earlier this year that turned into gastritis so I went off ozempic.

I could’ve avoided that if I’d eaten better. I was pretty negligent about making sure my fiber and protein intake was sufficient, I def didn’t drink enough water.

The only way to lose a really significant amount of weight on a glp-1 is if you do all the things fat phobic people already tell us to do: calorie deficit and exercise (mostly calorie deficit). It’s just less mentally draining/damaging to incorporate this stuff into your life when you don’t have the food noise tv constantly humming in your head.

have a similar relationship & history with food/weight as boxedjoy and in that sense its really hard for me to see these drugs as anything other than something that offers overweight people access to an additional 5, 10, or more years of life (especially now being at an age where its increasingly common to see weight-related illnesses catch up with people & kill them). whatever the surrounding debates are re:body image, societal pressure, people taking it for the "wrong reasons", idgaf we can sort that out later, or not even bother

im fat, and im going to die fat ihibidtae

interesting little video

https://www.nytimes.com/video/well/100000010986709/can-ozempic-make-you-live-longer.html

I'm curious to try GLP-1s to see what they do and I'm not all that fussed what people think about it. It's my life.

Yeah I take mounjaro and am pretty overall positive about it but ultimately I also can’t wait to not be on it. I don’t like the amount it costs (in the UK you need like 4/5 conditions to have it and I have NONE of them). I don’t like the fact that I feel sick for at least two days a week and I don’t like the side effects which are well documented. However:

- as the possessor of a long term eating disorder that will kill me eventually if I don’t do something about it, I reached a turning point last year. On the cause of my issues I work on that with my therapist every week and have made great progress on it, though I still struggle cos guess what? It doesn’t solve the why all the way and you still have to do the work.

- however, I see great great value in relief of the symptoms. I have said often that the problem with eating disorders besides the obvious fact that it afflicts something you have to do every single day multiple times, is the fact that your struggles are often visible on your person.

- how these two interact: it’s really weird having largely reduced appetite. I’m under no illusions that eventually I will stop and I’ll have to work out how the rest of my life works for me but this time now is about me trying to adopt healthy habits that last the rest of my life while I work on the causes. I was talking to someone else near and dear to me currently taking it and they were freaked out by the fact that they had NO appetite and they started worrying “am I eating enough? Should I be eating?” I had this too but I recognised it as simply, when you are eating every single day and thinking about what you’re eating later, now, when you go out for dinner this week and then all of a sudden it’s not there anymore? That’s an awful lot of mental energy freed up.

- also I had basically everything tested last year and my bloods hormones cholesterol etc was all normal but I also knew that that’s not something that would last forever. I used to avoid the doctor out of pure fear of this - and of course this is a huge thing with eating disorders, the shame and difficulty of doing anything about it, including how medical professionals interact with you - and I judged the fact that I had made this conscious “actually I would like to look after my health because I deserve to be healthy” choice as symptomatic that my therapy is working and I’ve started on the road out of various problems.

For me personally, extremely beneficial. Have lost a ton of weight and last year was a real nadir in terms of being at my highest adult weight, and I know now I’ll never be back there again and that makes me very happy.

However, two issues I have:

- the ready availability and fame of these drugs meaning that people are not shy about suggesting them to others. Weight loss is really personal and often extremely mental in scope. I would never ever suggest this to someone else, if they asked me it’s a different story. Also the not that subtle insinuation that if you’re still overweight or obese, like why are you, when these are so readily available? The better choice is that they’re an option, and one that is ideally approached as part of a long term solution for the person’s health. Also, I don’t care if other people are overweight or obese, it’s not a moral fucking failing.

- People who are a normal weight taking them, like what the fuck are you doing? It’s an incredibly unpleasant experience. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t need to!

Also I know someone who came off it and given it’s a hormonal treatment I imagine the raging appetite you get is related to the big hormonal swing? Idk seems unpleasant but that also goes back to normal eventually.

_just in how she feels around food and eating_

from what I've read this is the way these drugs operate. they alter the body's chemistry that regulates hunger and appetite, not what the body does with the food once it gets in.

