A doctor's experience with Ozempic, and quitting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's incredibly strange that the plan for this doctor is that as soon as the numbers creep up again, they're going right back on ozempic. Why not make permanant lifestyle chnages to maintain the weightloss? Makes it sound like they have a serious eating disorder/mental health issues.

((Sigh)). Why do we have to keep telling you how Ozempic/Wegovy works? Despite what you believe, many of us do and have made lifestyle changes for years, only to see our efforts fail — either because our bodies need much fewer calories per day than the standard to lose weight, or because our bodies constantly tell us it is hungry despite eating all the right foods that should make us full. Do you constantly feel hungry? Before Wegovy, I counted calories — 1200/day per my doctor, and I know how many because I cook from scratch and weigh/measure my food and portions — yet it was not enough for me to lose weight. Anything less, I felt like I was starving. When I ate a bowl of oatmeal (for the fiber, to make me full) or protein (because it takes longer to digest), I remained hungry. I drank tons of water in the event my hunger cues were really thirsty cues, but it didn’t help. I ate a balanced diet, never drank juice or sugary drinks, and limited my alcohol to almost nothing (maybe 2 drinks/month). And I was ALWAYS HUNGRY. Now on Wegovy, I feel satiated when I eat a normal meal (I can eat that oatmeal and feel satisfied), although I probably do eat less than 1200 calories per day to sustain weight loss, but it’s slow (about 5 lbs/month).

Honestly this sounds scary. What if you’re not getting enough calories now that you are on Ozempic? Maybe your body is starving, but because you’re on a chemical that shuts the starving sign off, you aren’t getting what you really need?

It is a tough one. I mean, hunger signals are an important part of survival--a feature, not a bug. All these social feeds focusing on "food noise" and "alcohol noise," are pretty disturbing. And it seems to me that these drugs are just playing into that. Knowing the difference between hunger and cravings, I guess, is the key. And it seems that some nervous systems must get their wires crossed. I know that personally, I rarely feel satiated. Like I could eat all day. But I do know when feeling like I want to eat is real hunger and necessity, versus a craving, versus boredom, versus anxiety.

I'm on Wegovy. For me, it doesn't supress appetite, I still desire to eat three meals a day. But I want to eat normal, healthy meals at normal, healthy portions. It quiets the food noise so I don't want MORE food or gobble it up so fast. I'm defenitely not starving, I have weight loss of 1-2 lbs a week, never more. My cholesterol was just tested and has dropped to nearly normal levels, from being quite high!

I didn't know I had food noise until it was gone! I never realized how much I thought about what to eat next. And I also ate really fast. (I don't drink alcohol anyways so I have no experience with that noise). I'm only on 1mg dose and will not be going up-I've had success right from the beginning dose of .25mg. I plan to scale down the dose once I reach my goal, but I'm not planning to stop in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's incredibly strange that the plan for this doctor is that as soon as the numbers creep up again, they're going right back on ozempic. Why not make permanant lifestyle chnages to maintain the weightloss? Makes it sound like they have a serious eating disorder/mental health issues.

((Sigh)). Why do we have to keep telling you how Ozempic/Wegovy works? Despite what you believe, many of us do and have made lifestyle changes for years, only to see our efforts fail — either because our bodies need much fewer calories per day than the standard to lose weight, or because our bodies constantly tell us it is hungry despite eating all the right foods that should make us full. Do you constantly feel hungry? Before Wegovy, I counted calories — 1200/day per my doctor, and I know how many because I cook from scratch and weigh/measure my food and portions — yet it was not enough for me to lose weight. Anything less, I felt like I was starving. When I ate a bowl of oatmeal (for the fiber, to make me full) or protein (because it takes longer to digest), I remained hungry. I drank tons of water in the event my hunger cues were really thirsty cues, but it didn’t help. I ate a balanced diet, never drank juice or sugary drinks, and limited my alcohol to almost nothing (maybe 2 drinks/month). And I was ALWAYS HUNGRY. Now on Wegovy, I feel satiated when I eat a normal meal (I can eat that oatmeal and feel satisfied), although I probably do eat less than 1200 calories per day to sustain weight loss, but it’s slow (about 5 lbs/month).

Honestly this sounds scary. What if you’re not getting enough calories now that you are on Ozempic? Maybe your body is starving, but because you’re on a chemical that shuts the starving sign off, you aren’t getting what you really need?

It is a tough one. I mean, hunger signals are an important part of survival--a feature, not a bug. All these social feeds focusing on "food noise" and "alcohol noise," are pretty disturbing. And it seems to me that these drugs are just playing into that. Knowing the difference between hunger and cravings, I guess, is the key. And it seems that some nervous systems must get their wires crossed. I know that personally, I rarely feel satiated. Like I could eat all day. But I do know when feeling like I want to eat is real hunger and necessity, versus a craving, versus boredom, versus anxiety.

Well stated. But of course nobody here is simply unable to distinguish between true hunger and boredom cravings. They all have a biologically uncontrollable true hunger signals so drugs are the solution.