Anyone use weight loss drugs for just a few pounds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Im not on these drugs and dont need them, but was curious about why everyone insists the minute you get off the drugs you go backt to how you were eating before.

First, I am curious about the science--esp whether the act of losing weight and eating more healthfully would significantly change the microbiome enough to help keep the "food noise" at bay. From what I understand, the more crap you eat, the more you crave it, in part due to shifts in the microbiome, but if you can reset, nourish your microbiome, create new habits, maybe that rewires some of those metabolic pathways...

Second, what's different from people who lose weight through diet/exercise and keep it off ? Yes, its a struggle, but some people do and some dont, so I dont see why this would be any different. You make a big change, and you have to adapt to it.

A tiny, tiny fraction do. Nearly none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adding - last night I had grilled chicken, sauteed vegetables and rice for dinner. Normally I would consider that an extreme deprivation kind of dinner. I would think that I would much rather have, like, General Tso chicken. But last night, on these meds, that healthy dinner was perfectly fine. I didn't eat it passionately (haven't really eaten anything passionately since starting the shots), but I enjoyed it, and felt full. I'm hoping that after a few months of living this way, I can get back to eating that way the majority of the time, and not consider it "being good" and thus be at risk of feeling deprived and making up for that with a binge. Without my messed up mind and hunger screwing things up, I'm just eating for nutrition and not to satisfy my crazed cravings.

Remains to be seen whether my crazy, unhealthy mind comes roaring back after I stop the shots. I hope that in some way my mind is healed through this.

Thanks for sharing, OP. I for one am interested to hear about your experience.

My main concern with using these drugs is the loss of bone and muscle mass; I hope you are doing a lot of strength training, which I'm sure is hard to do when you're forcing yourself to eat 1000 calories a day. My elderly aunt lost a lot of weight on one of these drugs and has kept it off after stopping, but she looks very frail.

It’s not hard. I consume 1200-1400 calories a day (the deficit calories for me, 5’4” female, 140 lbs) and I eat high volume low calorie food so big salads with chicken beans and tons of veggies, soups, egg white omelets etc and I strength train 3x week plus other workouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adding - last night I had grilled chicken, sauteed vegetables and rice for dinner. Normally I would consider that an extreme deprivation kind of dinner. I would think that I would much rather have, like, General Tso chicken. But last night, on these meds, that healthy dinner was perfectly fine. I didn't eat it passionately (haven't really eaten anything passionately since starting the shots), but I enjoyed it, and felt full. I'm hoping that after a few months of living this way, I can get back to eating that way the majority of the time, and not consider it "being good" and thus be at risk of feeling deprived and making up for that with a binge. Without my messed up mind and hunger screwing things up, I'm just eating for nutrition and not to satisfy my crazed cravings.

Remains to be seen whether my crazy, unhealthy mind comes roaring back after I stop the shots. I hope that in some way my mind is healed through this.

Thanks for sharing, OP. I for one am interested to hear about your experience.

My main concern with using these drugs is the loss of bone and muscle mass; I hope you are doing a lot of strength training, which I'm sure is hard to do when you're forcing yourself to eat 1000 calories a day. My elderly aunt lost a lot of weight on one of these drugs and has kept it off after stopping, but she looks very frail.

It’s not hard. I consume 1200-1400 calories a day (the deficit calories for me, 5’4” female, 140 lbs) and I eat high volume low calorie food so big salads with chicken beans and tons of veggies, soups, egg white omelets etc and I strength train 3x week plus other workouts.

I think it depends on the person. For me, eating 1200-1400 calories per day is most definitely hard. Intellectually, I know that's what I need to do to lose weight. But I have been trying to do it consistently for five years to lose these 15 pounds and I've just lacked the willpower. The hunger and desire to eat is stronger than my discipline and desire to lose weight. That's why these meds have been such a game changer. They have eliminated the hunger and rabid desire for junk food and overeating.

[Anonymous]

I’m on a compound for what many would consider vanity weight, but I’ve gained 25 pounds in the past 4 years and gone through menopause and nothing reasonable was moving the scale.

I never went up from the initial dose and by week 5-6 I felt awful. Constant low grade nausea, lethargy, constipation, and was struggling to be around food/cook for my family. I was never interested in dropping weight too quickly so all I could think about was how to get enough protein and nutrients in when I had no appetite. After talking to the clinic I decided reduce the dose and spread it out. So I take .15-.18ml every 7-14 days and feel so much better. I want to have an appetite and make good food choices, not lose weight because I feel sick, because I could quickly see how that was unsustainable. It’s been 12 weeks and I’ve probably lost 12 lbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m on a compound for what many would consider vanity weight, but I’ve gained 25 pounds in the past 4 years and gone through menopause and nothing reasonable was moving the scale.

