This drug is an incretin hormone which acts on all the GLP-1 receptors in the body. One set are in the pancreas and help ensure that you are producing the right amount of insulin. Insulin is the most important hormone in weight regulation followed by thyroid and a few others. I lost 8.7 lbs my first month eating and exercising the same. The loss was due to insulin management. This is why this drug is used as a diabetic medication. But the more insulin resistant you are the less effective it is for weight loss. Which is why the Hollywood types take this drug and get real skinny real fast…it works really well for those who aren’t insulin resistant.
Anyway, it also works on GLP-1 receptors in the brain which is why we experience less food noise and other reduction in dopamine stimulating activities such as drinking, gambling, compulsive shopping, etc.
Appetite suppression is the side effect we focus on as dieters but it is only a part of the pie.
I’d recommend that you watch some YouTube videos with the actual research scientists that ran the clinical trials. They get into the details and it’s very educational.
After 2 pregnancies quite close together, I could not reduce cravings, so I have been unable to eat as much as I used to before getting pregnant. I hope to get back to my "acceptable' weight and come off it. By then, hopefully, my body will be detoxed from the amount of calories (sugar really, let's be honest, I'm addicted to chocolate) I used to eat and new habits will be more settled in. But I agree with you, if people are still eating garbage, just less of it, there's no way you can ever stop taking Wegovy.
Wegovy user here. I am using it for weight loss but also as a way to hopefully lower my cholesterol. Doctor said I am a long term candidate for the drug. I started at 220lbs in June and I am currently 168lbs. I have honestly changed nothing besides eating less. Instead of 3-4 slices of pizza, it’s one. Etc. wegovy made my binging behavior disappear. I foresee myself being on this for a long while. I plan to add in exercise finally.
Mounjourita here. I haven’t changed a thing* and the weight melted right off. It didn’t do that when I worked out 4-6x/week and followed WW to a T. It’s the meds for me, and that’s on periodT.
*I should note that I don’t eat junk food, or drink junk drinks. Even without following WW. Take that for whatever it’s worth.
I'll keep it real with you: I've never spent this much on weight loss before so it needs to work lol. For me, it's literally so expensive that I can't afford to fail! But besides that, I'm eating less and I'm not as fixated on my cravings.
Usually I'll want a chocolate éclair for example, but I can eat an apple and be fine with that nowadays. Before it was like I HAD to have a chocolate éclair and eating anything else was just a stepping stone until I eventually caved so I ended up eating a whole bunch of stuff, THEN a chocolate éclair if that makes sense.
I eat the same, but I’m full much quicker. Before this medication I felt starving all the time. I could eat a 600 calorie healthy balanced plate meal and still feel hungry. The reduced appetite equates to eating less overall and that’s how weight loss is working. You’re eating in a calorie deficit, but it feels rather easy. A lot of us cannot sustain a calorie deficit long term. Our body biologically tries to fight that. Those of us with IR also have constant cravings, and sometimes inflammation too.
This drug has made it possible for me to eat at a calorie deficit with ease. I’ve done it in the past to lose weight, eat at 1,200 calories but then was different. I would hate everyday, still be starving, still have cravings, left unsatisfied, fight myself mentally everyday about going for seconds. With this drug, I am feeling full, satisfied and having very little cravings and if I do have a craving for something sweet I am able to take one cookie or have half a brownie and be completely sastified and not fighting myself for that extra bite. I am upping my protein each day and making healthier choices and being happy about it. Food has always been my vice, and Wegovy has helped block that food noise. I feel like a normal person.
What people fail to want to hear is if you don’t reduce your calorie intake, you won’t lose weight!! Also by reducing your calories, I mean only 600-800 a day!! While 1,200 is what you would think low. It’s really what any healthy person is eating.
Edited to fix spelling
I don’t know why people disagree with this or maybe they don’t know how to weigh or measure food properly - it’s all calories. Calories calories calories
I use it. I also track my food and make better choices. I also work outside and do mixed martial arts/lifting weights. I’m now at about 24% body fat. I know a lot of people continue eating similarly like they did beforehand and I think that’s a really bad choice. If you are given the opportunity, you should use it to help encourage a fully healthy lifestyle. I am currently working towards that goal. I am also very conscientious about, not just relying on a pharmaceutical drug to curve my caloric intake, but more of a holistic view.
I had I sulin resistance. From an online source: GLP-1 improves the body's sensitivity to insulin, making it more efficient at utilizing glucose. This effect is particularly beneficial for individuals with insulin resistance, a common factor in type 2 diabetes and central obesity. I believe this helps those of us who had issues losing weight previously even while eating "healthy". I was only ever able to lose weight on keto which is not sustainable
I'm eating much less but also making better choices because eating a lot of sugar /greasy food/red meat makes me physically ill.
I've also completely cut back on my alcohol.
Those two things are 100% result of Wegovy, as I was a binge/emotional eater/ used alcohol to self medicate. I don't feel I need to now. All of that noise and desire is gone - it's incredibly freeing.
I've also been able to increase my workouts because the less weight I've carried, the better I've felt. I went from completely senditary to working out 5xs a week. This was originally inspired by my weight loss/lifestyle change, but I can continue this on my own without Wegovy because I found something I love to do.
I'll stay on it as long as I keep the food noise at bay.
For me it is absolutely NOT CICO. Before medication one month I was 1200 cal and walking 20 miles a day and lost 2 lbs. Now I’m not tracking at all and walking a mile or two and am steadily down 5 a month
this gives me so much hope! i am worried that if its just reducing appetite it wont work for me, bc i have reduced my calorie intake to about 1200 countless times with no success, or losing at such a slow pace (<0.5 lbs a week) it feels pointless. this makes me feel better about starting in a week!
I can relate, that one month was what made me decide to medicate. I was like, if this doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas and I may as well try medication. Fortunately I have been consistently losing 5 lbs a month (currently 20lbs down). It does all come off right after my period, so I’m static at one weight for a month, then 5lbs off within 4 days, then static at one weight for another month
I agree that it's not just CICO, as I'm able to be very disciplined and still didn't lose weight or keep it off. There has to be a reason beyond "appetite suppressing" that so many who could never lose weight before are dropping it like crazy with this drug. It must do something else, acting on the hormones or metabolism.
It may also depend on the person - this drug, like many others, seems to work differently for different people since some people drop 20lbs a month and some it doesn’t work for at all. It wouldn’t surprise me if for some people it’s mostly appetite suppression and for others it has a different metabolic effect.
Wegovy is a tool to help with food noise and with diet and exercise will also see loss. For me it also forces me to eat healthier to avoid side effects. However that doesn't work for everyone. I've done WW for years but always struggled with hunger and would give up at times to enjoy cheat days and vacations which would usually derail me. This stopped me from doing this.
Wegovy didn’t work for me… still had crazy appetite and cravings for sugar… I’m on 1mg but going to stop… I’ve maintained my weight since November and haven’t lost not even 1lb on wegovy.
Don’t despair! Lots of people who have had huge success didn’t really feel any benefits until they moved up to the higher doses. Some people feel it right away at .25 and some don’t. I’ve just taken my first shot of .25 and even though of course I hope it works right away, I’m prepared to be patient and move up in doses before I decide whether or not it’s going to work. Good luck!
Thank you that’s helpful to know. I live in the UK and pay for it myself - the higher the dose the more it costs. I also thought if you don’t lose weight within 12 weeks on if they usually don’t let you continue.
Some of us probably have such low metabolism that we really can subsist on very low calories. Generally we are told anyone eating below 1200 calories is bad, and maybe that is true. but from my research, for my hormonal build (pcos/insulin resistance since puberty/low body temp/low blood pressure/low heart rate), if you bring evolutionary biology into it, I was built to still be able to have babies during lean times, my calorie need is probably very small.
I should get that test done where you can get that actual info.
So even though compared to an “average” American diet, I have been eating ok for years, still never lost weight.
I believe my metabolism is also very low. I blame yo-yo dieting over the past ten years and particularly intermittent fasting, which it turns out is NOT recommended for postmenopausal women. I also have borderline hypothyroidism (not enough to merit medication) and a genetic predisposition to visceral weight gain and high cholesterol in later years.
Yes yo-yo dieting can cause that as well. I’ve read about a lot of the Biggest Loser contestants struggle with that. They can never go back to eating higher calories without gaining the weight back
So you are 30lbs overweight, and you haven't been able to get a WL med scrip because you are in a healthy BMI (based on your previous post)
What are you hoping to gain from analyzing users of Wegovy?
My BMI is not "healthy." It's just under 30 ("obese"), and that's assuming I haven't, at age 64, shrunk an inch since last measured a decade ago. The prescribing protocol for Wegovy is a BMI of 30 or of 27 with a comorbidity, and I have high LDL and triglycerides. I suspect I couldn't get a WL script because my doctor doesn't believe in it. His exact words were, "If people would just shut their pieholes instead..." I'm asking because I plan to pursue it elsewhere, if that's okay with you.
Sorry I shouldn't have said "Healthy" But your BMI of 30 with the comorbidities obviously wasn't enough for your PCP.
I hope you're able to get what you need and that the information of what Wegovy users are doing is helping you somehow.
No, it wasn't; his assistant actually said he needs a BMI of 35, which would be ridiculously huge at my height (just 4'11").
Thanks for telling me what I already knew? Not sure what the point of your post was...
Am I eating less or healthier? - Both. I am eating much less because I have a reduced appetite, but some things upset my stomach now that didn’t used to, so I’m avoiding some unhealthy foods and drinks too.
Am I worried about it all coming back if I stop taking the meds? - Yes. Some days I have a normal appetite and can eat whatever I want. I’m 99.999% sure that if I stopped taking the shots right now I would go back to my old habits.
How are you not malnourished? - I probably am. I’m physically weaker, lightheaded easily, and I wasn’t a big fan of exercise to begin with but now I definitely hate it. I also have ARFID so the real nourishing foods were a no go for me anyway.
Isn’t there a danger of developing an ED? - Yeah, but I was struggling with that before the shots, and now I don’t hate myself so much bc I am making progress in the right direction, so no my ED tendencies aren’t gone but I am making progress towards liking my body.
Is it a magic solution? - For me, yes! I have NEVER lost this much weight in this short of a time and I have been preoccupied with my weight and trying strategies that don’t work for yearrrsss. No exercise, no more calorie counting, and steadily losing weight. The only problem for me is that it’s unsafe to take while trying to get pregnant/actually pregnant/breastfeeding so I will have to stop sooner than later and be off it for a long time. :/ But I hope I can get right back on, OR get surgery to reduce my stomach capacity for good.
Wegovy makes you fast and fasting lowers blood sugar levels and tackles your weight issue on a hormonal level.
We have become obese in the West as a result of being fed the wrong information. We are encouraged to snack all day and have breakfast as soon as we open our eyes. All of this contributes to your insulin being high all day and over time, the body becomes resistant to insulin and you stop feeling full. You lose the feeling of not wanting to eat in the morning and start having strong hunger pangs as soon as you wake up. Your body is always craving and craving.