This isn’t exactly true at least not of Mounjaro. Mounjaro slows down your digestion (hence some unpleasant symptoms) and initially when I started taking it I had a couple of incidences where I would get sick and look into the toilet bowl (or one time, the sink) and see yesterday’s barely digested food there. Honestly quite disgusting. However, has been really valuable for helping me cut down even my limited Coke Zero consumption as a result.

sorry to immediately get aggro about this, heartening to read about how these drugs have helped people, again i think my primary objection is in the popular marketing of these drugs in the u.s. which i can only see causing untold damage

looks like Medicare will start covering some of them starting tomorrow

Millions of Medicare enrollees will gain their first-ever coverage for drugs for weight loss under a temporary pilot program that launches July 1.

Yeah, I didn't mean to throw shade on those who take these and benefit from them. I've been curious to try Ozempic myself. My biggest hesitation is I'm afraid I'll get hooked, so that's the angle I approached it from.

I see this attitude all the time and it pisses me off because tons of medications work this way. If I stop taking my SSRI my severe anxiety will come back. Lifelong medications with side effects are a balance that you carefully weigh: how badly do the side effects affect my quality of life/length of life vs how badly does the disease.

― just1n3, Tuesday, June 30, 2026 12:46 PM (one hour ago)

right! i mean i'm not going to judge other people. it's a really really complicated topic and it is good for a lot of people, i'm sure

back when i was working for a health insurance company, there was a certain amount of trepidation about how we'd handle it when we had to start paying for ozempic. good news! the company i worked for dodged that bullet by driving themselves out of business through gross executive mismanagement!

the way SSRIs work for me is... like, yeah, they don't fix my problems. what antidepressants that work do is kind of kickstart my brain until i get to a point where i can deal with my own problems. there are reasons i'm depressed... it's not just a "brain chemistry" thing. however to deal with my depression i do _have_ to deal with the brain chemistry.

i mean, am old enough to remember when prozac was super controversial... like really, a lot of the concerns people have about GLP-1s remind me a lot of the objections to SSRIs. do i like being dependent on an SSRI? nope. i've been dependent on them for 30 years, and basically the first thing they did was fuck up my sexual response (a side effect the big pharma companies insisted was "very rare" lol).

i'm body positive and i also, you know, i know that being what's clinically called "morbidly obese" for a long period of time does have serious long-term effects on quality of life. i'm 5'7" and my weight has fluctuated between 160 and 250 pounds, which hasn't had terribly severe effects on me, but i have plenty of friends with EDs - "eating disorders", in my community. i know the pharma companies wanted to make "EDs" stand for something else and nah i don't know people who worry about _that_ as much as we worry about eating disorders. funnily enough, one of the things that is a problem is... i've dated women who are 400+ pounds, and it can make sex difficult!

i did have some initial trepidation about GLP-1s because, i mean, it's not going to solve the underlying problem. obesity, i mean, it's not simply a matter of laziness or caloric intake, a lot of times having a disordered relationship with food is a _trauma response_. i don't think of myself as having an eating disorder but yeah i self-soothe with food. i don't drink, i don't do drugs. when i feel bad emotionally, one of the ways i deal with that is by eating. it's one of those problems i'm aware of, and i'm consciously not worrying about it right now, because i have other problems i'm focusing on. which, i think, again, is where something like a GLP-1 could be advantageous - being able to manage one's weight more effectively _without_ having to commit so much emotional energy to the task could be advantageous, and could have benefits in other areas of life.

in addition... i mean, patriarchal beauty standards suck, and so does dysphoria, and dysphoria is real and i think it's ok to treat it. i am trying to get a referral for fat grafting... it'll take a while, and i've thought a lot about it, but yeah, i do have dysphoria over the fact that my fat tends to be concentrated more around my tummy than it is around my hips and butt. i know _intellectually_ that having the body i do doesn't make me any less of a woman, but i can't just argue away dysphoria. i have had one surgery that gets considered "cosmetic" and i'm actively seeking another, and so i don't really see the benefit in judging another woman - hell, another person - about how much they've personally internalized patriarchal beauty standards!