I never went up from the initial dose and by week 5-6 I felt awful. Constant low grade nausea, lethargy, constipation, and was struggling to be around food/cook for my family. I was never interested in dropping weight too quickly so all I could think about was how to get enough protein and nutrients in when I had no appetite. After talking to the clinic I decided reduce the dose and spread it out. So I take .15-.18ml every 7-14 days and feel so much better. I want to have an appetite and make good food choices, not lose weight because I feel sick, because I could quickly see how that was unsustainable. It’s been 12 weeks and I’ve probably lost 12 lbs.

Thank you for sharing! Are you on a tirzepatide compound or the semaglutide?

I just heated up my microwave meal at work and could only finish half of it. So weird. Normally those tiny, 350 calorie things don't even fill me up. I do not feel awful, but I definitely see how this level of eating is not sustainable, especially when I want to lose a relatively small amount of weight. I do worry though that by reducing the dose (and eventually, stopping) my cravings for bad foods will come back. On your lower dose, have you found it easy to still make healthy food choices?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m on a compound for what many would consider vanity weight, but I’ve gained 25 pounds in the past 4 years and gone through menopause and nothing reasonable was moving the scale.

I never went up from the initial dose and by week 5-6 I felt awful. Constant low grade nausea, lethargy, constipation, and was struggling to be around food/cook for my family. I was never interested in dropping weight too quickly so all I could think about was how to get enough protein and nutrients in when I had no appetite. After talking to the clinic I decided reduce the dose and spread it out. So I take .15-.18ml every 7-14 days and feel so much better. I want to have an appetite and make good food choices, not lose weight because I feel sick, because I could quickly see how that was unsustainable. It’s been 12 weeks and I’ve probably lost 12 lbs.

Thank you for sharing! Are you on a tirzepatide compound or the semaglutide?

I just heated up my microwave meal at work and could only finish half of it. So weird. Normally those tiny, 350 calorie things don't even fill me up. I do not feel awful, but I definitely see how this level of eating is not sustainable, especially when I want to lose a relatively small amount of weight. I do worry though that by reducing the dose (and eventually, stopping) my cravings for bad foods will come back. On your lower dose, have you found it easy to still make healthy food choices?

Semaglutide. My symptoms weren’t bad right away (except the constipation, that was pretty immediate), the other stuff was a slow build. I wasn’t a horrible eater before, so now that I feel better (when I felt my worst I was eating white carbs like a sick person) I’m eating similarly, just a smaller quantity. But another change is that I was a regular drinker and now I have no interest in alcohol. Even on NYE when I tried to drink with friends I really had no taste for it. This change was unexpected and I think will be relatively easy to maintain as it was more of a lifestyle habit that is now broken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adding - last night I had grilled chicken, sauteed vegetables and rice for dinner. Normally I would consider that an extreme deprivation kind of dinner. I would think that I would much rather have, like, General Tso chicken. But last night, on these meds, that healthy dinner was perfectly fine. I didn't eat it passionately (haven't really eaten anything passionately since starting the shots), but I enjoyed it, and felt full. I'm hoping that after a few months of living this way, I can get back to eating that way the majority of the time, and not consider it "being good" and thus be at risk of feeling deprived and making up for that with a binge. Without my messed up mind and hunger screwing things up, I'm just eating for nutrition and not to satisfy my crazed cravings.

Remains to be seen whether my crazy, unhealthy mind comes roaring back after I stop the shots. I hope that in some way my mind is healed through this.

Thanks for sharing, OP. I for one am interested to hear about your experience.

My main concern with using these drugs is the loss of bone and muscle mass; I hope you are doing a lot of strength training, which I'm sure is hard to do when you're forcing yourself to eat 1000 calories a day. My elderly aunt lost a lot of weight on one of these drugs and has kept it off after stopping, but she looks very frail.

OP. Thank you. I do go to strength training classes 3x/week + spin class but I'll admit, I slacked this week because I felt weak and a little nauseated. I'm sure the weakness came because, as you said, I am eating so little. I can feel the meds wearing off six days in and I have more appetite and energy now, and zero nausea, so I went to class this morning and will go tomorrow too, before my next shot. I ate the most yesterday that I've eaten all week, probably about 1500 calories, and I did feel more energy and interest in working out. The spa did counsel me to do strength training in order to avoid losing muscle, and I've also read that it's important to eat protein, which I'm trying to do. I've always been a dedicated exerciser why is probably part of why I maintained a relatively normal weight (but an unhappy weight for me), despite my overeating and junk food heavy diet.

