Ozempic getting popular?

I’ve been on it for 18 months and I’ve lost 3 stone. I get Wegovy from Juniper for £200 per month. My BMI was 30 when I started. Post menopause, I’d gone from a size 12 to an 18, mostly because of ravenous hunger. I’ve never admitted to a living soul that I’m on it. I do have a bit of “Ozempic face”. I’ve lost volume and I have to put concealer under my eyes because I have acquired dark circles. It’s not an easy option by any means. For the first 8 weeks, my side effects were outrageous. I’m very worried about coming off it and regaining the weight.

@Snowpaw and weight loss? I'm hypothyroid and have been for 25 years. Exercise has never made much of a difference to my weight.

I think the killer side effect is that if you stop taking it, you put the weight back on plus more.

The Zoe podcast last year interviewed Dr Robert Kushner who has done research trials on semaglutide (ozempic etc). He believes you have to take the injections for life as his studies show people regain the weight loss over 1-5 years when they stop taking the injection. He is not against this but does warn it’s a lifelong medication as obesity is a chronic disease and if you stop taking the medication, there's a high likelihood the obesity will come back. Hypertension, asthma, or diabetes are chronic medical problems that you take medication for long term, obesity he views in the same category.

You regain the weight because when you come off the injection your body will be fighting to get back to its set point at a higher weight through increasing hunger hormones and suppressing satiating hormones. So if you have to remain on it for life if you don’t want to re gain the weight, it’s a considerable financial commitment if a person has to fund privately for life.

From the podcast transcript:

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz: “With regards to what you were just talking about, you just published a paper on this specific topic, which is weight regain after discontinuing the drug.

You published it in October of 2022, and I found it to be very interesting. There was one particular graph in the paper where you could see the weight coming back, and it appears to me that eventually, everyone gets back to almost the same baseline. So it's almost like the baseline that was established before you started the drug is where your body thinks you're supposed to be. Do you have any thoughts on that?

[00:39:23] Dr. Robert Kushner: Yeah, what you're referring to is the step one extension trial. And, just to bring all listeners up to, speed, we took about 300 individuals who were in that step trial that we described before the 68-week trial and follow them for a year, with no intervention.

Just follow them as if they stop taking it. And what we found will at the end of one year, is that individuals on average regained two-thirds of the weight that they lost over that first year. And if we follow them long enough, they would probably get back to baseline, which is what you're saying. So that speaks to this whole idea that there's a biological set point.

That's a new term we're introducing today in the podcast. A set point that the brain has of where you ought to be. That gets back to that whole famine and starvation concept I talked about before. So the body doesn't forget. It's under the category of unfair. But the body, the brain doesn't quite forget where you started, and it works its way very slowly over one to probably five years to get you back to where you were. Now you can introduce change in your, diet. Again, reduce calories, and increase physical activity. Drive the body weight down again. But again, over time it's likely to go up. Will, we see this in animal studies all the time. We change the rat chow. We change how many times, they're on the treadmill and the rats go back to the weight that they started at.

And we are biological beings, and our bodies behave in very similar ways. There are only two interventions that I am aware of. That changed this set point of where the brain thinks you ought to be. One is medications. We're talking about that today. The other is bariatric surgery.

It’s worth reading the transcript for full details. https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-can-ozempic-semaglutide-solve-weight-loss

@EmeraldRoulette

It's definitely doable. My only advice is to keep doing it every day. Sounds simple but saying no to yourself every day is hard. It's gets easier though.

@Franticbutterfly Hey, that's great, I'm impressed!

I was feeling quite ranty today listening to stuff about people being bound to fail, so thank you for sharing.

I'm sorry people are suspicious, I should gird myself for that i guess, if I lose as much as I'd like.

@EmeraldRoulette

Yes. I lost 70lbs last year. When people ask me how, I feel like I disappoint them when I say that I did it by fasting/generally not eating very much and eating low carb. Then they look suspicious. Especially since they know I used to be diabetic (which was what it was all about anyway).

So you have a happy story of regular weight loss? I like to hear those!

I do, I have PCOS and I've improved my symptoms substantially through regular strength training. I've reversed my insulin resistance through increasing muscle mass.

It is getting popular. I hear of more people taking it all the time.

I'm also pretty sure people think I'm on it. I'm not.

🙄

If you have metabolic difficulties with losing weight a personal trainer won't help.