I’m a better living through chemistry type myself, as I inch closer to 50 I’m ready for a one shot cocktail of Cialis, testosterone and GLP-1s. If it kills me at 65 instead of 70, fine.

a one shot cocktail of Cialis, testosterone and GLP-1s

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/02/1200/675/rfk-jr-and-kid-rock-shirtless.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

I've been on Trulicity since November 2024 and it's been 100% beneficial for me. One of these days I need to ask my PCP why she's partial to dulaglutide over semaglutide and the others.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in November 2014 and managed it reasonably well with metformin and glipizide and some diet changes for 10 years, with my A1C staying between 6.2 and 6.6, but control over food intake was always a hill I couldn't get over. Food was too fucking awesome a physical pleasure, and it still is, but as mentioned upthread, the NOISE is gone between meals, and my body says "that's enough" sooner. Meals are smaller, snacks are smaller or nonexistent. I still do food crimes, but I can do them thoughtfully and not feel the beast trying to take over my mind. A1C now runs between 5.4 and 5.8, below diabetes threshold.

My insurer, Cigna, balked at covering the drug in Feb. 2025 but approved it on appeal so I'm paying $6.25 per weekly shot. Unfortunately Cigna is getting out of Obamacare coverage in my state (maybe everywhere, I'm not sure) so I assume I'll have to go through the approval gauntlet again in January.

Side effects: slight laxative effect on shot day, that's it. The first four months or so, the laxative effect on shot day was followed by constipation the rest of the week, but that eased up. I dropped a quick 20 lbs., plateau'ed for several months then dropped another 10 or so. Went from ~225 to ~195.

one shot cocktail of Cialis, testosterone and GLP-1s

George Thorogood anthem for the new millenium

upon starting a fairly low dose of adhd medication early last year i immediately noticed the eradication of "food noise" that had driven my approach to food for my entire adult life

adhd diagnosis coincided with (or was the culmination/peak of) a long buildup and release of the old and a hard focus (now possible for me) on the new and i lost 40lbs in four months from march through july

i kept stable after that until christmas, but at about the same time as i started to feel the adhd meds effect start to fade in other ways, my eating habits and cravings started to creep back in- im now halfway back to where i was.

my father and brother each went on weight mgmt pills (is this the term?) during last year and have seen good results til now, the latter with heavy side effects for at least the first while.

im averse to that route, though i dont judge others for taking it.

i do think that meds already had a big input into my own progress so it isnt that side of it.

i think that having gotten to that weight without a wonder pill (one with a fifty fifty chance of unpleasant knock on effects) id feel very determined to try to make progress back towards that with the same behavioral changes that worked for me previously before seeking specially targeted meds. i cant really stand over thst as a logical decision tho

I’m a better living through chemistry type myself, as I inch closer to 50 I’m ready for a one shot cocktail of Cialis, testosterone and GLP-1s. If it kills me at 65 instead of 70, fine.

― Lady Sovereign (Citizen) (milo z), Tuesday, June 30, 2026 3:24 PM

i mean, sure, you could do an all-in-one cocktail, but if that's what you're looking for, a topical application of testosterone might do you...

(looks around)

uh, shit, forget i said anything

As soon as you stop taking it, the unwanted behaviors return. Subscription Capitalism Big Pharm style.

― beard papa, Wednesday, July 1, 2026 4:47 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

At a recent GP placement we had someone come in for a renewal of their script. They seemed really happy with the results they were getting from their glp-1 and thought that maybe after a few months, they'd be at a weight were it wouldn't be necessary to continue taking the drug. I asked the GP after they left "this drug doesn't work like that right? You get the benefits while you use and you lose them when you don't?" GP says basically yes.... the tension of the unsaid question "then why didn't you correct her idea of how the drug works?" hung in the air for a bit then we moved on to the next patient.

I guess that's my main worry. Do people know what they're getting themselves into? The comorbidities of obesity are significant and so hitting that metabolic syndrome right at the core with glp-1 is great if previous non-pharma therapy hasn't worked. But lack of education on the drug, and the drugs potential for abuse are worrying. Like any drug.

If I was to manage to lose the extra weight that bothers me health-wise, and get back into the clothes stil hanging in my wardrobe from lockdown days (I refuse to give up hope)... I think I would find it easier to get into healthy habits and maintain the weight?

I might not be able to block out the food noise but if I was able to look at myself and feel better, both in terms of health and just in general appearance, I would probably work harder to maintain it, because now at this time I know how easy it is for my metabolism to be rocked by large portions and poor nutritional choices. Right now it feels like an impossible challenge - I like food, my social life is based around food and drink, and for various reasons I'll just never be someone who sets foot in a gym.