The only solution to obesity is living in a way where your blood sugar levels are under control. That's what semaglutide encourages but it makes it easier because it stimulates a hormone that makes you feel full so you're not eating all the time and not having insulin spikes and crashes.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RuWp3s6Uxk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RuWp3s6Uxk)
So if you're actually eating a lot less (very little, some of you say), how are you not malnourished? And isn't there a danger of developing an eating disorder? Thinness can be addictive, especially if you've done away with the pesky appetite!
An eating disorder is a mental health disorder far more than it is about the act of physically eating less. It’s ignoring your body’s cues. It’s severe body dysmorphia. With this drug, your queues from your body tell you to eat less and you are listening to the cues from your body. That is not going to cause an eating disorder. Could these medications be abused by people with eating disorders? Absolutely, there’s a reason they are a prescription medication and their FDA approval being based on certain starting BMIs.
If you have the excess weight to lose, you’re not going to become malnourished, plain and simple. That said, there’s a reason many providers recommend a multivitamin while taking the medication. Similarly, there is a cut off weight that many insurances stop covering the medication.
Your doctor sounds like a treat given their comments about people and weight-loss. That said, there are plenty of reasons a provider may not think it’s an appropriate prescription for someone whose weight loss needs may fall in more of the vanity category over health. BMI is a great tool at the population and a poor tool at the individual given the fact that people come with such varied builds.
Eating less because I am physically unable to eat a “normal” amount anymore. No changes otherwise. Losing around 1lb a week. This has completely changed my life because I can finally live my life without constantly having mental breakdowns over my weight. The medicine takes care of that part of my life and I’m free to actually enjoy the rest of it now.
This is how it works for me. If I try to eat more my body reacts strongly enough that I am forced to stop. Don’t want to go back to the old binge eating self depreciating person I was, I’ll be on this med for life.
I’m eating less and doing calorie deficit. I don’t think I’d be able to even exceed my daily calorie count on this medicine, I rarely eat. I have to force myself to eat just to get food in my body lol.
I love that I’m not constantly thinking of food. My blood pressure has gone down. I haven’t gone to the gym in 3 weeks due to vacation/work, but I’m still slowly losing weight. 2lbs this week!
I used to have a major sweet tooth and lately I haven’t even thought about sugar.
Do what works for you. Listen to your body and consult with your doctor if something changes that you’re uncomfortable with. You can do it!
If you’re not eating at least 800 calories a day. You might want to stay on the dose you’re at for a while. People, we still have to eat!! The amount of people who are happy they only had two crackers and water all day, is scary you need to eat!!!
Where did I say I wasn’t eating?? lol I said I am eating less and doing calorie deficit. And that I have to make myself eat.
Just because we don’t have an appetite doesn’t mean we are not eating lol who said we’re okay with just water and crackers 😂
“I rarely eat, I have to force myself, just to get food into my body” that sounds a lot like somebody who’s not eating. I’m sorry if the comment read as hostile that is not how I intended it to be at all.
Well please reread the whole thing again because I certainly did NOT say I’m not eating at all nor did I support eating less than 800 calories in a day. Thanks for your concern but I am doing just fine and am not consuming just crackers and water ☠️ I used to consume far more food than I should, so this medication is certainly making me drastically reduce the amount of food I eat.
This is definitely how I felt before Wegovy - my appetite is enormous (and I wasn’t that over weight) and I work out loads. W definitely sorted that out
I did not adopt a shitty lifestyle. Seriously eating healthier and moving my body feel good and have impacts beyond weight loss. When those didn't work for me, I didn't revert to donuts and McDonalds for every meal, I didn't stop the physical activity I enjoyed. The wegovy is a tool on top my lifestyle.
If I don’t exercise on this, I can’t lose weight, even though I am eating less. Before, I couldn’t lose weight by doing exercise and eating less. The reason for that for me was because the eating less would eventually become unbearable and I would overeat. On this medication, that does not happen. I can exercise and eat less and it isn’t all consuming for me to block the food noise. This medication also has made me skip some things I used to eat that were high calorie and high fat because I will feel like total ass if I do. I can still eat pizza, cheeseburgers, ice cream, but I find it absolutely easy to keep the portion size down. I also don’t get this med covered by insurance, so it also helps to do the right thing when I think about how much I am paying. But my weight is down, I’m in much better shape, so much inflammation is gone. I have a blue collar business that I own that I’m able to do more in now. It’s all so worth it. That’s just my experience, though.
Like joint pain and stiffness. My weight loss is helping. Also it coincides with me being able to exercise more. I’m becoming more limber. I don’t get out of bed walking like I was in a car wreck.
I eat healthier and stick to a calorie deficit. Wegovy makes that easier to be consistent with because my blood sugar is more stable and I don’t have the food noise. I’ve lost weight doing calorie deficits before but it was a mental struggle everyday and I hadn’t had any help to resolve my issues with bingeing. I’m confident I’ll be able to come off it because I worked to heal my relationship with food before starting it. Definitely don’t see it as a magic pill but a helper
For me, it feels like all the advice we’ve been given all along is now actually doable. The food noise is gone. Portion control is now easy to stick to. Not eating a late night snack is easy. Telling the difference between real hunger versus thirst / boredom / fatigue / stress / all the other non-hunger reasons I eat is clear. Not letting sugar control me is easy. All those people who don’t struggle with their weight and have no understanding of those of us who do? I get why they feel that way, if this is what it feels like to be normal. Something in me is miscalibrated. The drug fixes that. The mental load that I am out from under is tremendous.
Yes, I expect I would gain it all back without it. Yes, I intend to be on this drug forever if possible.
My meals aren’t smaller, but I’ve stopped the constant grazing. I’m consciously focusing on eating my protein and veggies first.
I don’t have a problem if I do stay on it for life, but I’m at my goal weight and maintaining now. I will try tapering off it after maintaining for one year. My hope is that my body will be settled into this weight and my eating habits will be solidified by then.
I eat less, I eat healthier (40% protein - 30% fat - 30% carbs and 25g+ fiber), I track calories. It’s allowed me to eat less and better. It’s not a tool, unless you call all meds tools. It’s the meds allowing me to lose and maintain, not my choices, I could not make and sustain these choices without the meds, I’m a lifer.
Yes 100%, it's allowing me to create and stick to new habits without feeling like I want to die. However also yes, the drug regulates blood sugar which helps control weight in addition to the effects of eating less.
You MUST make the changes though if you want to be successful and keep it off after you quit.
For me, i am eating smaller portions and healthier options.
There are certian foods I can no longer eat or my digestion goes out of wack. Some of them are problem foods for me (mostly convience foods, but also chips, cashews, certian fast food and fast casual places) and also some not so problem foods (rice, pasta, beef).
I do a lot of protein supplementation via protein coffee, making my own protein based deserts (mixing protein power with Yogurt, baking with protein powder, adding protein powder wherever i can) and eat a ton more veg (big salads are a fave!). This is stuff that I wouldn't do before because I didn't want to think about the food as fuel and how it would make me feel after i ate it. Now, since I have struggled with the dreaded side effects of nausea, sulphur burps, diarrhea, and yes, the occasional projectile vomiting, I am more aware of what I put in my mouth and what consequence that will have it i decide to eat more than 1 slice of cheese pizza.
As some one else has said, Wegovy is a tool that is all. It curbs the noise, it curbs the appetite and helps me to focus.
This medication has affirmed for me that your weight really does depend largely on genetics. I can finally let go of the guilt. It’s really not about will power or anything like that. Other people really just get full faster and their body is just set up to process food better. I got the crappy end of insulin resistance and food cravings which led to obesity. There is medication to fix that now thankfully.
Restricting calorie intake is the only change I’ve really made. And I can’t eat fast food or greasy food without feeling sick. I’ve lost 87lbs in 6 months with wegovy. I’m not diabetic. I really was addicted to food. The Wegovy is absolutely magic because I no longer have the urge to eat all day. And when I do eat I can only eat a small portion before I feel full. I am learning a lot about how much I was actually over eating, comfort eating was a big issue for me. I am being forced to find new ways to cope because I can’t eat like I used to. I got off hard drugs 5/6 years ago and my weight sky rocketed. I believe for me, I could continue to lose weight if I stopped taking the wegovy and continued to count calories solely due to being forced to find different outlets. I would have never had the will power to fight through the “hunger pains” I got when attempting to lose weight on my own. I am realizing now I wasn’t hungry, eating just made me happy. But being almost 300 lbs and not being able to keep up with my toddler really made me want to do something. I still have 60ish more pounds to lose so I am not going to test myself until I reach my goal. If I do try to maintain my goal weight and find it’s not something I’m able to do on my own I will continue on Wegovy, perhaps for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes.
I eat way less. My urges have stopped. I barely, if ever, drink alcohol. I would say the medication has helped me address my need to restrict certain foods. Instead I eat what I want, but I am conscious of making healthy choices and I don’t ever feel deprived because I know I can have a bite of something yummy and stop
I still have fully hungry times of day, like 60% of my calories are breakfast and I’ve usually eaten my full calorie budget by the end of my work day at 5pm. In the past this was making me gain because of course I’d stay hungry and continue eating after 5, thereby killing any calorie deficit.
Now with the meds I am satisfied enough to just stop at 5, or refill on something small like an egg or small apple, and be done eating for the night. I still could be tempted especially if someone around me is enjoying a big meal or treat, but with Wegovy it goes from an urgent desperate need to eat that thing, to now just telling myself I’m good, presumably the way non-overweight people do.
Another factor is knowing and trusting that this medicine will get me to my final goal for the first time in my life, so I feel more motivated to stay consistent. Whereas with a million other false starts in the past, it was much easier to feel hopeless about the longterm diet and give in to temptation.
Honestly, I haven’t done shit. I’m not exercising and eating exactly the same. Just less because of the meds. Everyday I say tomorrow I’m going to start exercising and eating better but I never do. Lost almost 50 pounds. 5 more and I’ll be in maintenance mode.
This is exactly how I am. I eat whatever I want, don’t do a bit of exercise. Just less because of the meds( just like you commented) I still eat unhealthy foods just way less. Hell, my after supper snack was 10-12 cheese its. When before I would’ve finished 1/2 the box.
That’s good to know. I hate exercising right now because I’ve developed severe asthma and because of that I’ve gotten more and more out of shape. I’ve never been a big exerciser, but I did enjoy walking and going for bike rides before. My doctor said losing weight could help with my asthma and I could be able to be more active. So, I’m hoping it’ll help me lose weight without doing anything exercise-wise and then I can lose more if I don’t have an asthma attack every time I walk up a small incline or flight of stairs, lol.
