I’m on the lowest dose and the only differences I feel are: I feel fuller a bit quicker so I eat smaller portions (but not much smaller) and I feel less interested in snacking. I still enjoy all the food I eat, and I eat the same things as before except I sometimes force myself to eat more protein-packed things to ensure I’m not losing too much muscle. I have no side effects, my digestive system feels the same and no burps or nausea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently passed 1 year since taking my last dose of a GLP-1 and after losing 52 lbs over about 15 months. I have regained about 15 lbs in that year.

Can you share how your body changed? Do you have loose skin and if so where? How has your face/neck changed? Are your energy levels better? Sleep? Cholesterol? Other health improvements? Muscle loss?

No muscle loss that I am aware of— it helped me kick start my exercise so I feel in much better shape than I was in before I started meds. And I’ve kept up that exercise since stopping.
No loose skin. Obviously my face is thinner, but I think it looks good on me. And it must to some degree because my sister is jealous— if I looked bad she would delight in pointing it out.
My energy is fine— good now. I did have a period of about 3 months when my energy was low after starting the meds. It resolved eventually and has never returned. My sleep in the meds was fine, but after stopping I started having hot flashes from menopause and had a lot of trouble sleeping. hRT helped.
My HbA1c went down on the meds, from 5.8 to 5.4 as of a year ago. I don’t know how it has changed since then (I go for bloodwork next week). My cholesterol went up while on the meds, though still within normal ranges. My cholesterol used to be pretty low and now it’s just ok. My triglycerides went down, though are still a bit high. They have always been high, back to my early 20s, even when I was addicted to exercise. It seems to run in my family.
All in all, taking the meds was a positive experience. I took them as part of a clinical trial. By the end I was ready to go off. I had chronic constipation while on them. It was always annoying, and sometimes really so. But after a year, I am considering going back on in hopes of restarting weight loss.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It moves the food through the digestive system slower.

It lowers obsessive thoughts about eating,

Part 2 sounds good. Part 1 is a dealbreaker for me. It's kind of gross to think about slow digestion. Can anyone comment on that part of it?

The fact that these medications induce gastroparesis is the major reason I would never consider taking them or only as a very last resort if I had diabetes or some other medical condition it could help. My DD had severe gastroparesis (likely from an autoimmune disease), throwing up sometimes 30 times a day, and it was a nightmare to deal with.

Thank you for answering this. I'm also wary of the gastroparesis. Can someone who is on the medication respond about how that feels? Everyone just talks about the food noise going away and the nausea but what does it feel like having your whole system slow down? Does everything just smell more? Is it uncomfortable?

I’m on Wegovy and once thing I notice is that I cannot stand the smell of trash or something that has gone bad in trash-I start to dry heave. I had this reaction during both my pregnancies and it’s weird that the GLP1 brought it back. I don’t have any nausea or other problems, but the trash thing is weird.

Anonymous wrote:Overwhelmingly, i works by reducing your appetite. It also made me uninterested in foods I ate before.

I have zero interest in eating Reece's peanut butter cups now. It's not that they taste like dirt, it's just I have no interest in eating them.

That’s so funny. I still like having a Reece’s here and there so it hasn’t taken away that but the one thing I don’t think about anymore is wine! Which I love about this.

The most important thing is to work with a real doctor and to only take the name brand and not generic. Listen to Mel Robbins podcast from April 17th with a weight loss expert who has been prescribing for 20 years. She goes thru the various meds, side effects, and how to use them appropriately.

Anonymous wrote:PP - can anyone answer my question about the overall plan for these meds and if this is for life?

What hope s when you stop taking?

It's a lifetime drug to treat a chronic condition, yes. People do scale back (more time between doses) and still maintain. People who go off it typically gain back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It moves the food through the digestive system slower.

It lowers obsessive thoughts about eating,

Part 2 sounds good. Part 1 is a dealbreaker for me. It's kind of gross to think about slow digestion. Can anyone comment on that part of it?

The fact that these medications induce gastroparesis is the major reason I would never consider taking them or only as a very last resort if I had diabetes or some other medical condition it could help. My DD had severe gastroparesis (likely from an autoimmune disease), throwing up sometimes 30 times a day, and it was a nightmare to deal with.

Happens