Maybe this is where the concerns about promoting eating disorders etc come in but honestly, I feel I never looked as good as I did than when I first started to put on weight. And I miss being able to just pick up anything from a hanger and know it will fit, instead of having to worry about the type of silhouette shape and tapering.

Basically I've spent a month considering buying the drugs privately. Everyone I speak to has had positive outcomes but fear of the unknown, the jab itself (I'm not great with needles) and the cost are putting me off. And I want to be sure I do it for the right reasons.

Thanks for everyone in this thread who has talked about their own experiences with medications and drugs!

Indeed. The mental shift and lifelong habit changes are the only thing that can really help long term.

Also re cost if you know anyone on it and they’re getting it privately (near certain since you need to be almost dead for the NHS to do it) they almost certainly have a referral code that can alleviate some of the cost. My friend in the US got a Trump voucher (like literally had his face on it) towards her prescription.

In Ireland, the costs are absolutely crazy. The government only covers you for these drugs if you are diabetic and taking 2mg or less. If you're using them for weight loss, you're on your own. The private medical insurers also don't cover them. So for someone like me, that's about €595 a month for the medication. However, because I only live an hour from Newry, I can go up there once a month and get my drugs for about €370, depending on the exchange rate.

NHS qualifiers are:

Who is eligible?

To access NHS weight loss injection prescriptions patients need to have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 40 and at least four of the following five weight related comorbidities:

type 2 diabetes
high blood pressure
heart disease
obstructive sleep apnoea
abnormal blood fats (dyslipidaemia)

Aka “Sorry you’re really obese but it’s not killing you yet” the cutoff being 40 bmi by itself is ludicrous anyway

It’s mad because surely the costs to the health service from untreated and unmanaged obesity and associated health conditions are greater? What happened to prevention being better than cure? Anyway.

I believe the criteria for NHS help has recently narrowed, and it is only being offered to people who have to lose weight to be able to get surgery for life-threatening conditions. I'm told that will likely change again, now that the new pills are cheaper to manufacture and transport.

As for me, I've been on the NHS-sanctioned Wegovy program since last August.

I asked my GP, she looked over my notes (I have two of those conditions listed above, not four, those being sleep apnea and HBP), and after a blood test, I was okayed.

I was then passed over to a company called Oviva, and after an assessment period, downloading their app and looking at little orientation films, I was added to the waiting list.

I started taking Wegovy near the beginning of November. I am allowed to be on the scheme for two years through the NHS/Oviva (until Oct '27); it is free, I don't even pay a prescription charge, which is mad. That makes me very lucky, I understand and appreciate that.

I'm glad to say that it's working really well; I've only had to go up to the second lowest dosage (there are three more above that). I'm in the bracket of people who, for whatever reason, get along well with the drug.

Not too many troublesome side effects (mostly the odd upset stomach after dinner and occasional washed-out feelings of nausea).

It really has brought home to me that so-called food noise is my absolute, number one problem and probably has been since I can remember.

Now that the noise has been tuned out though, I'm able to do a deficit diet of around 1500-1700 cals a day, three simple meals, no snacks/treats, no eating after 7pm. It is very boring and repetitive, but I'm managing it okay.

I am 54, and have a very broad frame, I can easily carry a lot of weight (and did), but as I got older, it just got much harder on the joints, I felt like I was slowing down and getting way too creaky too soon.

As of last week, I've lost 45kg, it's been consistent, and I'm obviously feeling much better, planning to reduce my BP meds or come off them altogether.

I still have maybe 20kg to lose before I get to my goal weight (I really did weigh a fuckload), but I feel like I'm on the case.

Oviva themselves are pretty easy-going all in all; you get reminder emails, offers of help, and they seem to want you to watch their content films, but as long as I log my weight every week, they pretty much let me get on with it. There is support there if I want it.

The two main things for me have been the tamping down of food noise and the way it manages to fool your stomach/brain into feeling fuller and reducing that desire for more food. I get cravings for things now and then, but that momentary thought is immediately replaced with a 'meh...'

With any luck, I'll be off it by early next year, and then that'll probably be where the second, trickier part begins. I think I'll start doing a 5/2 fasting plan, that has worked out okay for me in the past.

I believe the criteria for NHS help has recently narrowed, and it is only being offered to people who have to lose weight to be able to get surgery for life-threatening conditions.