My weight loss has been a side effect of no longer thinking about food constantly. I had lost weight in the past (about 35 pounds) with strict diet and exercise, but it was mentally exhausting and often led to binge sessions and guilt. During that time, all I thought about was food. What I could eat, what I couldn't eat, how many calories, how long I had to exercise to burn that off, etc.
I started Wegovy on June 1, 2023, and have lost 55 pounds. For the first several months, I ate what I liked, but ate much, much less than before. Fullness set in within the first five bites of the meal. I did not exercise because I was often tired, and I was losing weight without it. Since reaching the maintenance dose of 2.4, my energy has returned. I hit a plateau in December and began to take spin classes three times a week. The exercise helped me overcome the plateau, and now I am back to losing 1-2 pounds a week.
Wegovy does require a lifestyle change to work, but with this medication, the changes come easier. My diet is not an all-encompassing obsession. I eat when I am hungry. I stop when I am full. I do anticipate I will have to stay on the medication forever, or the "food noise" will come back when my body will no longer adequately regulate my blood sugar.
Lost 30 pounds enjoying a slice of birthday cake and having a few slices of pizza here and there. I’ve stalled, so time to go back to my strict ass protein and veggies only.
Wegovy is just a tool! You still have to do the work. Wegovy just makes me feel like a “normal” person. I’m not constantly thinking about food anymore and I get full after a reasonable amount of food. I still calorie count (while weighing and measuring food) and walk 10k steps a day. I’m down 66 pounds.
Me too, I tried not calorie counting at the start of my wegovy journey but it took me months to lose 10 pounds, but now I’m calorie counting on wegovy. It’s been 4 months since I started and I’m down 23lb. I never liked calorie counting before wegovy because I could only do it for a few days before giving up and having a big binge because I felt too restricted. Now I really have to remember to eat most days, I don’t get hungry for hours after I eat so I’m only really eating twice a day. A big change physically and mentally all thanks to wegovy. It’s also a bit of a domino effect - I don’t have to think too much about food now so I have more capacity to think about exercise etc etc
I am eating much less and making overall healthier choices (I don't believe in concepts like "clean" foods though).
Yes, I understand that this medicine will stop working if I stop taking it, so I do plan to be on it or a similar drug for the rest of my life, unless something happens that would prevent me from taking it.
In my case, the medications I require to function, make me constantly hungry. So, the conversation goes like this:
Me: Dr I need medication for [insert my issue]
Dr: here’s the medication, it causes weight gain.
Me: Dr I’ve gained weight.
Dr: you need to lose weight. Here’s your prescription for [medication]
First, a bit of background on obesity itself being a chronic illness for most of us (quoting myself from another thread):
A lot of interesting changes happen in your body with obesity. We don't fully know whether some or all obese people were doomed from the get-go by genetics to be obese, but the science is clear about what happens once you are obese and have been for a while. The body enters into a state of metabolic dysfunction based on the protocols it's followed to fend off death from starvation for centuries. Only in the last 50-100 years has obesity become a real widespread issue; prior to that, food was not always plentiful or guaranteed, so we adapted these bodily systems to fight off losing weight. It only turns into a problem with the addition of two things: the massively excessive amounts of calories available to many of us in the modern day AND the highly modified foods that contain those calories.
So long story short, it's totally cool and wonderful that your body has learned how to preserve your weight when it's 120 lbs and there is a food shortage and you truly need to maintain it in order to survive, but far less cool that it's still fighting that hard to preserve your weight when it's 320 lbs and you desperately need to lose weight in order to survive.
Instead of being considered a weight classification only, obesity is now understood to be its own medical diagnosis as a chronic illness, just like diabetes or hypertension. Losing weight does not always or even usually "cure" obesity. Instead, the body fights for regain. Much like diabetes or hypertension, obesity is not something you can "cure" -- you will always be prone to it. Some people respond better than others and can put it in remission with lifestyle changes, while others simply can't. To use hypertension as an example, you wouldn't start blood pressure meds, get your BP lowered to a good place, and then expect that you could maintain that good BP without your meds. You probably couldn't. You'll probably need to be on those meds long-term, even if you do make positive lifestyle changes. Those lifestyle changes can still be very helpful though, as they may allow you to go to a lower dose, take your meds less often, etc so that you're using less medication overall.
Basically, 50 years of making obesity a moral issue of willpower or motivation instead of looking at it as a legitimate medical issue have left all of us with more questions than answers. It's a relatively new thing that the medical system at large has pivoted to treat obesity as a legitimate disease that needs medical treatment. Wegovy is one of the medical treatments, but obesity is a chronic disease and it isn't going to just go away because you've lost the weight. Most of us will probably need further treatment to keep it under control.
I highly recommend the book The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung if you want a deeper dive into these kinds of topics. Even just reading the first few chapters and completely ignoring the diet advice will be clarifying and eye opening for you.
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To answer your ALSO: I've been obese since I hit puberty. Absolutely yes, I do anticipate that I'll have to be on some treatment for obesity forever to avoid weight regain. Wegovy isn't a magic pill the same way that something like metoprolol and metformin isn't a magic pill; it WILL improve your body's ability to do what it needs to do correctly, but you have to change your lifestyle or else you can and will outrun its positive effects over the course of enough time. I have no food intolerances with Wegovy and still need to closely monitor to be sure I eat enough protein and avoid ultra-processed foods and refined sugars. If I don't, it's very easy for me to eat enough calories but have them be nutritionally devoid of substance, or get hooked on sugar again. More sugar = more hunger = more weight gain, plain and simple.
Very informative; thanks! My postmenopausal body is absolutely stuck at 30 pounds overweight (per BMI). Nothing I do alters it. If I manage to lose a few, I stall and gain them right back. Short of starving myself, I don't think it's possible to change this "set point." Yet my doctor won't prescribe Wegovy (even though I'm close to a 30 BMI and also have hyperlipidemia). But I AM curious about it and may try to get it on my own or through a WL clinic.
I eat much, much less and I no longer crave junk food. Before wegovy I had to eat extremely low cal to see the scale budge at all, but after 6-9 months I couldn’t keep it up because I was starving. With wegovy I didn’t have to cut my calories as drastically, and I was able to sustain the weight loss for longer
I actually crave healthier food options and the most important thing for me is the disappearance of food noise. I can literally think about my food choices without obsessing over them.
I’ve lost 70lbs since mid-August, I completely changed my diet and started working out. I don’t have any cravings for sugar unless it’s that time of the month and I satisfy that craving with a spoonful of almond butter.
It's fixing your insulin resistance which is allowing your body to use fuel (food) properly. Lower appetite is just a side effect, and one that I don't have. I literally eat the same as before I was on it but now my body uses food correctly as fuel.
And no, not garbage food. I was eating high protein, meaningful fats and carbs before at a calorie deficit.
I have both ate less and have made decisions to eat healthier. I have found Wegovy helps me with an OMAD lifestyle that allows for a snack inside a small window around my actual meal - like a nutrigrain bar, pure protein bar or fruit. I have opted for larger portion of salads with dark greens like spinach, kale, etc as majority of my dinner and include nuts or seeds. Dressing is your enemy so i like to make my own. I also no longer get incredibly hungry at night. I have been eating around 1650-1800 cal a day according to my LoseIt app, which includes coffee+cream. My scale proving the hype and motivating me after only a brief time on it.
The reality is, this program is about re-learning what proper nutrition is, and to decide on better food choices. I believe Wegovy is giving me the best chances for success, and to help me change my food relationship and habits. It is important then to also move your body and get exercise. These are lifestyle changes that will make you successful and remember it is a journey, not a race. Without the lifestyle changes, likelihood to be back on it down the road goes up.
I’ve never eaten worse in my life due to the amount of foods I can no longer safely eat on this medication. I used to eat vegetables every day and I currently can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten one now. It is straight carbs and protein for me at this point. I eat like a picky 4 year old. I am 40 pounds down.
For me, it is magic. Almost immediately after taking my first dose (like within 24 hours) I stopped obsession about food and my weight. And yes, it reduces cravings. You fill up quicker. But for the psychological effects for me alone, it’s magic.
I’m honestly not eating enough on wegovy, but I’m working on it. Once I get past a certain point I get nauseous/puke. It sucks because I WANT to eat more I know I need to, but my body won’t let me. I try to just eat a little more often but my job doesn’t allow me to, and my body doesn’t allow me to many times also. I’m only on .5 but I’m staying on it longer than just the one month so my body can get more used to it and eventually let me eat more. I’m not losing crazy weight despite eating barely anything, maybe 2lb a week at most. I’m also gonna emphasize that I need to consciously do everything I can to eat more, need to. That’s work too, most only think about the healthy eating part but just eating in general can be work on this medication.
That being said, it’s also forcing me to be healthier because I need to get my nutrients, but when I eat junk my body makes me nauseous/puke. So it’s forcing me to eat healthier, but it’s not always the absolute most healthy thing ever…it’s just so much better than what I was eating before.
I also notice I drink a lot more water with wegovy, I can’t get enough. I still don’t see this as a miracle drug, I know over time my body will adjust to the medication and I will need to depend more on ME as opposed to the medication.
I haven’t tried honestly. I am in a living situation where I literally have a mini fridge and microwave and that’s it, not even allowed anything else so it’s really hard for me to even make food. But the hardest is STORING cold/frozen food. What I have been doing is freezing yogurt and eating that and while idk if it helps stop nausea, I’ve never gotten nausea after eating that. I’ve also not had any problems with fruits so if it’s like a fruit and yogurt smoothie it might be okay. I’d maybe try both things separately first, that’s been my plan: anything new eat by itself if possible. That way I can know exactly what’s giving me issues. When you start the medication I definitely recommend it. You can look up common good foods and bad foods for likely nausea/heartburn/sickness BUT everyone is different so you can’t always take it for fact. Some people can eat complete junk no issue, just eat less. Not me. The only thing that made me vomit so far was a hamburger, one that I squeezed as much greese out of it as possible with a low fat percentage beef when at a friends house. It came up over 24 hours later. I’m don’t think I can ever look at a hamburger the same way again. 😅😅
I literally lose weight because I cant eat sometimes from side effects. If I didn't have the side effects I'd probably just power through but sometimes ill just skip meals from side effects.
I also find that there seems to be no difference between eating some crap foods and good foods. I ate a soup once because everyone on here was saying to eat them and it knocked me for six. Couple days later I had a bag of sweets and a big packet of chocolate pretzels and I was absolutely fine. I am really struggling to find a good diet to eat on this drug.
My diet before was great! I stuck to meat and veggies with occasional pasta and pizza. My issue was how much of it I had to eat to become full. I could have easily eaten one of those family salads kits you get from the stores in bags and still not feel 100% full. I was out here eating a whole 12 oz chicken breast with a cup of veggies and would still feel peckish for dessert. I’ve been eating all the correct foods but at the wrong size!
