Keto diet killed my food noise after two weeks. And I felt great.

I was on for vanity-ish pounds (overweight but not obese) and lost, then regained. I think I am going back on. I am tired of being chubby.

OP. I went for my weigh in and second shot on Saturday. My weigh in showed me down 7 lbs. Seven pounds in seven days, holy crap! They wanted to move me up to the 5 dose (which I thought was weird, because online I'm reading that you stay on 2.5 for four weeks before moving up to 5) but I requested to stay at the 2.5. I'm going to eat more this week, because I don't want to lose seven pounds again. Just doesn't sound very healthy to drop weight that fast. Plus, I'm often feeling weak and light headed which I'm sure is because of my massive calorie deficit. I told them I had some mild nausea last week for about three days after the shot and as a result, they gave it to me in my arm instead of below my belly button, and that did seem to help. I only had a touch of nausea on Sunday morning but it quickly disappeared.

I may quit the salon after this first month because I've been watching youtube videos about microdosing GLP1s...several people have compelling stories about doing this. Microdosing means taking less than the normally prescribed amount of meds. I guess that's what I'm doing now, by staying on the 2.5 rather than moving up. One girl gets her meds through a site called joinfridays and I checked it out and will probably go that route. This woman said she spent 4 months at 2.5 and lost 30 lbs, and then went down to 1.25 to lose the last few pounds and wean off the med. So I'm thinking that's what I will do, but it won't take me 4 months to reach my goal weight, since I'm already nearly halfway there after one week! Anyway, the spa told me their pricing ($675/month) doesn't change if I opt to take lower doses, and this online pharmacy charges about half so might as well go with them.

Here were two of the more compelling videos I watched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOeoca3_yKo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf74gzkUNZ8&t=1095s

Funny, now that I've been reading more about GLP-1s online, and writing here, my social media is filled with ads for these drugs. Headlines like "Aren't obese but want to lose weight?" beckon me to click on various medspas promising me the drugs to lose as little as 10 lbs. So - clearly - using these drugs off label is a widespread thing.

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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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:OP you and I are on a parallel path here. I have a bit more to lose than you--probably a good 40lbs (50lbs if I want to get back to pre-pregnancy college days weight), but I just started Wegovy and am one week in. Perhaps I'm imagining things, but everything you describe here is what I'm experiencing too and just a few days in. To most people, I appear normal and not someone who overeats, but I have my triggers--if we order pizza as a family, I can't help but have 3-4 pieces at a time or a few weeks ago, my kids decorated cookies and I helped myself to the icing container as a little treat and could not stop thinking about icing for days after (even though I prevented myself from going out an buying any). Now that I'm on this medicine, I'm not thinking about snacking at all and I'm eating smaller portion sizes. And the movies--you described it perfectly! Usually I'd go with my kids and grab a glass of wine and help myself to a side of fries. We went last weekend--no interest in wine and I ate a sensible, high protein meal before we left. I too am ashamed I couldn't figure this out on my own and usually I could keep it under control, but would let it slide and the sliding has added way up over the years. Plus I do work out so I think I'm able to maintain my heavier weight without gaining even more by working out--but you'd never know by looking at me that I run or bike nearly every day and lift. Only my husband knows I'm on this too. I don't want to admit to anyone just yet but I plan to at some point once I know my longer term plan. I'm still a little concerned about side effects (had some mild nausea) and what titrating up will bring so I'm not out and about telling folks just yet.

OP. Thank you for sharing! I would love to hear updates about your experience. I still am in shock and awe about how this is working for me. It's day 6. I thought I felt it wearing off yesterday a bit because I grabbed a snack of Toasty peanut butter crackers, which is the first junky processed thing I've craved since starting the meds. I ate half the pack and enjoyed it, but threw the rest away. The rest of my day was healthy eating and I ate about 1200 calories with almost no hunger. This morning I'm having my oatmeal. Ordinarily I consider oatmeal a healthy, "good behavior" kind of breakfast. I put a teeny sprinkle of brown sugar in it and strawberries. Honestly, I can't finish it, and it tastes a little too sweet. I am excited to go back to the spa on Saturday and get weighed in. Usually weigh ins of any kind are traumatic for me, but this one will be amazing, I think. I am really hopeful that this can help me reset. Maybe being off sugar and my heavy diet of processed foods will make me crave it less even when I stop. Anyway, that's a ways off. I just feel such a sense of freedom and hope and happiness. I'm not always thinking, like I usually do, "Well this day is ruined, because I binged at 11 AM. Might as well keep binging." And just feeling gross and unhealthy. I feel like the meds can't possibly be worse for me than the way I was eating.