I’m worried about the checks of suitability for this and the danger of it causing EDs. A starved brain can become entrenched very quickly. I already know of a young ND young person with body dysmorphia who has managed to get hold of it- literally the worst type of patient to prescribe it to. How was this deemed ok?

The fact it costs nearly £200 per month...I just think, if you have that money to throw at your weight loss attempts why not pay a personal trainer? Improve your health / longevity / weight / mood etc with no adverse side effects.

I take it periodically, I am usually a size 6 but take it when I get to a size 8 to come back down.

I lost 3st through diet and exercise originally but it always creeps back on a bit. I could do it “The hard way” but why not do it this way, I can afford it and it takes all of the pain out of it. I lie to get it and use my old before pic if necessary to provide a photo.

I daresay people said pretty similar about penicillin when that came out.

There are a lot of people who are seemingly desperate for it to fail.

A work colleague of mine has been on it for a year. She was morbidly obese. Now is a size 14. So much happier and healthier.

She said for her, it turned off the food noise/chatter in her head. She's says she's at peace now. Hardly has any appetite and no interest in unhealthy food. Sounds glorious!

It’s fantastic. World like a charm. I’m losing weight and I’m glad that I no longer need to struggle.

I see this medication as revolutionary, just like antibiotics, antidepressants, etc.

And if anyone wants to try it, we’ll, here’s your link for 50% off 😁

https://joinvoy.com/r/U-r15edCFtsg

I've had pretty much no nausea.

I know two people on it, and its worked very well for them with minimal side effects. And good for them! People get very weird about anything they percieve as 'cheating' (cheating whom?) or an 'easy way out' when it comes to weight loss. Well, if it is an easier way out - good! If I have a problem and there's an easy way and a hard way to fix it, I know which I would choose. I'm underweight at the minute because I have ARFID and lose a lot of weight when I'm stressed, and my doctor prescribed something that is supposed to help my appetite so I guess I'm cheating too shrug.

It does seem very unfair that some people can buy it when they have less clinical need than those who can't get it prescribed, but isn't that the case for any drug?

Edit: well not any drug I guess, but a lot for sure.

The highest is £239 with Bolt Pharmacy.

Well. It does. Most people in the studies had a regain and it’s too soon to really have a lot of data to show how significant this is. There were pockets of people who did not regain all of it and some were able to maintain for a while but I haven’t seen data for a large group over a long period of time that indicates this isn’t one of the downsides

I don’t mind the threads as in they have the right to be there although they are overwhelming and it’s basically the main topic. I can see why it would be annoying and actually very influential, almost ALL posters who ask about other methods are told to consider WLD. Every thread. Even this one. I’ve used it but don’t now, my BMI was 38.

I also know people lying to get it as they are under BMI 30. I had a lot of side effects it was horrible tbh. I wouldn’t use it again but it did help me lose weight. I’ve lost more on my own it’s just taken longer

My main concern is lack of research before people take it and so much misinformation being peddled around. Then there are just thread after thread people asking why they haven’t lost very much, about the well known side effects and practically no one I’ve come across has also worked on any of the psychological reasons they were over eating. Yes yes. I know not everyone has psychological reasons for obesity before everyone comes at me with hormones and insulin resistance but it’s a HUGE overlooked factor and these drugs do not come with any support to address the underlying reasons for binge eating, stress eating, food addiction.

I got obese by eating too much, too many carbs, too much sugar and increasing my own oestrogen to insane levels, which made me physically unwell and ended up in my womb being removed. I did this to myself in part, I wasn’t originally like this. I was stressed and didn’t have a better coping mechanism. People should be getting therapy at the same time IMO

As a type 2 diabetic with high blood pressure I’m managing it through changes in diet and more exercise. Slow progress so far but post half a stone in the last month

I’m considering one of the weight loss drugs over a blood pressure or diabetes medication - the weight loss will
help with overall health rather than specific medication - been obese for years now but now as a menopausal woman it’s getting harder to lose anything

thansk for this thread!

Conclusions: One year after withdrawal of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg and lifestyle intervention, participants regained two-thirds of their prior weight loss, with similar changes in cardiometabolic variables. Findings confirm the chronicity of obesity and suggest ongoing treatment is required to maintain improvements in weight and health.

Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: The STEP 1 trial extension - PubMed (nih.gov)

I started losing weight without anything- lost 2 stones. I then started on Mounjaro- I have a lot to lose and it’s hard to diet for such long periods without help. I’ve lost another 2 stone with Mounjaro and am now no longer obese.