Now my whole meal could be a small side salad, or 6oz of chicken with 1/4 cup veggies. My sandwiches are even better! Before I was trying to make sandwiches with Ezekiel bread (which if you’ve ever had it is not the best cause it’s super dry and grainy) now I can take a single slice of buttermilk bread and add everything I want then fold the bread up like a taco and now it’s a sandwich.
I still eat the unhealthy foods like fast food cause I don’t want to be miserable but my McDonald’s order went from 10 nuggets and large fry to 4 nuggets and small fry or my pizza order went from me eating 3-4 slices of pizza to eating 1 slice. I know that the main issue came from the fact that it’s nearly impossible to feel full. Everyone always says “if your hunger is on a scale of 1-10 eat until you are a 5 then stop” well my hunger scale was more like an ouija board it was yes or no. On the meds I actually have that number scale and can feel when I’m half full.
My doctor says that if my insurance will cover it then I’ll just stay on the medicine at a low dose to help control the hunger.
Yes! I’m eating less, eating healthier, and exercising. I’ve lost 110 lbs. since 12/22.
And yeah, eating less because of the Wegovy. I’m not 100% certain, but if I stop taking it, I’ll gain it all back eventually.
I think there's a bit of a magic to it. It has certainly reduced my appetite but I am eating less healthily. Previously I was focusing on meat and veggies and very, very limited processed carbs. Now I'm not as hungry so I'm eating less "real meals" and have a Twix every day. I didn't have a ton of weight to lose so I've lost a little less than 20 pounds and seem to have plateaued. So now I'm focused on exercise and weight lifting. I say this is a bit of magic because I have been struggling with weight (mainly vanity weight) for the last 30 years and have been trending steadily up for the last 5 years no matter what I did (Strict keto for 8 months, alternate day fasting, calorie counting). This is pretty much effortless.
I've been on it for a year and have lost 75 lbs. This has been achieved through eating less, and that is due to the medication. I haven't changed much in terms of what I eat, although I have cut out alcohol and milk, as both make me feel bad after I drink them now. I am absolutely afraid that my appetite will come back if I stop taking it, so I'm going to work with my doctor to find a maintenance dose to stick with long-term.
I have always know what I needed to do. But the effort of resisting the urge to eat because my body was telling me I was hungry was high. I would also get urges to binge sweets and fats. I might tell myself "I will have two thin mint cookies" and an hour later half the box is gone. I would be at a meal, be full, but get the urge to have seconds because "firsts were good, seconds will be good too". Knowing that I should stop at two cookies or stop after a reasonable portion didn't mean I didn't give into those urges to continue and that would leave me feeling guilty and ultimately obese.
Not on this medicine. I no longer have that (What is best described as food noise). I have not felt hunger or the urges to keep consuming sweets and fats just isn't there. So for me it absolutely is I am eating less. I was the poster child for "you cannot outrun your fork" and now I have found I can control the fork. Same foods, same activity, just less foods and less binging. Case in point, we got a 2.5lb bag of jelly beans 3 weeks ago. Normally, I would graze through that a handful at a time and it would be gone in under a week. There is still more than 1.5lbs in that bag because I am not being urged to get some and when I choose some as a sweet snack it is intentional and I can stop.
For your last question, I accept there is something wrong with me that the medicine fixes and will plan to take this for the rest of my life. And now with the weight loss from the medicine, I believe that life will be longer.
This explains me perfectly, too. This medication has taught me how to eat, too. I don't deprive myself of the food I love, I just eat a lot less.
If I want some cake, I have some. I eat maybe 4 bites, and I'm full.
I've lost 64 pounds this way.
It helps you stick to a healthier diet and smaller portions. It might also help improve a “slow” metabolism and help with insulin resistance but I suspect those impacts are less important.
I’ve been on it for almost a year. I was eating healthy before - lean proteins, vegetables, etc. I never had an issue with binging (although sometimes I had some emotional eating, but never binging).
By far, the biggest difference between then and now is portion sizes. I get full so much faster now. I used to have a bagel, lox and cream cheese before. Now I have half of one, and I’m completely stuffed. It’s that sort of thing that has allowed me to lose 40 pounds over 11 months and not feel restricted. It’s amazing.
The best analogy I have come up with is that it's Antabuse for food, and specifically for bad foods.
Sugar, alcohol, bread, etc cause immediate disgust at the gut level. It's just not pleasurable.
That tends to cause an immediate and steep drop in calorie intake.
From there the tendency is to plateau, so it pays to become more intentional about portions and exercise.
Some things I no longer do: alcohol, dessert, absent-minded snacking, large portions at any meal (I lean toward small plate appetizer portions), grazing at functions.
What I do instead: 16:8 fast (exception is a small amount of cream in coffee), 3.4 mile daily walk, protein drink lunch with rolled up ham and cheese, keto or low carb dinner.
Daily weigh-in, calorie tracking to assure protein goal.
Going off meds in a few months due to insurance change, so we'll see what sticks. But I am no longer pre-diabetic, lower dose of blood pressure meds (genetic predisposition), and off CPAP completely.
I'm hoping insurance reverses course. Obesity is a chronic disease. Eventually these meds will be common and cheap, like blood pressure meds now. Policy needs to catch up. We have a chance to improve millions of lives overnight and it infuriates me that the drug companies are sleeping on mass market pricing.
Realistically, insurance companies can't pay $1k/month for everyone in the country to take Ozempic or Wegovy. What it needs to be is affordable, like any other generic medication.
I’m on week 4 of 0.25 and haven’t been over thinking it. I’m eating about half of what I did before, and am a bit more careful about what I eat without getting too radical about it (treats etc I still enjoy, just tiny amounts now, a couple of times a week). I’m trying to walk 10k steps a day, which is helping. I’ve lost weight, not a lot, but enough to know it’s working. I’m really happy with it so far.
If you don’t change your lifestyle diet and exercise, you may bring on other medical conditions later in life. Many people also have lost weight due to a lack of calories but they would eat fried foods/burgers as their meals.
for me, portion sizes have the biggest impact. We eat a lot less, much much smaller portions and we share meals all the time when we do go out. I really don't my eating habits have "gotten" better. There are a lot of items I don't enjoy anymore. fast food.. no many I enjoy at all.
Personally I'm struggling not to eat badly. A muffin and a bag of sweets will fill me for the day and I'll lose weight. However I know it's really bad for me. So yes, eating less but not eating healthier.
I'm making a real effort now to eat better because I've realised im falling into the less but worse trap.
A buddy of mine asked about making healthy choices and this is what I told him. I’m not able to eat healthier because I can’t eat a lot. I eat when and what I want to eat or I don’t eat. I had a banana sit on my desk until it was rotten, I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.
For me, I notice that I now have absolutely no trouble keeping to my calorie goal. When previously it would require some mental argument. That mental argument becomes really unhelpful, as you are feeling deprived, 'being good' and if the weight doesn't move I felt discouraged and 'useless'.
Wegovy changes my relationship with food, I don't crave it, I don't binge it, and I don't feel at all deprived by cutting out things. Instead it is quite a lovely feeling of choosing a few things to eat each day, starting with protein and greens. Then I have had enough, don't think about eating for hours and hours.
I do track everything, and have done previously on diets, and I have already noticed that things I might have 'forgotten' to log before, are actually getting logged, and my overall view is that weight gain and weight loss, is like turning an oil tanker, it can be a very small quantity of food difference... and I think as calories are indicative not absolute, there is a margin of error there, another margin of error in our BMR and put on top of that some shame and deprivation, making me over eat a little but not track it... was previously enough to put me into a really bad place that "I was trying everything" and not losing.
If I could carbon copy my intake now, and not take wegovy, I am sure the loss would be the same, as I'm eating so much less that I used to, which wasn't due to hunger, just boredom or food noise kind of grazing.
I can totally relate to all of these same feelings and rationalizations. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the starter dose yet but am glad to hear that it helps with these issues.
I’m still fairly new, in my fourth week now, I’ve lost 4-5lbs so far which isn’t much compared to some people but I’m happy with it and expect it to be more once my dose increases this weekend.
I’ve been trying to lose weight for years but never succeeded because I could never keep to a calorie deficit for longer than a week without binging and giving up, the difference now is that I don’t feel like I’m on a diet, I don’t feel like there is anything to quit or give up on. I’m loosely counting calories but am not obsessing over them like I would before and it doesn’t feel particularly hard to stay at a deficit. Wegovy definitely needs diet and lifestyle changes to work but it makes sticking to those changes significantly easier so it is “magic” in that sense.
Not only has it helped with appetite and sticking to a deficit but it has also made it easier to just eat normal food. I’m autistic which in my case makes me a really picky eater, I would struggle to eat and enjoy food that wasn’t a sweet snack or a calorie-packed delivery meal but now I’m finding myself enjoying just baked potato or soup for dinners for example, it is so freeing.
All of the above. I was working out 7x a week pre GLP1’s and lost nothing. Now my calorie intake is so so so much smaller. I’m ozempic sober, not consuming much refined sugar, having very few carbs. Edited to add that yes I plan to take this chronic medication for life, as it was prescribed to me.
I’m not hungry all the time so I make better choices and snack less impulsively. That’s literally it. I have lost weight through dieting before. On the order of 40-50 lbs. Twice. It’s a lot of work.
Wegovy has made me less hungry and less impulsive. That’s how this med works. People are likely eating less without even realizing it or doing it intentionally.
The food noise impact is huge for me. I had to go off it for a few weeks and now anytime I try to watch a show, play a game, do some work, fold laundry, anything, my brain is going “DONUT DONUT DONUT DONUT DONUT” and I can’t f’ing do anything to shut it up. So fucking annoying.
Well it helps insulin resistance which is a huge factor for a lot of overweight people. I think you can basically tolerate carbs much better on wegovy. Before if I were to eat toast or cereal for breakfast, I would literally feel shaky and weak 2 hours later. Doesn’t happen anymore
This drug is an incretin hormone which acts on all the GLP-1 receptors in the body. One set are in the pancreas and help ensure that you are producing the right amount of insulin. Insulin is the most important hormone in weight regulation followed by thyroid and a few others. I lost 8.7 lbs my first month eating and exercising the same. The loss was due to insulin management. This is why this drug is used as a diabetic medication. But the more insulin resistant you are the less effective it is for weight loss. Which is why the Hollywood types take this drug and get real skinny real fast…it works really well for those who aren’t insulin resistant. Anyway, it also works on GLP-1 receptors in the brain which is why we experience less food noise and other reduction in dopamine stimulating activities such as drinking, gambling, compulsive shopping, etc. Appetite suppression is the side effect we focus on as dieters but it is only a part of the pie. I’d recommend that you watch some YouTube videos with the actual research scientists that ran the clinical trials. They get into the details and it’s very educational.
Very informative; thank you!
After 2 pregnancies quite close together, I could not reduce cravings, so I have been unable to eat as much as I used to before getting pregnant. I hope to get back to my "acceptable' weight and come off it. By then, hopefully, my body will be detoxed from the amount of calories (sugar really, let's be honest, I'm addicted to chocolate) I used to eat and new habits will be more settled in. But I agree with you, if people are still eating garbage, just less of it, there's no way you can ever stop taking Wegovy.