I listened to a podcast about tirzepatide and the speaker said it eliminates the suffering that comes with dieting. He said hunger is suffering and this med removes that from the equation. It's so true. I think I was so unsuccessful because I just regard hunger as completely intolerable. I didn't always. I was more disciplined in my 20s and 30s. But now, I've got three kids, a thriving career, a house, a million activities. Maybe I just didn't have any more energy to fight off the hunger anymore.

This is really helping me and I'm grateful for it.

OP you and I are on a parallel path here. I have a bit more to lose than you--probably a good 40lbs (50lbs if I want to get back to pre-pregnancy college days weight), but I just started Wegovy and am one week in. Perhaps I'm imagining things, but everything you describe here is what I'm experiencing too and just a few days in. To most people, I appear normal and not someone who overeats, but I have my triggers--if we order pizza as a family, I can't help but have 3-4 pieces at a time or a few weeks ago, my kids decorated cookies and I helped myself to the icing container as a little treat and could not stop thinking about icing for days after (even though I prevented myself from going out an buying any). Now that I'm on this medicine, I'm not thinking about snacking at all and I'm eating smaller portion sizes. And the movies--you described it perfectly! Usually I'd go with my kids and grab a glass of wine and help myself to a side of fries. We went last weekend--no interest in wine and I ate a sensible, high protein meal before we left. I too am ashamed I couldn't figure this out on my own and usually I could keep it under control, but would let it slide and the sliding has added way up over the years. Plus I do work out so I think I'm able to maintain my heavier weight without gaining even more by working out--but you'd never know by looking at me that I run or bike nearly every day and lift. Only my husband knows I'm on this too. I don't want to admit to anyone just yet but I plan to at some point once I know my longer term plan. I'm still a little concerned about side effects (had some mild nausea) and what titrating up will bring so I'm not out and about telling folks just yet.

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.

OP. I'm only five days in, but this was a near instant physical *and* mental change for me. I can feel it. I don't ever feel hungry. The most I feel is a little weak, which signals to me that I better eat something. I've eaten under 1,000 calories per day since starting this medication, with zero willpower or effort. This is a massive shift for me compared to the last few years. I abhor hunger. I can't tolerate it - it feels like torture to me, a scream that must be silenced. It hurts and it makes me feel sad.

Food has also been a form of mental torture for me - on my mind constantly, with unending self-judgement and berating. Little things - like going to a kid's birthday party - would cause me so much anxiety and dread and a sense of inevitable failure. There'll be pizza and cake, and I love both those things, and I can't just have a little, once I have a slice, I'll want two or three plus a slice or two of cake. I'll eat until my pants are tight and my stomach hurts. I'm taking my daughter to the movies tomorrow night. Normally this would be an event where I would either "be good" and not partake in any movie treats (slim chance) or just binge a bucket of butter soaked popcorn and a box of bunch-a-crunch.

All those feelings are gone now. I feel comfortable that I can go to the movies, and if my daughter wants popcorn, maybe I'll have a few bites, but I know I won't want to binge the bucket. When I've eaten this week, I haven't had emotions attached to the experience. More like - what should I eat to nourish my body, knowing that I don't want a lot of food because I'm not that hungry? I still enjoy food, but not passionately like I usually do.

I definitely feel a sense of shame that I couldn't do this by myself. I'm not telling anyone besides DH that I'm doing this, which is why I'm so compelled to come here and pour my guts out. I am really excited about this and have no one to talk with about it (besides DH, who is excited for me).

I feel so sure that this will work for me and I will lose the 15 pounds I want to drop. I am definitely scared about how I will maintain that when I stop the meds, which I expect to do in two months. The scale already reads down 5 lbs, which doesn't feel possible, but that's what it says. Crazy. I think maybe that's because I've always been someone who eats a relatively large amount of food and somehow has stayed a reasonable weight (though not as slim as I'd like, lately). So eating sub 1000 calories is a huge deficit for me - I think I was eating 3k/day before. It makes me optimistic that for many years, before Covid and my last pregnancy, I managed to stay pretty slim - between 128-132 lbs at 5'7. Then I just got into some terrible habits, and became kind of a slave to my cravings and binging tendencies. I have always read, like you said, that the more crap you eat the more you crave it. Like if you can, just, stay away from sugar for ten days you're on a path to breaking the addiction. The more you have of it, the more you crave it. So I am hoping that this period of eating almost exclusively nutritious food will, as you say, "reset" me. It's not like I need to reset for the first time in my life, either - more like, reset to the way I was before I gained all this weight five years ago. I'm also hoping that reaching my goal weight, fitting into my clothes and feeling good about myself will be motivation not to poison myself with more processed, sugary, fatty foods in huge quantities.