I think my older sister will be starting on one of these soon. She's had the initial conversation with the doctors, most around ongoing heart issues and how her weight makes it worse. Kinda like other people, our family are tall and broad and retain weight easily. But we also have addiction problems - myself and my mother as alcoholics, my dad got a gastric band 15ish years ago and now my sister struggles with food addiction.

I'm intrigued to see how she does with it. She's 6 ft 1 and always been quite tomboy-ish, so stereotypical beauty standards have never been a major issue or driving force. If she has major feelings about this, I think she's keeping them close to her chest. She's a great cook and can plan for the kids to eat well. She does occasional exercise classes when she has the time. I think it is mostly an issue to do with the ~food noise~ that people mention upthread. As a recovering alcoholic, I relate. And having seen my dad go through a year planning to have/having/living post a gastric band means I think she knows what she's in for.

The only other person I know to try it had a conflicting issue with another one of her meds and ended up having to come off it. Wegovy i think. She lost a ton of weight really quickly but she was a terrible cook and had no routine. She got big again really quickly and it made her quite depressed. This is one of the main problems with traditional dieting right? Excluding yourself from something without a plan for the future or how to react when old habits slip in can often make it a real temporary thing. And then feelings of failure can put a real monkey on people's back. (Not to mention societal reasons overweight people already might been feeling bad.)

It makes it quite hard to talk about though, doesn't it? I adored that brief period of time where there seemed to be a shift towards body positivity. Being a larger person does not make someone a worse person. But it can lead to health issues, like with my sister's heart. I can talk to her relatively normally about it but we don't have these things advertised to us, wtf? It is bad enough to live in a world with things like Love Island or menfluencers or whatever. I occasionally illegally stream the football from American channels and there always seems to be adverts telling you that you are depressed and your life is shit, or personal injury lawyers basically telling you the same thing but they'll make you feel better getting rich quick. It's absurd and literally on every game I saw through American eyes last season.

This is one of the main problems with traditional dieting right? Excluding yourself from something without a plan for the future or how to react when old habits slip in can often make it a real temporary thing. And then feelings of failure can put a real monkey on people's back. (Not to mention societal reasons overweight people already might been feeling bad.)

Indeed. I’ve managed to lose significant weight before and even kept it off for over five years but the reason I was in the state I was in was because I did nothing to address the underlying issues. I do not believe most people can get to a place of being significantly overweight without a substantial mental input into that (meaning: eating disorder, self-medication through food, and such). The irony is my natural appetite is really not that substantial at all, and I learned this because at times on the mounjaro I still wanted to eat, even though I had no physical hunger. That has pretty much subsided now as I’ve been addressing that through therapy, which is much easier because general food noise simply doesn’t exist for me now and so it makes it easy to sort out what’s real and what isn’t.

I’m pretty confident I can manage my health with a mixture of portion control and activity in the future. Nothing excessive. I might gain some of the weight back, but honestly I don’t see how even if I stopped I would get back to my worst place again. Like I’m always saying to my therapist (and having someone experienced in treating people with eating disorders is a blessing), it took a lot of work to get that bad.

The swing away from body positivity does seem to be very in keeping with the modern US/UK idea that only thin people of the correct racial backgrounds are important, and even those thin people of the correct racial backgrounds better be performing their gender correctly, or else.

With any luck, I'll be off it by early next year, and then that'll probably be where the second, trickier part begins. I think I'll start doing a 5/2 fasting plan, that has worked out okay for me in the past.

I'm delighted for you, as I am delighted for everyone who finds themself healthier and more comfortable as a result of these drugs. And that is how I'm trying to look at it myself. It's not the number on the scale that's important to me (anymore, at 56 and having been on diets constantly since I was 14), it's the freedom from joint pain, the reduced blood pressure, etc etc. Although I would also like people not to look so worried when I walk down the aisle on a bus or plane in case I am going to sit next to them. I just would like to fit into the world a bit better, and maybe that's shallow and giving in to societal norms, but that's how it is.

She lost a ton of weight really quickly but she was a terrible cook and had no routine.

I think this was my story for the first couple of years I was on it. I didn't really make the mental changes. Now I use an app to track my eating in the hopes that eventually, just maybe, it will become ingrained in the way the old bad habits were/are.