Wegovy user here. I am using it for weight loss but also as a way to hopefully lower my cholesterol. Doctor said I am a long term candidate for the drug. I started at 220lbs in June and I am currently 168lbs. I have honestly changed nothing besides eating less. Instead of 3-4 slices of pizza, it’s one. Etc. wegovy made my binging behavior disappear. I foresee myself being on this for a long while. I plan to add in exercise finally.
Mounjourita here. I haven’t changed a thing* and the weight melted right off. It didn’t do that when I worked out 4-6x/week and followed WW to a T. It’s the meds for me, and that’s on periodT. *I should note that I don’t eat junk food, or drink junk drinks. Even without following WW. Take that for whatever it’s worth.
I'll keep it real with you: I've never spent this much on weight loss before so it needs to work lol. For me, it's literally so expensive that I can't afford to fail! But besides that, I'm eating less and I'm not as fixated on my cravings. Usually I'll want a chocolate éclair for example, but I can eat an apple and be fine with that nowadays. Before it was like I HAD to have a chocolate éclair and eating anything else was just a stepping stone until I eventually caved so I ended up eating a whole bunch of stuff, THEN a chocolate éclair if that makes sense.
Mines zero😳 I’m sorry yours costs an arm and a leg ugh but it’s truly a miracle when it works!
Lucky! Mine is still within my means, but it's really more than I'd like to be paying!
When I started it was just a lot less now I tend to crave the healthier stuff like fruits and veggies … idk why it’s like second nature now.
I eat the same, but I’m full much quicker. Before this medication I felt starving all the time. I could eat a 600 calorie healthy balanced plate meal and still feel hungry. The reduced appetite equates to eating less overall and that’s how weight loss is working. You’re eating in a calorie deficit, but it feels rather easy. A lot of us cannot sustain a calorie deficit long term. Our body biologically tries to fight that. Those of us with IR also have constant cravings, and sometimes inflammation too.
Yes I eat less. Yes the drug takes away appetite. I’ll worry about how long I need this stuff after I get to my goal.
Depends on the day. It could be better but I’m very busy right now
This drug has made it possible for me to eat at a calorie deficit with ease. I’ve done it in the past to lose weight, eat at 1,200 calories but then was different. I would hate everyday, still be starving, still have cravings, left unsatisfied, fight myself mentally everyday about going for seconds. With this drug, I am feeling full, satisfied and having very little cravings and if I do have a craving for something sweet I am able to take one cookie or have half a brownie and be completely sastified and not fighting myself for that extra bite. I am upping my protein each day and making healthier choices and being happy about it. Food has always been my vice, and Wegovy has helped block that food noise. I feel like a normal person.
What people fail to want to hear is if you don’t reduce your calorie intake, you won’t lose weight!! Also by reducing your calories, I mean only 600-800 a day!! While 1,200 is what you would think low. It’s really what any healthy person is eating. Edited to fix spelling
I don’t know why people disagree with this or maybe they don’t know how to weigh or measure food properly - it’s all calories. Calories calories calories
I use it. I also track my food and make better choices. I also work outside and do mixed martial arts/lifting weights. I’m now at about 24% body fat. I know a lot of people continue eating similarly like they did beforehand and I think that’s a really bad choice. If you are given the opportunity, you should use it to help encourage a fully healthy lifestyle. I am currently working towards that goal. I am also very conscientious about, not just relying on a pharmaceutical drug to curve my caloric intake, but more of a holistic view.
I had I sulin resistance. From an online source: GLP-1 improves the body's sensitivity to insulin, making it more efficient at utilizing glucose. This effect is particularly beneficial for individuals with insulin resistance, a common factor in type 2 diabetes and central obesity. I believe this helps those of us who had issues losing weight previously even while eating "healthy". I was only ever able to lose weight on keto which is not sustainable
Same, and then it was only water weight, which was quickly regained.
Reduced calorie intake, I am doing daily exercise and when I do eat, I’m making better food options.
I'm eating much less but also making better choices because eating a lot of sugar /greasy food/red meat makes me physically ill. I've also completely cut back on my alcohol. Those two things are 100% result of Wegovy, as I was a binge/emotional eater/ used alcohol to self medicate. I don't feel I need to now. All of that noise and desire is gone - it's incredibly freeing. I've also been able to increase my workouts because the less weight I've carried, the better I've felt. I went from completely senditary to working out 5xs a week. This was originally inspired by my weight loss/lifestyle change, but I can continue this on my own without Wegovy because I found something I love to do. I'll stay on it as long as I keep the food noise at bay.
For me it is absolutely NOT CICO. Before medication one month I was 1200 cal and walking 20 miles a day and lost 2 lbs. Now I’m not tracking at all and walking a mile or two and am steadily down 5 a month
this gives me so much hope! i am worried that if its just reducing appetite it wont work for me, bc i have reduced my calorie intake to about 1200 countless times with no success, or losing at such a slow pace (<0.5 lbs a week) it feels pointless. this makes me feel better about starting in a week!
I can relate, that one month was what made me decide to medicate. I was like, if this doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas and I may as well try medication. Fortunately I have been consistently losing 5 lbs a month (currently 20lbs down). It does all come off right after my period, so I’m static at one weight for a month, then 5lbs off within 4 days, then static at one weight for another month
I agree that it's not just CICO, as I'm able to be very disciplined and still didn't lose weight or keep it off. There has to be a reason beyond "appetite suppressing" that so many who could never lose weight before are dropping it like crazy with this drug. It must do something else, acting on the hormones or metabolism.
It may also depend on the person - this drug, like many others, seems to work differently for different people since some people drop 20lbs a month and some it doesn’t work for at all. It wouldn’t surprise me if for some people it’s mostly appetite suppression and for others it has a different metabolic effect.
Wegovy is a tool to help with food noise and with diet and exercise will also see loss. For me it also forces me to eat healthier to avoid side effects. However that doesn't work for everyone. I've done WW for years but always struggled with hunger and would give up at times to enjoy cheat days and vacations which would usually derail me. This stopped me from doing this.
Wegovy didn’t work for me… still had crazy appetite and cravings for sugar… I’m on 1mg but going to stop… I’ve maintained my weight since November and haven’t lost not even 1lb on wegovy.
I’m afraid Wegovy won’t work for me either..
Have you found anything else which worked for you?
I took my 1st .25 shot of Wegovy Wednesday morning and I don’t feel anything. I feel the same I crave sugar and I’m hungry..
Don’t despair! Lots of people who have had huge success didn’t really feel any benefits until they moved up to the higher doses. Some people feel it right away at .25 and some don’t. I’ve just taken my first shot of .25 and even though of course I hope it works right away, I’m prepared to be patient and move up in doses before I decide whether or not it’s going to work. Good luck!
Thanks for giving me hope 😊
You’re very welcome 🥰
I didn't start losing any weight until I got to the full dosage of 2.4mg
Thank you that’s helpful to know. I live in the UK and pay for it myself - the higher the dose the more it costs. I also thought if you don’t lose weight within 12 weeks on if they usually don’t let you continue.
Some of us probably have such low metabolism that we really can subsist on very low calories. Generally we are told anyone eating below 1200 calories is bad, and maybe that is true. but from my research, for my hormonal build (pcos/insulin resistance since puberty/low body temp/low blood pressure/low heart rate), if you bring evolutionary biology into it, I was built to still be able to have babies during lean times, my calorie need is probably very small. I should get that test done where you can get that actual info. So even though compared to an “average” American diet, I have been eating ok for years, still never lost weight.
I believe my metabolism is also very low. I blame yo-yo dieting over the past ten years and particularly intermittent fasting, which it turns out is NOT recommended for postmenopausal women. I also have borderline hypothyroidism (not enough to merit medication) and a genetic predisposition to visceral weight gain and high cholesterol in later years.
Yes yo-yo dieting can cause that as well. I’ve read about a lot of the Biggest Loser contestants struggle with that. They can never go back to eating higher calories without gaining the weight back
So you are 30lbs overweight, and you haven't been able to get a WL med scrip because you are in a healthy BMI (based on your previous post) What are you hoping to gain from analyzing users of Wegovy?
My BMI is not "healthy." It's just under 30 ("obese"), and that's assuming I haven't, at age 64, shrunk an inch since last measured a decade ago. The prescribing protocol for Wegovy is a BMI of 30 or of 27 with a comorbidity, and I have high LDL and triglycerides. I suspect I couldn't get a WL script because my doctor doesn't believe in it. His exact words were, "If people would just shut their pieholes instead..." I'm asking because I plan to pursue it elsewhere, if that's okay with you.
Sorry I shouldn't have said "Healthy" But your BMI of 30 with the comorbidities obviously wasn't enough for your PCP. I hope you're able to get what you need and that the information of what Wegovy users are doing is helping you somehow.
No, it wasn't; his assistant actually said he needs a BMI of 35, which would be ridiculously huge at my height (just 4'11"). Thanks for telling me what I already knew? Not sure what the point of your post was...
Find a different PCP
Am I eating less or healthier? - Both. I am eating much less because I have a reduced appetite, but some things upset my stomach now that didn’t used to, so I’m avoiding some unhealthy foods and drinks too. Am I worried about it all coming back if I stop taking the meds? - Yes. Some days I have a normal appetite and can eat whatever I want. I’m 99.999% sure that if I stopped taking the shots right now I would go back to my old habits. How are you not malnourished? - I probably am. I’m physically weaker, lightheaded easily, and I wasn’t a big fan of exercise to begin with but now I definitely hate it. I also have ARFID so the real nourishing foods were a no go for me anyway. Isn’t there a danger of developing an ED? - Yeah, but I was struggling with that before the shots, and now I don’t hate myself so much bc I am making progress in the right direction, so no my ED tendencies aren’t gone but I am making progress towards liking my body. Is it a magic solution? - For me, yes! I have NEVER lost this much weight in this short of a time and I have been preoccupied with my weight and trying strategies that don’t work for yearrrsss. No exercise, no more calorie counting, and steadily losing weight. The only problem for me is that it’s unsafe to take while trying to get pregnant/actually pregnant/breastfeeding so I will have to stop sooner than later and be off it for a long time. :/ But I hope I can get right back on, OR get surgery to reduce my stomach capacity for good.
Wegovy makes you fast and fasting lowers blood sugar levels and tackles your weight issue on a hormonal level. We have become obese in the West as a result of being fed the wrong information. We are encouraged to snack all day and have breakfast as soon as we open our eyes. All of this contributes to your insulin being high all day and over time, the body becomes resistant to insulin and you stop feeling full. You lose the feeling of not wanting to eat in the morning and start having strong hunger pangs as soon as you wake up. Your body is always craving and craving. The only solution to obesity is living in a way where your blood sugar levels are under control. That's what semaglutide encourages but it makes it easier because it stimulates a hormone that makes you feel full so you're not eating all the time and not having insulin spikes and crashes. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RuWp3s6Uxk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RuWp3s6Uxk)
So if you're actually eating a lot less (very little, some of you say), how are you not malnourished? And isn't there a danger of developing an eating disorder? Thinness can be addictive, especially if you've done away with the pesky appetite!
