Day 1 on Saxenda

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I’m starting my Saxenda journey today! Anybody else on Saxenda with tips or success stories? I have about 10 stone to loose so a long way to go.

In bed all day today with nausea - day 10 & still on 0.6. Is this normal?

@stilldumdedumming I can assure you I've picked my name only because I'm drinking wayyy too much 😁Can confirm that Saxenda does not kill caffeine cravings.

@drinkallthecoffee (your user name comes before mine 😉) Be kind to yourself... it's hard to only eat 'healthy foods' when so much of our culture is based around eating/drinking and we are so used to eating comfort foods as a reward or for ease. You've done well to start again.

Had an off day today. I'm now on day 7 and don't think I'll be upping the dose just yet. Nausea, sweats and heartburn today for the first time and I was asleep all morning hoping to feel better when I woke up. I did but only slightly.

No cravings for anything just yet, no hunger pangs and no real appetite either. I've lost 1.5lb this week so not a huge loss but I don't mind. It's great to be losing rather than putting it on!

I am fine. The low mood has lifted now so hopefully it is a side effect that wears off with time and it won't be long til you feel better. I am only weighing every other week now but losing a little more than a pound a week. I am 15 pounds down as if 8 days ago. I have kept my weekend alcohol intake much the same so if I want it off more quickly I may have to sacrifice that too!!

Weighed today & 4kg off in 10 days. I’m still on 0.6 with no plans to up it yet.

No appetite but also constipated which isn’t nice. I’m also unwell with a fever and cough - yuck.

have also started anti hypertensive meds and am awaiting my tier3 weight loss referral. Docs have already said they won’t find the saxenda for me as I am nowhere near pre diabetic. Annoying but as I expected.

how is everyone else doing?

I'm waiting till my period is over before I weigh myself or I might have a little cry. My weight goes absolutely batshit around my period.

Friend's birthday on Monday so we had dinner out with lots of wine. I should know better as I felt bloody awful yesterday but got straight back on the wagon. I've been sticking at 1200 calories all other days.

I'm down half a stone in a month and I'm still on 0.6 as my appetite is still being suppressed enough at that that 1200 calories is manageable. I was hoping for more to be honest as I've got a lot to lose, but I'm trying not to be impatient as this is not a quick fix, but setting me up for a manageable way of eating going forward. Clothes are definitely fitting better, rings looser, my face looks leaner and my skin great due to all the water I've been drinking!

What I cannot seem to find a satisfactory answer to is why we are encouraged to up the dose periodically. My understanding of it is that because it slows your digestion and promotes a feeling of fullness, you eat less, hence weight loss when combined with low calorie/ mindful eating. It's not the drug itself making you lose weight.

I'm more than happy to be corrected on this, but extensive googling just brings up variations on "do what your health provider tells you to do" rather than any explanation as to what the increased doses do.

I wonder if upping the dose simply keeps up with the satiety - I have felt peckish this past 2 days which made me wonder about upping by a click or 2.

That’s my understanding, @AgathaMystery. I upped the dose from 0.6 to 1.2 when I felt myself getting hungrier faster.

Yes I think I've been lucky so far that 0.6 is still working for me and I will up it if the hunger starts to ramp up - I was just interested that a more 'whatever works for you' approach isn't the norm.
( I mean, obviously it's in the manufacturer's interests to get us to use as much of it as possible because £££)

Well yes. I know this drug has undergone rigorous clinical trials but I’m going to do some more digging on the dosage. 0.6 to 1.2 makes no sense to me. I’m not a pharmacist but I do work on clinical trials. Off to look….

Okay. NEJM has a good paper. Overall, after 56 weeks on 3mg dose, the mean weight loss on saxenda was 7.3kg Vs 6.5kg on placebo. This was alongside lifestyle interventions.

I don’t think this is very impressive. Or, it is impressive, because it shows how powerful placebo effects are. Either way, I need to lose another 30kg so 7.3kg over a year won’t cut it for me. I will need to be a statistical outlier, which I think is possible.

I also found a (small) systematic review which suggests that 3mg dose is the dose to achieve the 7.3kg weight loss where as over a year long period mean placebo loss was just 2.7kg.

I'm not able to find any information on why they settled on 3mg except I suspect it was the dose that most people tolerated best and you obviously have to titrate up to it.

Hi everyone hope I can join

I've just done the mini questionnaire thingy from Asda pharmacy, so hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow and I get given the green light

My weight is out of control, it's getting silly now. 19st on the dot, biggest I've ever been and I'm only 5ft2! Need to get this weight off pronto it's already affecting my joints and I have sleep apnea now

I tried Keto, which worked for a little while and I managed to lose 3 stone, then for some reason I stopped losing weight, got frustrated and gave up, then the weight piled on again 😡

I've already spoken to a dietician who is convinced it's hormonal and not what I eat, but I don't know, I'm not convinced. I must be overeating surely, can't blame it all on hormones!

So hopefully I can give this a shot. I'm going to start off with one pen as I can't afford the £230 or whatever it is for 5 atm, and if it doesn't work, at least I haven't wasted too much money. But I really, really hope it does!

That's interesting, thank you for looking up those studies. Weight loss of 7.3 kg seems really low -- especially alongside other lifestyle interventions. Assuming these are averages and some people gave up at some point (or even gained weight)?

I find the injections oddly motivating (so totally understand the placebo effect) but on day 4 my hunger is not exactly diminished -- I am perpetually hungry and therefore low on energy. I log what I eat on MFP, eat 'clean' foods only, and stick to 1400 kcal or less. But I'm still not craving unhealthy foods or alcohol, so that's something.

@bippityboppity87 Good luck! Agree with you that £230/month is not something I can easily afford, so hope to be on it for 6-12 weeks only to get to a healthy weight range and work from there. I 'only' have like 20 pounds to lose so hope that's not a stretch.

I too find the injections motivating. I also very very badly want to lower my BP.

@AgathaMystery Same. 😬

Thanks for that research @AgathaMystery - very interesting. For me I'm happy that it's keeping me in a calorie deficit without too much trouble but can see that the weight loss will be slower. I won't be able to afford £200 odd a month at top dose so happy to potter about in the foothills for a bit longer!

Thankfully my BP is spot on. Liver, kidneys, thyroid also fine. No high cholesterol or pre-diabetic (I get bloods taken every 3 months for a medication I'm on that checks these things) so I'm lucky so far in that sense. But obviously can't carry on the weight I am for too long. So would rather do something about it now before it got to that point

I'm only 35, so age is probably a factor and I am pretty active. Walk anywhere between 10k-19k steps a day (bar the weekends) The weight just bloody won't come off!

Weight is static today. Anyone else experienced that?

Yes ... after the initial weight loss I stalled, but I'm fine with that for now!

Tentatively weighed myself this morning prepared for the worst and I'm down 4lbs from a week ago so I'm happy with that.

@AgathaMystery 2nd week I lost a pound. Lost more in week 3 so it seems to vary. Just focus on the goal and keep going

@LadyOfTheCanyon well done!!

@KrankySchwester Thank you! I had wine and cake this week plus my period, so wasn't prepared for such a nice surprise!

I too have had cake! Interestingly last night I opened a chocolate mousse. I’d usually devour it. I took a mouthful and threw it in the bin. I couldn’t even bear the idea of it. So weird.