And (apologies for all the comments but)

It makes it quite hard to talk about though, doesn't it?

This too. The mental aspect has been life changing for me because I no longer have the shame of it. Wanting to get well, to be well, to treat myself and my body well, that removed a lot of the shame for me - it is now just a medical problem like any other to deal with. Which makes it easier to discuss dispassionately and with candour. I really surprised myself recently when I was getting my nails done and this woman sitting nearby was talking about having lost a load of weight (less than me btw) and having a load of loose skin removed (this is my second greatest body fear) so I piped up and asked her where she’d started from and how much she’d lost and we both started talking about things really candidly. And I thought to myself on the way home, five years ago I couldn’t bear to discuss this with my family, and now I’m quite casual with complete strangers about it.

Now I use an app to track my eating in the hopes that eventually, just maybe, it will become ingrained in the way the old bad habits were/are.

Think of your brain as being like a field that people wear paths through the grass to get where they’re going - with enough footfall the path becomes engrained and you can’t imagine going any other way.

That is useful.

Oh, and in case anyone is still looking for more info on side effects, etc, I get the exciting one where I do my shot on Friday morning, and then at about 2am on Sunday I often can't sleep, feel really cold, have to get out of bed and go and be sick, then get back into bed and shiver for an hour before eventually falling asleep. It doesn't happen every week, but there it is. Otherwise no problems. Except if I am too fast with the injection I sometimes get a little bruise at the site. Before Mounjaro became available here I was on Saxenda, but I had to stop taking that because I used to get terrible hives at the injection site, as if I'd been bitten on my stomach by mosquitoes. So unpleasant.

The occasional (like once a week) queasiness was manageable but the serious, both-ends gastric “events” were unlike anything I’d experienced before: it triggered panic attacks each time so severe that I didn’t realize it was a panic attack (even though the I’ve had them before) and I legit thought I was dying. It felt like my blood was literally boiling inside my body. They were relatively short if I made myself throw up right away (usually a couple hours max) but the tipping point for finally seeing my doctor about it was several days in a row of it happening.

TMI for gross stuff: because of the slowed digestion, whenever I threw up it would often get stuck in my throat and the sounds my body produced trying to get that undigested food out were truly unholy

I don’t know if I’ll try going back on it again. Probably not if my A1C is still normal at my next checkup. I miss how much easier I felt in my body and in the world with just 10% weight loss.

On the TMI tip, I do wonder if I'd benefit from a decreased, uh, transit time.

Increased, I meant to say.

You have be very vigilant about your fiber intake, which I totally failed at.

I read this a few times and I have no idea what you’re trying to say. You’re constipated?

lol sorry, no my digestion is lightning fast and I wondered if GLP-1 drugs might slow it down

Justin3 very much OTM, Mounjaro is a drug among a few I take, and will probably take for the rest of my life to make me a healthier human. My dad challenged me on this and I asked him, ‘what about your daily statins?’.

My weight is down, my blood pressure is down, my cholesterol is down; my knees work like they haven’t for years; I eat what I need and I’m happy with it. Most importantly I can keep up with a very active 2 year old as someone who is nearly 50.

I get there’s a lot of skepticism about how the PR machine around GLP-1 drugs we pushed, it sucks I have to pay Australian full freight for this. It does work, it does a lot of what is claimed.

What’s most interesting is the societal changes, I can genuinely see hospo changed and changing. The small plates/sharing plates revolution is directly attributable to GLP-1s; people eating less, picking more carefully, enjoying smaller things. I cook differently, I plate on the table as well, waste less food.

I also sense that a lot of the pushback comes from the pr machines of the worst corners of big food. Those makers of ultra processed crap don’t want people to consume less and are working hard to block access to these drugs.

If it’s big food vs big Pharma, I’m picking big Pharma on this one.

I will say that the rise in Tele-prescribers for this and other drugs is deeply worrying, it’s a symptom of a broken and fucked healthcare system, not of medication people don’t need.

My dad challenged me on this and I asked him, ‘what about your daily statins?’.