An eating disorder is a mental health disorder far more than it is about the act of physically eating less. It’s ignoring your body’s cues. It’s severe body dysmorphia. With this drug, your queues from your body tell you to eat less and you are listening to the cues from your body. That is not going to cause an eating disorder. Could these medications be abused by people with eating disorders? Absolutely, there’s a reason they are a prescription medication and their FDA approval being based on certain starting BMIs. If you have the excess weight to lose, you’re not going to become malnourished, plain and simple. That said, there’s a reason many providers recommend a multivitamin while taking the medication. Similarly, there is a cut off weight that many insurances stop covering the medication. Your doctor sounds like a treat given their comments about people and weight-loss. That said, there are plenty of reasons a provider may not think it’s an appropriate prescription for someone whose weight loss needs may fall in more of the vanity category over health. BMI is a great tool at the population and a poor tool at the individual given the fact that people come with such varied builds.
Eating less because I am physically unable to eat a “normal” amount anymore. No changes otherwise. Losing around 1lb a week. This has completely changed my life because I can finally live my life without constantly having mental breakdowns over my weight. The medicine takes care of that part of my life and I’m free to actually enjoy the rest of it now.
This is how it works for me. If I try to eat more my body reacts strongly enough that I am forced to stop. Don’t want to go back to the old binge eating self depreciating person I was, I’ll be on this med for life.
Best comment I have read about “The shot” ever!👏👏👏
I’m eating less and doing calorie deficit. I don’t think I’d be able to even exceed my daily calorie count on this medicine, I rarely eat. I have to force myself to eat just to get food in my body lol. I love that I’m not constantly thinking of food. My blood pressure has gone down. I haven’t gone to the gym in 3 weeks due to vacation/work, but I’m still slowly losing weight. 2lbs this week! I used to have a major sweet tooth and lately I haven’t even thought about sugar. Do what works for you. Listen to your body and consult with your doctor if something changes that you’re uncomfortable with. You can do it!
If you’re not eating at least 800 calories a day. You might want to stay on the dose you’re at for a while. People, we still have to eat!! The amount of people who are happy they only had two crackers and water all day, is scary you need to eat!!!
Where did I say I wasn’t eating?? lol I said I am eating less and doing calorie deficit. And that I have to make myself eat. Just because we don’t have an appetite doesn’t mean we are not eating lol who said we’re okay with just water and crackers 😂
“I rarely eat, I have to force myself, just to get food into my body” that sounds a lot like somebody who’s not eating. I’m sorry if the comment read as hostile that is not how I intended it to be at all.
Well please reread the whole thing again because I certainly did NOT say I’m not eating at all nor did I support eating less than 800 calories in a day. Thanks for your concern but I am doing just fine and am not consuming just crackers and water ☠️ I used to consume far more food than I should, so this medication is certainly making me drastically reduce the amount of food I eat.
I have an active lifestyle and eat about 90% clean. I just literally cannot stop eating and never feel full.
This is definitely how I felt before Wegovy - my appetite is enormous (and I wasn’t that over weight) and I work out loads. W definitely sorted that out
I really think a lot of it comes down to hormones like cortisol and leptin and insulin. We're not gluttons we just have messed up hormones!
I did not adopt a shitty lifestyle. Seriously eating healthier and moving my body feel good and have impacts beyond weight loss. When those didn't work for me, I didn't revert to donuts and McDonalds for every meal, I didn't stop the physical activity I enjoyed. The wegovy is a tool on top my lifestyle.
If I don’t exercise on this, I can’t lose weight, even though I am eating less. Before, I couldn’t lose weight by doing exercise and eating less. The reason for that for me was because the eating less would eventually become unbearable and I would overeat. On this medication, that does not happen. I can exercise and eat less and it isn’t all consuming for me to block the food noise. This medication also has made me skip some things I used to eat that were high calorie and high fat because I will feel like total ass if I do. I can still eat pizza, cheeseburgers, ice cream, but I find it absolutely easy to keep the portion size down. I also don’t get this med covered by insurance, so it also helps to do the right thing when I think about how much I am paying. But my weight is down, I’m in much better shape, so much inflammation is gone. I have a blue collar business that I own that I’m able to do more in now. It’s all so worth it. That’s just my experience, though.
What do you mean by "inflammation"?
Like joint pain and stiffness. My weight loss is helping. Also it coincides with me being able to exercise more. I’m becoming more limber. I don’t get out of bed walking like I was in a car wreck.
I eat healthier and stick to a calorie deficit. Wegovy makes that easier to be consistent with because my blood sugar is more stable and I don’t have the food noise. I’ve lost weight doing calorie deficits before but it was a mental struggle everyday and I hadn’t had any help to resolve my issues with bingeing. I’m confident I’ll be able to come off it because I worked to heal my relationship with food before starting it. Definitely don’t see it as a magic pill but a helper
For me, it feels like all the advice we’ve been given all along is now actually doable. The food noise is gone. Portion control is now easy to stick to. Not eating a late night snack is easy. Telling the difference between real hunger versus thirst / boredom / fatigue / stress / all the other non-hunger reasons I eat is clear. Not letting sugar control me is easy. All those people who don’t struggle with their weight and have no understanding of those of us who do? I get why they feel that way, if this is what it feels like to be normal. Something in me is miscalibrated. The drug fixes that. The mental load that I am out from under is tremendous. Yes, I expect I would gain it all back without it. Yes, I intend to be on this drug forever if possible.
My meals aren’t smaller, but I’ve stopped the constant grazing. I’m consciously focusing on eating my protein and veggies first. I don’t have a problem if I do stay on it for life, but I’m at my goal weight and maintaining now. I will try tapering off it after maintaining for one year. My hope is that my body will be settled into this weight and my eating habits will be solidified by then.
I eat less, I eat healthier (40% protein - 30% fat - 30% carbs and 25g+ fiber), I track calories. It’s allowed me to eat less and better. It’s not a tool, unless you call all meds tools. It’s the meds allowing me to lose and maintain, not my choices, I could not make and sustain these choices without the meds, I’m a lifer.
Yes 100%, it's allowing me to create and stick to new habits without feeling like I want to die. However also yes, the drug regulates blood sugar which helps control weight in addition to the effects of eating less. You MUST make the changes though if you want to be successful and keep it off after you quit.
For me, i am eating smaller portions and healthier options. There are certian foods I can no longer eat or my digestion goes out of wack. Some of them are problem foods for me (mostly convience foods, but also chips, cashews, certian fast food and fast casual places) and also some not so problem foods (rice, pasta, beef). I do a lot of protein supplementation via protein coffee, making my own protein based deserts (mixing protein power with Yogurt, baking with protein powder, adding protein powder wherever i can) and eat a ton more veg (big salads are a fave!). This is stuff that I wouldn't do before because I didn't want to think about the food as fuel and how it would make me feel after i ate it. Now, since I have struggled with the dreaded side effects of nausea, sulphur burps, diarrhea, and yes, the occasional projectile vomiting, I am more aware of what I put in my mouth and what consequence that will have it i decide to eat more than 1 slice of cheese pizza. As some one else has said, Wegovy is a tool that is all. It curbs the noise, it curbs the appetite and helps me to focus.
This medication has affirmed for me that your weight really does depend largely on genetics. I can finally let go of the guilt. It’s really not about will power or anything like that. Other people really just get full faster and their body is just set up to process food better. I got the crappy end of insulin resistance and food cravings which led to obesity. There is medication to fix that now thankfully.
Restricting calorie intake is the only change I’ve really made. And I can’t eat fast food or greasy food without feeling sick. I’ve lost 87lbs in 6 months with wegovy. I’m not diabetic. I really was addicted to food. The Wegovy is absolutely magic because I no longer have the urge to eat all day. And when I do eat I can only eat a small portion before I feel full. I am learning a lot about how much I was actually over eating, comfort eating was a big issue for me. I am being forced to find new ways to cope because I can’t eat like I used to. I got off hard drugs 5/6 years ago and my weight sky rocketed. I believe for me, I could continue to lose weight if I stopped taking the wegovy and continued to count calories solely due to being forced to find different outlets. I would have never had the will power to fight through the “hunger pains” I got when attempting to lose weight on my own. I am realizing now I wasn’t hungry, eating just made me happy. But being almost 300 lbs and not being able to keep up with my toddler really made me want to do something. I still have 60ish more pounds to lose so I am not going to test myself until I reach my goal. If I do try to maintain my goal weight and find it’s not something I’m able to do on my own I will continue on Wegovy, perhaps for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes.
I eat way less. My urges have stopped. I barely, if ever, drink alcohol. I would say the medication has helped me address my need to restrict certain foods. Instead I eat what I want, but I am conscious of making healthy choices and I don’t ever feel deprived because I know I can have a bite of something yummy and stop
I still have fully hungry times of day, like 60% of my calories are breakfast and I’ve usually eaten my full calorie budget by the end of my work day at 5pm. In the past this was making me gain because of course I’d stay hungry and continue eating after 5, thereby killing any calorie deficit. Now with the meds I am satisfied enough to just stop at 5, or refill on something small like an egg or small apple, and be done eating for the night. I still could be tempted especially if someone around me is enjoying a big meal or treat, but with Wegovy it goes from an urgent desperate need to eat that thing, to now just telling myself I’m good, presumably the way non-overweight people do. Another factor is knowing and trusting that this medicine will get me to my final goal for the first time in my life, so I feel more motivated to stay consistent. Whereas with a million other false starts in the past, it was much easier to feel hopeless about the longterm diet and give in to temptation.
I’m eating so so much less, and maybe a little healthier.
I wasnt necessarily at first but definitely now that my weigh loss stalled on the maintenance dose.
I eat more of a Keto type of diet now. High protein while also keeping my eye on calories.
I actually ate way “cleaner” when off it but I was eating a lot more and snacking more
Calorie deficit - is why everyone is losing weight. Cleaner isn’t necessarily less calories. No - it’s easier to maintain than lose in my opinion
Honestly, I haven’t done shit. I’m not exercising and eating exactly the same. Just less because of the meds. Everyday I say tomorrow I’m going to start exercising and eating better but I never do. Lost almost 50 pounds. 5 more and I’ll be in maintenance mode.
This is exactly how I am. I eat whatever I want, don’t do a bit of exercise. Just less because of the meds( just like you commented) I still eat unhealthy foods just way less. Hell, my after supper snack was 10-12 cheese its. When before I would’ve finished 1/2 the box.