This past week has been the healthiest I've eaten in years.

Combining semaglutide with testosterone, Vitamin D/K, and weight training is helpful if you are in your forties or older. It helped me lose primarily fat and only some muscle, but I'm now running and biking faster and longer than I was before the weight loss, so some of the muscle was probably going toward carrying around the extra weight.

[Anonymous]

OP. I've been surprised that I haven't had constipation. I've always dealt with that, but I'm actually doing way better than normal this week. I think it's because I'm eating less constipating crap food and more whole, fiber-filled foods on these meds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why it is okay for people who are clinically obese to take semaglutides and continue taking them even when they have reached their goal weight (or more!), but it's not okay for someone who is only slightly overweight? Like the OP, I have struggled to lose 10-15 lbs for years. My BMI is 26.1, and I am on an 80MG statin. Some of my friends who are on semaglutides have BMIs around 20 now. But somehow it's okay for them to continue taking them, but I can't--even with my high cholesterol. Should I gain weight so I can take them?

Because there are risks to taking the medication. The risks are worth the benefits to keep people from being obese, because that can kill you. The risks are not worth the benefit, medically, to help a person lose 20 pounds. (I feel discouraged that I need to explain this, but here we are.)

I don’t think the science backs this up and furthermore people have different risk tolerances.

DP.

Ok ... fine. Go ahead and take the Wegovy for the 15 pounds you need to lose to fit into that dress for your DS's wedding. Or whatever event.

And I hope you have the side effects I have had as I fight the obesity that has resulted from a medication I need to survive. And find yourself crying on the way home from lunch with your husband, like I did yesterday, because the pain of your bowels spasming is horrific and you think you might not make it to a bathroom. Or find yourself worrying about managing at your job because the fatigue is so debilitating. Or find yourself unable to fall asleep, and when you do the nightmares are horrible.

I won't wish the constipation on you -- having an impaction removed at an urgent care is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

But by all means ... take this very serious drug for your 15 pound loss. I sure as hell wouldn't. But yeah -- people "have different risk tolerances." So.

ya gotta wonder why some people are so triggered by someone wanting to lose 15 lbs. I think they have the bigger problem.
OP, if it was safe, I'd do it. Kinda looking at doing something like that myself.

[Anonymous]

I am 5’2 and was at 156. My doc had no trouble giving me a script for mounjaro. She said that is the most effective and has the least side effects. I am on the lowest dose and in 10 weeks have lost 27 pounds. 24 more pounds and I will be at goal weight. I don’t know if I will need to keep taking it for life or not. We’ll see. I saw someone suggest taking it for a year after reaching goal weight and has that time to establish good habits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 5’2 and was at 156. My doc had no trouble giving me a script for mounjaro. She said that is the most effective and has the least side effects. I am on the lowest dose and in 10 weeks have lost 27 pounds. 24 more pounds and I will be at goal weight. I don’t know if I will need to keep taking it for life or not. We’ll see. I saw someone suggest taking it for a year after reaching goal weight and has that time to establish good habits.

OP. I had the idea that I would take this for two months, get to my goal weight, and quit. But 12 days in...I feel absolutely transformed. My mind, that's the big thing. My days do not revolve around food and whether I'm being good or being bad, whether I've ruined the day, whether my stomach hurts because I've binged horrible junk food or whether my head hurts because I'm starving on a diet. I honestly feel so much happier, I am calmer and sunnier with my kids, I'm not hiding my body under a towel when DH walks into the bathroom. My stomach is not hanging over my pants. Even though I'm on track to reach my goal weight pretty soon, I am wondering whether I can stay on a low dose of this for the long term.

It is so freeing. As some posters alluded to on here, I definitely suffered from disordered eating and disordered thinking around food. Battled it since I was a teenager, even though I always stayed a normal weight. It has caused me so much misery. Dreading events because I'll have to wrestle with whether to eat desserts, and if I give in, not being able to eat just a little. Starving and binging regularly.

All that has disappeared. I'm able to focus on other things (even though I'm totally obsessed with this medication, and cannot stop marveling about its effect on me). I feel so optimistic about everything!