To me it is no different from taking a daily dose of insulin, or an anti-depressant, or similar. My body does not properly regulate itself and this drug helps my body to do that. I think some of the resistance to the idea of it as an ongoing medication will disappear when there's a pill, or when (as has happened in India already) the patent period ends and there are cheap generics.

the big food vs big pharma thing is interesting. the head of the uk gross high street chain Greggs was speaking out about it recently

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g11y4dywo

That article is weird though. It also blames these drugs for general grocery sales at Christmas being down when I imagine that they have very little impact compared to inflation making food much more expensive while wages stagnate. Overall it seems like an industry going "oh come on fatties, what ya doing? buy our crap!" and not actually looking at it any deeper.

The small plates/sharing plates revolution is directly attributable to GLP-1s; people eating less, picking more carefully, enjoying smaller things. I cook differently, I plate on the table as well, waste less food.

We were in Northern France last year for a couple of days and so many of the restaurants we went to or passed by had these signs in the window in English

ONE SEAT = ONE MEAL

And these were restaurants, not cafes or the like. We puzzled over this initially until then we were like, ah…must be directed at tourists on the jabs. Which, honestly? Quite right. I side with the humble restaurateur in this. Buy and preferably eat something or fuck off.

A word I use and think of more: satiety.

i've seen this before the jabs existed - i think it's more people who come in, order one plate between four people, possibly just to tag themselves and take photos of the plate/the restaurant, then leave.

That makes sense too though the fact that the signs were in English suggested to us Americans/British coming in and nursing a coffee. I don’t think any restaurateur really minds the Triangle of Sadness spaghetti scenario though right?

My hardwired family business background lizard brain snaps into action here and yells BUY SOMETHING OR FUCK OFF!

as a youth in Houston we got kicked out House of Pies (24-hour diner) repeatedly for not spending enough money per hour (also being loud, drugged-up and drunk buffoons but it was not ordering entrees that really got you 86ed from there)

the road of moderation leads to the palace of minimum purchase

they hate the multiple people with one plate cos they make no money. and the insta/influencer stuff is deeply hated also.

https://www.standard.co.uk/going-out/restaurants/jeremy-king-influencers-ruining-restaurants-b1270929.html

Yeah we apply a split plate charge for people who share a main.

but it was not ordering entrees that really got you 86ed from there

nb to anyone not aware that this means mains, not entrées

The small plates thing pre-dates the use of GLP-1s for weight loss by 10-15 years.

yeah, I think smaller portions are probably a good thing across the board!

Well, the small plates dining thing was driven far more by economic (rents, desire to experiment on a budget) and societal factors (consumer desire for less formal and more diverse dining) rather than health factors.

yeah, depends on the restaurant... seems like sushi places don't really care if you don't order that much, but the Denny's model is based on ginormous portions

If it’s big food vs big Pharma, I’m picking big Pharma on this one.

Yes, I agree with this statement. At the same time, I see these industries as parasites and humanity (and the earth itself) as the host organisms. These parasites help each other; one can't exist without the other. One creates a need the other addresses (I believe that ultra-processed food is largely responsible for obesity and probably all kinds of other diet-related diseases). Either way, a relatively small % of our species is enabled to hoard more and more of the earth's resources at our expense (be that money or our well-being).

To be clear: I'm not against people using these to treat obesity and whatever else they address. The reality is that these conditions already exist and are almost certainly way more harmful than these drugs - and I may end up trying something in this category myself at some point - but I think they are treating symptoms of a bigger problem, which was caused by other parasitic corporations, and that bothers me.

One of my good friends is Type1 since she was a teen, and among other advances, Ozempic was one of the things that has really improved her lifestyle, health, mental health you name it - it was a major game changer for her quality of life.

(I’m Type2 but no GLP so far, currently taking Metformin, just trying to manage w diet & exercise so far)

The one thing I did notice with my friend at first w Ozempic was how little she ate, and how weirdly she ate, when we’re out. at first it really weirded me out. like kinda scared me. it reminded me of past experiences w a friend who had a pretty bad eating disorder who would move stuff around on the plate to give the appearance of eating but you’d realize later she hadn’t touched a thing, etc.
But after talking to my current T1 friend more & letting her explain what it’s like for her I stopped worrying quite as much. It was more a function of the TYPE of food she didn’t eat much of, etc, as others mentioned upthread re fattier foods etc.

It’s hard not to concerntroll about it from the outside, but REALLY listening helps beyond measure. Obv!

Anyway, all of that to say if it works & you reap the benefits of the changes that are SO hard to make otherwise, fucking do it up for as long as you can!