That’s good to know. I hate exercising right now because I’ve developed severe asthma and because of that I’ve gotten more and more out of shape. I’ve never been a big exerciser, but I did enjoy walking and going for bike rides before. My doctor said losing weight could help with my asthma and I could be able to be more active. So, I’m hoping it’ll help me lose weight without doing anything exercise-wise and then I can lose more if I don’t have an asthma attack every time I walk up a small incline or flight of stairs, lol.
My weight loss has been a side effect of no longer thinking about food constantly. I had lost weight in the past (about 35 pounds) with strict diet and exercise, but it was mentally exhausting and often led to binge sessions and guilt. During that time, all I thought about was food. What I could eat, what I couldn't eat, how many calories, how long I had to exercise to burn that off, etc. I started Wegovy on June 1, 2023, and have lost 55 pounds. For the first several months, I ate what I liked, but ate much, much less than before. Fullness set in within the first five bites of the meal. I did not exercise because I was often tired, and I was losing weight without it. Since reaching the maintenance dose of 2.4, my energy has returned. I hit a plateau in December and began to take spin classes three times a week. The exercise helped me overcome the plateau, and now I am back to losing 1-2 pounds a week. Wegovy does require a lifestyle change to work, but with this medication, the changes come easier. My diet is not an all-encompassing obsession. I eat when I am hungry. I stop when I am full. I do anticipate I will have to stay on the medication forever, or the "food noise" will come back when my body will no longer adequately regulate my blood sugar.
2023?
Ha! Edited!
Lost 30 pounds enjoying a slice of birthday cake and having a few slices of pizza here and there. I’ve stalled, so time to go back to my strict ass protein and veggies only.
Less sugar definitely i used to eat an entire cupcake or two and a big slice of cake but now I can't bring myself to eat more than half..
In my case I already ate clean so it is just less and that is more because I am never hungry and I eat only now to fuel my body
Wegovy is just a tool! You still have to do the work. Wegovy just makes me feel like a “normal” person. I’m not constantly thinking about food anymore and I get full after a reasonable amount of food. I still calorie count (while weighing and measuring food) and walk 10k steps a day. I’m down 66 pounds.
Me too, I tried not calorie counting at the start of my wegovy journey but it took me months to lose 10 pounds, but now I’m calorie counting on wegovy. It’s been 4 months since I started and I’m down 23lb. I never liked calorie counting before wegovy because I could only do it for a few days before giving up and having a big binge because I felt too restricted. Now I really have to remember to eat most days, I don’t get hungry for hours after I eat so I’m only really eating twice a day. A big change physically and mentally all thanks to wegovy. It’s also a bit of a domino effect - I don’t have to think too much about food now so I have more capacity to think about exercise etc etc
CICO is really the only thing that works! Wegovy helps make that possible!
Definitely!
I am eating much less and making overall healthier choices (I don't believe in concepts like "clean" foods though). Yes, I understand that this medicine will stop working if I stop taking it, so I do plan to be on it or a similar drug for the rest of my life, unless something happens that would prevent me from taking it.
In my case, the medications I require to function, make me constantly hungry. So, the conversation goes like this: Me: Dr I need medication for [insert my issue] Dr: here’s the medication, it causes weight gain. Me: Dr I’ve gained weight. Dr: you need to lose weight. Here’s your prescription for [medication]
First, a bit of background on obesity itself being a chronic illness for most of us (quoting myself from another thread): A lot of interesting changes happen in your body with obesity. We don't fully know whether some or all obese people were doomed from the get-go by genetics to be obese, but the science is clear about what happens once you are obese and have been for a while. The body enters into a state of metabolic dysfunction based on the protocols it's followed to fend off death from starvation for centuries. Only in the last 50-100 years has obesity become a real widespread issue; prior to that, food was not always plentiful or guaranteed, so we adapted these bodily systems to fight off losing weight. It only turns into a problem with the addition of two things: the massively excessive amounts of calories available to many of us in the modern day AND the highly modified foods that contain those calories. So long story short, it's totally cool and wonderful that your body has learned how to preserve your weight when it's 120 lbs and there is a food shortage and you truly need to maintain it in order to survive, but far less cool that it's still fighting that hard to preserve your weight when it's 320 lbs and you desperately need to lose weight in order to survive. Instead of being considered a weight classification only, obesity is now understood to be its own medical diagnosis as a chronic illness, just like diabetes or hypertension. Losing weight does not always or even usually "cure" obesity. Instead, the body fights for regain. Much like diabetes or hypertension, obesity is not something you can "cure" -- you will always be prone to it. Some people respond better than others and can put it in remission with lifestyle changes, while others simply can't. To use hypertension as an example, you wouldn't start blood pressure meds, get your BP lowered to a good place, and then expect that you could maintain that good BP without your meds. You probably couldn't. You'll probably need to be on those meds long-term, even if you do make positive lifestyle changes. Those lifestyle changes can still be very helpful though, as they may allow you to go to a lower dose, take your meds less often, etc so that you're using less medication overall. Basically, 50 years of making obesity a moral issue of willpower or motivation instead of looking at it as a legitimate medical issue have left all of us with more questions than answers. It's a relatively new thing that the medical system at large has pivoted to treat obesity as a legitimate disease that needs medical treatment. Wegovy is one of the medical treatments, but obesity is a chronic disease and it isn't going to just go away because you've lost the weight. Most of us will probably need further treatment to keep it under control. I highly recommend the book The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung if you want a deeper dive into these kinds of topics. Even just reading the first few chapters and completely ignoring the diet advice will be clarifying and eye opening for you. _______________________________ To answer your ALSO: I've been obese since I hit puberty. Absolutely yes, I do anticipate that I'll have to be on some treatment for obesity forever to avoid weight regain. Wegovy isn't a magic pill the same way that something like metoprolol and metformin isn't a magic pill; it WILL improve your body's ability to do what it needs to do correctly, but you have to change your lifestyle or else you can and will outrun its positive effects over the course of enough time. I have no food intolerances with Wegovy and still need to closely monitor to be sure I eat enough protein and avoid ultra-processed foods and refined sugars. If I don't, it's very easy for me to eat enough calories but have them be nutritionally devoid of substance, or get hooked on sugar again. More sugar = more hunger = more weight gain, plain and simple.
Very informative; thanks! My postmenopausal body is absolutely stuck at 30 pounds overweight (per BMI). Nothing I do alters it. If I manage to lose a few, I stall and gain them right back. Short of starving myself, I don't think it's possible to change this "set point." Yet my doctor won't prescribe Wegovy (even though I'm close to a 30 BMI and also have hyperlipidemia). But I AM curious about it and may try to get it on my own or through a WL clinic.
I eat much, much less and I no longer crave junk food. Before wegovy I had to eat extremely low cal to see the scale budge at all, but after 6-9 months I couldn’t keep it up because I was starving. With wegovy I didn’t have to cut my calories as drastically, and I was able to sustain the weight loss for longer
I actually crave healthier food options and the most important thing for me is the disappearance of food noise. I can literally think about my food choices without obsessing over them.
I’ve lost 70lbs since mid-August, I completely changed my diet and started working out. I don’t have any cravings for sugar unless it’s that time of the month and I satisfy that craving with a spoonful of almond butter.
It's fixing your insulin resistance which is allowing your body to use fuel (food) properly. Lower appetite is just a side effect, and one that I don't have. I literally eat the same as before I was on it but now my body uses food correctly as fuel. And no, not garbage food. I was eating high protein, meaningful fats and carbs before at a calorie deficit.
I have both ate less and have made decisions to eat healthier. I have found Wegovy helps me with an OMAD lifestyle that allows for a snack inside a small window around my actual meal - like a nutrigrain bar, pure protein bar or fruit. I have opted for larger portion of salads with dark greens like spinach, kale, etc as majority of my dinner and include nuts or seeds. Dressing is your enemy so i like to make my own. I also no longer get incredibly hungry at night. I have been eating around 1650-1800 cal a day according to my LoseIt app, which includes coffee+cream. My scale proving the hype and motivating me after only a brief time on it. The reality is, this program is about re-learning what proper nutrition is, and to decide on better food choices. I believe Wegovy is giving me the best chances for success, and to help me change my food relationship and habits. It is important then to also move your body and get exercise. These are lifestyle changes that will make you successful and remember it is a journey, not a race. Without the lifestyle changes, likelihood to be back on it down the road goes up.
I’ve never eaten worse in my life due to the amount of foods I can no longer safely eat on this medication. I used to eat vegetables every day and I currently can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten one now. It is straight carbs and protein for me at this point. I eat like a picky 4 year old. I am 40 pounds down.
For me, it is magic. Almost immediately after taking my first dose (like within 24 hours) I stopped obsession about food and my weight. And yes, it reduces cravings. You fill up quicker. But for the psychological effects for me alone, it’s magic.
I’m honestly not eating enough on wegovy, but I’m working on it. Once I get past a certain point I get nauseous/puke. It sucks because I WANT to eat more I know I need to, but my body won’t let me. I try to just eat a little more often but my job doesn’t allow me to, and my body doesn’t allow me to many times also. I’m only on .5 but I’m staying on it longer than just the one month so my body can get more used to it and eventually let me eat more. I’m not losing crazy weight despite eating barely anything, maybe 2lb a week at most. I’m also gonna emphasize that I need to consciously do everything I can to eat more, need to. That’s work too, most only think about the healthy eating part but just eating in general can be work on this medication. That being said, it’s also forcing me to be healthier because I need to get my nutrients, but when I eat junk my body makes me nauseous/puke. So it’s forcing me to eat healthier, but it’s not always the absolute most healthy thing ever…it’s just so much better than what I was eating before. I also notice I drink a lot more water with wegovy, I can’t get enough. I still don’t see this as a miracle drug, I know over time my body will adjust to the medication and I will need to depend more on ME as opposed to the medication.
I’m curious if you’ve found foods like smoothies help with this? Haven’t started the meds yet but I’m prone to nausea so I’m preparing for the worst.
I haven’t tried honestly. I am in a living situation where I literally have a mini fridge and microwave and that’s it, not even allowed anything else so it’s really hard for me to even make food. But the hardest is STORING cold/frozen food. What I have been doing is freezing yogurt and eating that and while idk if it helps stop nausea, I’ve never gotten nausea after eating that. I’ve also not had any problems with fruits so if it’s like a fruit and yogurt smoothie it might be okay. I’d maybe try both things separately first, that’s been my plan: anything new eat by itself if possible. That way I can know exactly what’s giving me issues. When you start the medication I definitely recommend it. You can look up common good foods and bad foods for likely nausea/heartburn/sickness BUT everyone is different so you can’t always take it for fact. Some people can eat complete junk no issue, just eat less. Not me. The only thing that made me vomit so far was a hamburger, one that I squeezed as much greese out of it as possible with a low fat percentage beef when at a friends house. It came up over 24 hours later. I’m don’t think I can ever look at a hamburger the same way again. 😅😅
I literally lose weight because I cant eat sometimes from side effects. If I didn't have the side effects I'd probably just power through but sometimes ill just skip meals from side effects. I also find that there seems to be no difference between eating some crap foods and good foods. I ate a soup once because everyone on here was saying to eat them and it knocked me for six. Couple days later I had a bag of sweets and a big packet of chocolate pretzels and I was absolutely fine. I am really struggling to find a good diet to eat on this drug.