I truly feel that the impact of taking these meds long term cannot possibly be worse for me than the way I was living and eating before. So much sugar, all the time. Eating more junk food than nutritious food. Not to mention the impact of this on my mental health. And the example I was setting for my children...I always tried to hide my binging from them...but also sometimes I'd used them as an excuse to, say, go out together for giant hot fudge sundaes and crap like that.

So I don't think I'm going to completely quit, at least not for a long while. I like what you said about staying on it for a year to establish good habits. One thing I have noticed, is that I don't feel any desperation around food anymore. It's like, before, I would feel I had to eat something because I might not have the chance to eat it later...or, more like, I would plan to "start clean" the next day so I felt desperate to have one last hurrah and eat the entire tray of cookies. I have completely lost that wacked out way of thinking. I baked cookies for my kids this weekend. I ate two bites of cookie dough. When the cookies came out of the oven, I didn't have any. I didn't even really try not to...I just kind of felt ambivalent about it. That was momentous for me. To just have two bites of something and move on.

Maybe if I do that for a year with the help of these meds, I could wean off them and retain those habits and that way of thinking.

I am feeling like I don't ever, EVER want to go back to how I lived before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 5’2 and was at 156. My doc had no trouble giving me a script for mounjaro. She said that is the most effective and has the least side effects. I am on the lowest dose and in 10 weeks have lost 27 pounds. 24 more pounds and I will be at goal weight. I don’t know if I will need to keep taking it for life or not. We’ll see. I saw someone suggest taking it for a year after reaching goal weight and has that time to establish good habits.

OP. I had the idea that I would take this for two months, get to my goal weight, and quit. But 12 days in...I feel absolutely transformed. My mind, that's the big thing. My days do not revolve around food and whether I'm being good or being bad, whether I've ruined the day, whether my stomach hurts because I've binged horrible junk food or whether my head hurts because I'm starving on a diet. I honestly feel so much happier, I am calmer and sunnier with my kids, I'm not hiding my body under a towel when DH walks into the bathroom. My stomach is not hanging over my pants. Even though I'm on track to reach my goal weight pretty soon, I am wondering whether I can stay on a low dose of this for the long term.

It is so freeing. As some posters alluded to on here, I definitely suffered from disordered eating and disordered thinking around food. Battled it since I was a teenager, even though I always stayed a normal weight. It has caused me so much misery. Dreading events because I'll have to wrestle with whether to eat desserts, and if I give in, not being able to eat just a little. Starving and binging regularly.

All that has disappeared. I'm able to focus on other things (even though I'm totally obsessed with this medication, and cannot stop marveling about its effect on me). I feel so optimistic about everything!

I truly feel that the impact of taking these meds long term cannot possibly be worse for me than the way I was living and eating before. So much sugar, all the time. Eating more junk food than nutritious food. Not to mention the impact of this on my mental health. And the example I was setting for my children...I always tried to hide my binging from them...but also sometimes I'd used them as an excuse to, say, go out together for giant hot fudge sundaes and crap like that.

So I don't think I'm going to completely quit, at least not for a long while. I like what you said about staying on it for a year to establish good habits. One thing I have noticed, is that I don't feel any desperation around food anymore. It's like, before, I would feel I had to eat something because I might not have the chance to eat it later...or, more like, I would plan to "start clean" the next day so I felt desperate to have one last hurrah and eat the entire tray of cookies. I have completely lost that wacked out way of thinking. I baked cookies for my kids this weekend. I ate two bites of cookie dough. When the cookies came out of the oven, I didn't have any. I didn't even really try not to...I just kind of felt ambivalent about it. That was momentous for me. To just have two bites of something and move on.

Maybe if I do that for a year with the help of these meds, I could wean off them and retain those habits and that way of thinking.

I am feeling like I don't ever, EVER want to go back to how I lived before.

It’s not a way of thinking. It’s the drug’s mechanism acting on your brain. Once you’re off the drug your food noise will return.

[Anonymous]

Good for you, OP. I’m in exactly the same position as you. I’m in the DC area and I have tried to start Tirzepitide. No luck. My BMI is not high enough, but I have very skinny arms and legs and now a huge spare tire around my waist. That can’t be healthy.

I just love the thought of the food noise being quieted. That honestly sounds like the best part. People are so judgmental. Even if one loses the weight, they usually gain it back, especially with keto. How is this any different?

[Anonymous]

I went to joinfridays and I don't qualify. What does BMI need to be? I'm at 24.3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to joinfridays and I don't qualify. What does BMI need to be? I'm at 24.3

Just say you’re currently on the meds and have previously been diagnosed as overweight. It approved me with a BMI of 22.