Food issues, weight shame, mobility issues, mental health… it’s all a nightmare & the relief of not dealing with that for any amount of time is such an underrated blessing.

Big ups to all!

As guac said - satiety - i still enjoy food, i eat; but i also stop. A bar of Tony’s can last all week now. it makes sense to own a biscuit tin.

I've been on a GLP-1 pill (via the NHS) called Rybelsus for the last couple years for my type 2 diabetes and it has helped, with some lifestyle changes, to really reduce my sugar levels.
I really haven't noticed any effect on appetite but I've still lost weight at a constant tick over that time. At my last appointment with the diabetes nurse I had lost 10kg in 18 months.
I can't solely put it down to the drug as I had surgery that radically modified my colon and small intestine to remove cancer a few years back as well but it has definitely played it's part.
I feel at my sharpest mentally in years. It's weird to look back and realise how much you were struggling without really noticing it

Have any of you noticed any anhedonia since you started on your GLP-1? My friend reports that she has given up vaping, and I've heard people talk about losing interest in creative pursuits, or sex, or playing sports, or other things they used to enjoy. I have experienced some of this in the last six months, and I really only realised last week that some of it is I have not been eating nearly enough protein, so I just basically sit around like a lump and do the bare minimum all day. I'm now trying to eat the amount of protein that the Nutracheck app recommends, and I think all those threads on Reddit might be correct. This is why the GLP-1 seemed to have stopped working. I wasn't eating properly.

All week I've been reminded of a line from the Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne show Platonic, where someone asks her absolutely ripped husband a question about food and he says "oh, don't ask me, I really only eat chicken breasts."

Well, the small plates dining thing was driven far more by economic (rents, desire to experiment on a budget) and societal factors (consumer desire for less formal and more diverse dining) rather than health factors.

You are overlooking the viral Girl Dinner trend.

No.

Any chance we could move on from the small plates thing in the hormonal weight loss thread? Thanks.

xp no I haven’t experienced that, I do notice my mood swings are swingier but generally I notice having more energy and will to do things cancels out a lot. Good note on the protein though, I will make more effort. Mostly I have trouble drinking enough water which you’re supposed to so

I don’t understand how people drink enough water. I could be a fish and I still wouldn’t manage to drink enough. I started taking fiber supplements and if I don’t drink a ton of water it won’t help at all. I think I need a camel pack with an IV.

I was recently visiting a buddy with serious heart issues. He will need to have open heart surgery sometime in the next few years and he’s doing everything he can to delay it for at least two years which is when his kids will be out of high school. He’s taking a weight loss drug to keep his appetite and weight down, and another med that is maybe a mood stabilizer to insure his heart rate doesn’t go up.

There are a ton of great applications for these drugs but due to our fucked up culture there’s all of this static and noise to get through. I was recently looking into testosterone supplements and trying to do my own research. Between AI and endless opinions, hot takes, and nonsense, it was really difficult. We have amazing medical/pharmaceutical technology and it is completely hobbled by capitalism, the patriarchy, bigotry, etc.

Congratulations to those who have been able to find their way through the maze. Long may your meds work.

I can really only get close to it with ice and idk lime mint cordial or something

I’m notoriously bad at drinking enough water, the only way to encourage me to do so is prepping it: a bunch of (insulated) water bottles in the fridge ready to go. Chicago water tastes gross so we have to run it through a brita filter which REALLY hinders my intake if I don’t prep.

Xp to Trish: I only read about the anhedonia side effect recently - I didn’t experience, thank god. I did have it as a side effect from Zoloft years ago and it was fuckin awful.

Yeah, I drink a lot of squash. M&S high juice lemon and lime is the business.

I only heard about the anhedonia thing recently too. I wonder if it’s a long-term use thing, or if it didn’t happen with the earlier versions.

herbal tea is my preferred method of drinking water.

Daily Wegovy pill now available in the UK, apparently. Not on the NHS yet, but presumably will be in time.

Should mention the other glp1 side effect…hair loss. As in, hormones greatly increase hair fall. I had this very noticeably for a while until I started taking biotin and got prp on the affected area…it’s all grown back now

this might be of interest to some... it kinda weaves GLP-1 with other injectible peptide-related stuff

https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914436/peptides-miracle-molecules-or-marketing-hype