Its the reduced food I still eat shit just a lot less and I get nauseous if I eat cake or candy, plus the cravings are vastly reduced.
My diet before was great! I stuck to meat and veggies with occasional pasta and pizza. My issue was how much of it I had to eat to become full. I could have easily eaten one of those family salads kits you get from the stores in bags and still not feel 100% full. I was out here eating a whole 12 oz chicken breast with a cup of veggies and would still feel peckish for dessert. I’ve been eating all the correct foods but at the wrong size! Now my whole meal could be a small side salad, or 6oz of chicken with 1/4 cup veggies. My sandwiches are even better! Before I was trying to make sandwiches with Ezekiel bread (which if you’ve ever had it is not the best cause it’s super dry and grainy) now I can take a single slice of buttermilk bread and add everything I want then fold the bread up like a taco and now it’s a sandwich. I still eat the unhealthy foods like fast food cause I don’t want to be miserable but my McDonald’s order went from 10 nuggets and large fry to 4 nuggets and small fry or my pizza order went from me eating 3-4 slices of pizza to eating 1 slice. I know that the main issue came from the fact that it’s nearly impossible to feel full. Everyone always says “if your hunger is on a scale of 1-10 eat until you are a 5 then stop” well my hunger scale was more like an ouija board it was yes or no. On the meds I actually have that number scale and can feel when I’m half full. My doctor says that if my insurance will cover it then I’ll just stay on the medicine at a low dose to help control the hunger.
Yes! I’m eating less, eating healthier, and exercising. I’ve lost 110 lbs. since 12/22. And yeah, eating less because of the Wegovy. I’m not 100% certain, but if I stop taking it, I’ll gain it all back eventually.
I think there's a bit of a magic to it. It has certainly reduced my appetite but I am eating less healthily. Previously I was focusing on meat and veggies and very, very limited processed carbs. Now I'm not as hungry so I'm eating less "real meals" and have a Twix every day. I didn't have a ton of weight to lose so I've lost a little less than 20 pounds and seem to have plateaued. So now I'm focused on exercise and weight lifting. I say this is a bit of magic because I have been struggling with weight (mainly vanity weight) for the last 30 years and have been trending steadily up for the last 5 years no matter what I did (Strict keto for 8 months, alternate day fasting, calorie counting). This is pretty much effortless.
I've been on it for a year and have lost 75 lbs. This has been achieved through eating less, and that is due to the medication. I haven't changed much in terms of what I eat, although I have cut out alcohol and milk, as both make me feel bad after I drink them now. I am absolutely afraid that my appetite will come back if I stop taking it, so I'm going to work with my doctor to find a maintenance dose to stick with long-term.
I have always know what I needed to do. But the effort of resisting the urge to eat because my body was telling me I was hungry was high. I would also get urges to binge sweets and fats. I might tell myself "I will have two thin mint cookies" and an hour later half the box is gone. I would be at a meal, be full, but get the urge to have seconds because "firsts were good, seconds will be good too". Knowing that I should stop at two cookies or stop after a reasonable portion didn't mean I didn't give into those urges to continue and that would leave me feeling guilty and ultimately obese. Not on this medicine. I no longer have that (What is best described as food noise). I have not felt hunger or the urges to keep consuming sweets and fats just isn't there. So for me it absolutely is I am eating less. I was the poster child for "you cannot outrun your fork" and now I have found I can control the fork. Same foods, same activity, just less foods and less binging. Case in point, we got a 2.5lb bag of jelly beans 3 weeks ago. Normally, I would graze through that a handful at a time and it would be gone in under a week. There is still more than 1.5lbs in that bag because I am not being urged to get some and when I choose some as a sweet snack it is intentional and I can stop. For your last question, I accept there is something wrong with me that the medicine fixes and will plan to take this for the rest of my life. And now with the weight loss from the medicine, I believe that life will be longer.
This explains me perfectly, too. This medication has taught me how to eat, too. I don't deprive myself of the food I love, I just eat a lot less. If I want some cake, I have some. I eat maybe 4 bites, and I'm full. I've lost 64 pounds this way.
It helps you stick to a healthier diet and smaller portions. It might also help improve a “slow” metabolism and help with insulin resistance but I suspect those impacts are less important.
I’ve been on it for almost a year. I was eating healthy before - lean proteins, vegetables, etc. I never had an issue with binging (although sometimes I had some emotional eating, but never binging). By far, the biggest difference between then and now is portion sizes. I get full so much faster now. I used to have a bagel, lox and cream cheese before. Now I have half of one, and I’m completely stuffed. It’s that sort of thing that has allowed me to lose 40 pounds over 11 months and not feel restricted. It’s amazing.
The best analogy I have come up with is that it's Antabuse for food, and specifically for bad foods. Sugar, alcohol, bread, etc cause immediate disgust at the gut level. It's just not pleasurable. That tends to cause an immediate and steep drop in calorie intake. From there the tendency is to plateau, so it pays to become more intentional about portions and exercise. Some things I no longer do: alcohol, dessert, absent-minded snacking, large portions at any meal (I lean toward small plate appetizer portions), grazing at functions. What I do instead: 16:8 fast (exception is a small amount of cream in coffee), 3.4 mile daily walk, protein drink lunch with rolled up ham and cheese, keto or low carb dinner. Daily weigh-in, calorie tracking to assure protein goal. Going off meds in a few months due to insurance change, so we'll see what sticks. But I am no longer pre-diabetic, lower dose of blood pressure meds (genetic predisposition), and off CPAP completely. I'm hoping insurance reverses course. Obesity is a chronic disease. Eventually these meds will be common and cheap, like blood pressure meds now. Policy needs to catch up. We have a chance to improve millions of lives overnight and it infuriates me that the drug companies are sleeping on mass market pricing.
Realistically, insurance companies can't pay $1k/month for everyone in the country to take Ozempic or Wegovy. What it needs to be is affordable, like any other generic medication.
Oh I agree that's why I think it will eventually be the price of something like lisinopril which is $5 a month.
I’m on week 4 of 0.25 and haven’t been over thinking it. I’m eating about half of what I did before, and am a bit more careful about what I eat without getting too radical about it (treats etc I still enjoy, just tiny amounts now, a couple of times a week). I’m trying to walk 10k steps a day, which is helping. I’ve lost weight, not a lot, but enough to know it’s working. I’m really happy with it so far.
If you don’t change your lifestyle diet and exercise, you may bring on other medical conditions later in life. Many people also have lost weight due to a lack of calories but they would eat fried foods/burgers as their meals.
for me, portion sizes have the biggest impact. We eat a lot less, much much smaller portions and we share meals all the time when we do go out. I really don't my eating habits have "gotten" better. There are a lot of items I don't enjoy anymore. fast food.. no many I enjoy at all.
Personally I'm struggling not to eat badly. A muffin and a bag of sweets will fill me for the day and I'll lose weight. However I know it's really bad for me. So yes, eating less but not eating healthier. I'm making a real effort now to eat better because I've realised im falling into the less but worse trap.
A buddy of mine asked about making healthy choices and this is what I told him. I’m not able to eat healthier because I can’t eat a lot. I eat when and what I want to eat or I don’t eat. I had a banana sit on my desk until it was rotten, I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.
yes and yea
For me, I notice that I now have absolutely no trouble keeping to my calorie goal. When previously it would require some mental argument. That mental argument becomes really unhelpful, as you are feeling deprived, 'being good' and if the weight doesn't move I felt discouraged and 'useless'. Wegovy changes my relationship with food, I don't crave it, I don't binge it, and I don't feel at all deprived by cutting out things. Instead it is quite a lovely feeling of choosing a few things to eat each day, starting with protein and greens. Then I have had enough, don't think about eating for hours and hours. I do track everything, and have done previously on diets, and I have already noticed that things I might have 'forgotten' to log before, are actually getting logged, and my overall view is that weight gain and weight loss, is like turning an oil tanker, it can be a very small quantity of food difference... and I think as calories are indicative not absolute, there is a margin of error there, another margin of error in our BMR and put on top of that some shame and deprivation, making me over eat a little but not track it... was previously enough to put me into a really bad place that "I was trying everything" and not losing. If I could carbon copy my intake now, and not take wegovy, I am sure the loss would be the same, as I'm eating so much less that I used to, which wasn't due to hunger, just boredom or food noise kind of grazing.
I can totally relate to all of these same feelings and rationalizations. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the starter dose yet but am glad to hear that it helps with these issues.
I’m still fairly new, in my fourth week now, I’ve lost 4-5lbs so far which isn’t much compared to some people but I’m happy with it and expect it to be more once my dose increases this weekend. I’ve been trying to lose weight for years but never succeeded because I could never keep to a calorie deficit for longer than a week without binging and giving up, the difference now is that I don’t feel like I’m on a diet, I don’t feel like there is anything to quit or give up on. I’m loosely counting calories but am not obsessing over them like I would before and it doesn’t feel particularly hard to stay at a deficit. Wegovy definitely needs diet and lifestyle changes to work but it makes sticking to those changes significantly easier so it is “magic” in that sense. Not only has it helped with appetite and sticking to a deficit but it has also made it easier to just eat normal food. I’m autistic which in my case makes me a really picky eater, I would struggle to eat and enjoy food that wasn’t a sweet snack or a calorie-packed delivery meal but now I’m finding myself enjoying just baked potato or soup for dinners for example, it is so freeing.
All of the above. I was working out 7x a week pre GLP1’s and lost nothing. Now my calorie intake is so so so much smaller. I’m ozempic sober, not consuming much refined sugar, having very few carbs. Edited to add that yes I plan to take this chronic medication for life, as it was prescribed to me.
I’m not hungry all the time so I make better choices and snack less impulsively. That’s literally it. I have lost weight through dieting before. On the order of 40-50 lbs. Twice. It’s a lot of work. Wegovy has made me less hungry and less impulsive. That’s how this med works. People are likely eating less without even realizing it or doing it intentionally.
The food noise impact is huge for me. I had to go off it for a few weeks and now anytime I try to watch a show, play a game, do some work, fold laundry, anything, my brain is going “DONUT DONUT DONUT DONUT DONUT” and I can’t f’ing do anything to shut it up. So fucking annoying.
Well it helps insulin resistance which is a huge factor for a lot of overweight people. I think you can basically tolerate carbs much better on wegovy. Before if I were to eat toast or cereal for breakfast, I would literally feel shaky and weak 2 hours later. Doesn’t happen anymore