BUT. Hunger is so tough for me to deal with in a healthy way. I have read that when I stop the meds, the hunger comes roaring back. So, I don't know how I'll handle it and I'm thinking about things I can do to prepare for that. Thinking about visiting a dietician to talk about a plan for coming off the meds and how to maintain the weight I'm confident I'm going to lose.

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.

Thanks for sharing OP, sounds like you’re doing great! I’m exactly like you, never really been overweight, but a little too pudgy for my personal taste due to food noise and binging. I get Tirz through an online pharmacy and it helps tremendously. I’m back to my high school weight without any food obsessions. So freeing! And I never even went above 0.5.

Keep us updated!

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Anonymous wrote:I want to lose 10-15. Have been trying for years and can't do it. Can't resist sweets and binging. I just want to take the weight off quickly and stop the food noise. Can anyone share their experience with taking medication for weight loss when you don't have that much to lose? I'm currently 5'7 145 lbs. How would I even get medication? Online and fudge numbers?

Dear lord start working out and stop overeating. People
Like you give us a BAD name!!! I had to go on it bc my A1C was prediabetic and I was in obese range!! I only had to lose 30 lbs but my doctor ok’d it bc of obese BMI and the high A1C. I lost the 30 lbs and am at my best weight! I am tapering off the meds after 5 months. I work out like a beast and eat very healthy st a calorie deficit. You can do this without the medication!
Sounds like you are flabby and. Red to tone; your BMI is fine. Please stop the delegitimization of this lifesaving medication!!!

Okay…but you couldn’t do it without the prescription so why are you shaming the OP? Why didn’t YOU just workout harder and eat healthier do you could lose the 30 pounds? Or is it just okay for you but not others?

It’s not shaming. I have serious insulin resistance and spike in glucose levels so it was this or another medication!! I was working out for months before starting and eating a very radically restricted diet. The tirzepatide steadies your blood glucose so you don’t get spikes. My BMI was in the obese range and my A1C was pre diabetic and cholesterol high. I met all the criteria for the medication!!! OP does NOT. Plus this medication stopped me from becoming diabetic, a win win. You’re the one shaming. 30 lbs is no joke and obese BMI to healthy BMI is a big deal.

Not op but many women like me are short and 20 extra lbs means getting close to obese. So why wait until you are actually obese? I don’t get the gatekeeping at a specific bmi when peri weight gain on top of overweight likely means obese down the line.

It is an anti-obesity medication. I don't get how you don't understand that.

And it can be used off-label for weight loss in non-obese individuals

Yes if you like Russian roulette

Plenty of prescriptions are for off label uses. Once generic versions of Ozempic are approved, everyone will use that for weight loss instead of paying hundreds of dollars for name brand wegovy.

Having said that, I would not take compounded meds for 15 pounds. That’s too risky for me.

Very reasonable stance. Doctors should explain (and quantify) the risks and let you choose whether you want to take or not.

No, all doctors don't need to write prescriptions for off-label uses they don't support. In any event, it sounds like you will have trouble finding someone more flexible in her approach.

I meant “no” trouble.

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Anonymous wrote:I want to lose 10-15. Have been trying for years and can't do it. Can't resist sweets and binging. I just want to take the weight off quickly and stop the food noise. Can anyone share their experience with taking medication for weight loss when you don't have that much to lose? I'm currently 5'7 145 lbs. How would I even get medication? Online and fudge numbers?

Dear lord start working out and stop overeating. People
Like you give us a BAD name!!! I had to go on it bc my A1C was prediabetic and I was in obese range!! I only had to lose 30 lbs but my doctor ok’d it bc of obese BMI and the high A1C. I lost the 30 lbs and am at my best weight! I am tapering off the meds after 5 months. I work out like a beast and eat very healthy st a calorie deficit. You can do this without the medication!
Sounds like you are flabby and. Red to tone; your BMI is fine. Please stop the delegitimization of this lifesaving medication!!!

Okay…but you couldn’t do it without the prescription so why are you shaming the OP? Why didn’t YOU just workout harder and eat healthier do you could lose the 30 pounds? Or is it just okay for you but not others?

It’s not shaming. I have serious insulin resistance and spike in glucose levels so it was this or another medication!! I was working out for months before starting and eating a very radically restricted diet. The tirzepatide steadies your blood glucose so you don’t get spikes. My BMI was in the obese range and my A1C was pre diabetic and cholesterol high. I met all the criteria for the medication!!! OP does NOT. Plus this medication stopped me from becoming diabetic, a win win. You’re the one shaming. 30 lbs is no joke and obese BMI to healthy BMI is a big deal.

Not op but many women like me are short and 20 extra lbs means getting close to obese. So why wait until you are actually obese? I don’t get the gatekeeping at a specific bmi when peri weight gain on top of overweight likely means obese down the line.

It is an anti-obesity medication. I don't get how you don't understand that.

And it can be used off-label for weight loss in non-obese individuals

Yes if you like Russian roulette

Plenty of prescriptions are for off label uses. Once generic versions of Ozempic are approved, everyone will use that for weight loss instead of paying hundreds of dollars for name brand wegovy.

Having said that, I would not take compounded meds for 15 pounds. That’s too risky for me.

Very reasonable stance. Doctors should explain (and quantify) the risks and let you choose whether you want to take or not.

No, all doctors don't need to write prescriptions for off-label uses they don't support. In any event, it sounds like you will have trouble finding someone more flexible in her approach.

+1

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OP. Thanks for sharing. Are you still on the meds to maintain?

I just finished day 2 and am feeling elated and pretty certain this will work for me. Yesterday, I ate a normal dinner and I was intending to have something sweet later…sort of a last hurrah before starting my diet in earnest today. But I found myself, shockingly, not at all interested in binging (or even having a little bit of) junk food. I was also surprised that I was not at all hungry when I went to bed even though I ate dinner before 5 pm. This is huge for me.

I had some mild nausea this morning but it didn’t stop me from going to my spin class. I didn’t feel hungry at all. Forced myself to have eggs and grapefruit for lunch. Had an apple before dinner because the lady at the spa recommended it for fiber; said constipation is a common side effect. Went out to dinner and didn’t eat much - but felt satisfied. Probably ate 1,000 calories today. And not hungry. At all. The food noise is already gone.

I did feel a little weak and a dull headache today, and I’m thinking this is from not eating nearly as much as usual. But nothing I couldn’t easily tolerate.

They said they’ll up my dose next week (started with .25 I believe and they said next week will be .5) but if I continue to feel like I did today, I may ask them about keeping it the same.

So you posted two days ago that you had no idea how to get it or where to start and now barely two days later you say you're on day two? Is this a troll post?

Hi, it's not. I was in my office Friday morning feeling disgusted with myself for already not sticking to my New Year's resolution of eating better and losing weight, and I posted here, then got to googling the local medspa which has been heavily advertising semaglutides. Watched some of their compelling testimonial videos. Called them, they offered an appointment same-day, which I then changed to the next day. Had my consultation and had the shot before I left. Like I said, I was taken aback that there seemed to be no criteria I had to meet to qualify for the meds. I've entered my info into different virtual pharmacies online, Noom, etc. and it's always come back with "Sorry you don't qualify because your BMI is under xxx." Taken aback, but really, appreciative. I came there to get meds and they gave me meds, pretty much no questions asked (a few questions about allergies, if I exercise and explaining that exercise is important because you can lose muscle when you lose weight quickly, explaining the difference between the semaglutide and the tirzepatide, how much I wanted to lose, how dosing works).

Day 3 today. Woke up with the same very mild nausea that I've had since yesterday. I did feel like I needed to eat something, but not in the same way I normally do, where I debate with myself, how long can I wait before I eat, how little can I eat and still feel okay, should I just blow it today and get a sausage egg biscuit at McDonalds? That's my constant "food noise" that I'm always fighting (unsuccessfully). It's so miraculous feeling that I'm now just thinking, "What can I eat that will nourish me and hopefully take away the nausea?" I made myself a peanut butter banana smoothie and drank 3/4 of it. I enjoyed it, but not passionately like I usually love food.

I'm just very excited and happy right now. I have been thinking and reading about this for a year and kept thinking I don't want to resort to meds, I'm a smart, successful person I know I can do this on my own. I know what I have to do. I think my last straw was making a plan for what I was going to do on January 1 and failing miserably, giving in to cravings and my binge tendencies, and just deciding I want help. I am really glad I did it! Thanks to everyone who has chimed in with similar goals; I would love to keep hearing them, and I'll update here.

I really hope this can reset my mind and that I won't revert back to my horrible eating when I go off these meds. I weighed myself this morning and was 142...so I think I'll be at my goal weight in under 2 months if I keep feeling the way I feel now.

Virtually all of the research says you will -- and that you will regain the weight, and then some. You are playing with fire here. But that is what you get when you go to a spa for prescription medication.