I tried Ozempic, but overall didn't like it ...

[triedozempic]

A thread about Ozempic that isn't just more PR for it. NC-ed for this.

I started Ozempic just before Xmas and took it for 3 months, until just recently, before stopping.

I first read about it in the media and then here on MN, including the "I started Ozempic last night" threads, and decided to try it.

I'm in the 'overweight' rather than obese category and could do with losing 2-3 stone. I'm in my 50s, just post-meno. I'm not diabetic.

I signed up with a private provider such as the ones mentioned on the other Ozempic threads, starting on 0.25.

Results initially good - quickly experienced the "feel full after meals for the first time in ages"-type helpful feelings and lost about 10lb in the first month. The gastro side effects were there - mostly acid stomach, the sulphurous burps etc - but quite manageable. However I noticed I felt really tired/fatigued.

I stayed on 0.25 for a second month and then moved up to 0.5. What I noticed after the first month (I guess when the medicine started to build up a bit in my system) is that my mood started to drop and I began feeling quite down. This was noticeable to me as I usually feel quite lively and positive. I didn't like this seeming side effect at all but decided to keep going for a bit longer as perhaps it would decrease.

However, I continued to feel fatigued plus low mood and couldn't bring myself to go and do exercise eg jogging in the park (which seemed to defeat the object of the weight loss).
I went up to 0.5 - at which point the unwanted low mood side effects further increased - and therefore I decided to stop taking the medicine.
My weight didn't decrease after the first 10lb.

I'm now about 3 weeks after taking my last dose ie I've stopped it and I guess it is slowly coming out of my body. The gastro side effects are still there but diminishing. The low mood and fatigue has improved. And I have managed to get out and do some exercise this week, for the first time since I started taking it.

To sum up ...
*Over 3 months I lost some weight. Total costs were about £600 for 3 months supply - which works out at £60/lb. Cheaper than a health farm. More expensive than a slimming app. Etc. You do the maths.
*The gastro side effects were mildly unpleasant but manageable
*Much more affecting for me - but I haven't really seen this mentioned anywhere on here or Reddit etc - were the low mood and fatigue. I speculate that this must somehow be linked to sugar or hormones or both. It was this that made me stop.

Many people seem to be finding Ozempic useful. But overall, I didn't.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced the low mood on any of the semaglutides like Ozempic.

Hope this is a helpful story!

Thank you for sharing your experience, it's very interesting and refreshing to read something that doesn't hail ozempic as the god of weight loss.
They do ask about anxiety and depression in the assessment process so there must be a link. I'm glad you are feeling better now you are off the drug and wish you well.

Fatigue is often listed as a potential side effect from Ozempic, and I did experience it, along with nausea & vomiting.
I didn’t experience any changes to my mood however, and haven’t heard many people complaining about it making them feel low on the threads. However, everyone’s different. Sorry it didn’t work out for you.

I'm 6 weeks in and touch wood, I haven't suffered any gastric side-effects at all. I do take Psyllium husk daily and have for a long time.

My mood had been good and happily haven't suffered fatigue, I've possibly been more active rather than less. I do however seem to come to a grinding halt around 10 each evening, I don't think I've been up past that time more than 5 times since I started Ozempic. When I do go to bed my sleep is much improved over pre-ozempic days. I sleep well and wake refreshed.

I don't seem to be losing quickly but that's fine. It tends to be between 0.5 and 0.7 kg/week but I am losing reliably and even if I don't lose anything one week, I tend to lose cms so all is good.
Ozempic is just quietly letting me get in with my life while slowly losing the 20kg I put on after an accident left me even struggling to walk for a year and do much other than more around the house for another year. I'm really grateful for it.

Me: I suffered low mood that worsened as dosage increased - and had to give up after 3 months as I found myself feeling oddly unhappy with my life in general. I do have some stressors, but manage well normally. Like you, I’m a positive, upbeat sort. I lost about 5 kg overall which was pretty good, but not amazing. It petered out for me. I had mild to moderate nausea, acidity and at times, chronic fatigue. I was so hopeful that it would help me drop the 20 kgs I need to lose but in the end found it not worth the low mood. Funny, as semaglutide is now being hailed as a possible treatment for anxiety/ depression but it definitely, absolutely caused these feelings in me. I had friends who said the same although not all blamed the treatment (though it seemed obvious to me) Worrying.

@Mugglybuggly Very interesting to hear this. Yes, sounds very much the same as me. I too read the media stories about it being used to help depression - seems strange!! I wonder what it is that causes the low mood - some sort of altered body chemistry presumably. Thanks very much for sharing

@triedozempic Hi, did you put the weight back on after coming off it?

Thanks

I also tried and didn’t rate it at all. I’m also now two stone heavier than my start weight 🤦‍♀️

I really wish I hadn’t of bothered trying it

I tried it awhile ago. Same issues as OP. Total fatigue & desperately low mood. I had to stop - v concerned for my mental health!
Not everyone has these issues, so for some, this is not a problem. The real concern is that once you stop, the weight returns.
I am ack to calorie counting & excercise 😀

I took it for a while too and lost weight but I got fed up of all the side effects and terrible sleep was one of them. I am happier now I am not taking it and am not tempted to go back to it even though my WL has ground to a halt

Oh yikes. Is that because your appetite came back with a vengeance? This is my worry about trying it, that I'll end up in a worse place.

I thought I'd re-up this thread six months later as a sort of balancer to the "I'm starting Ozempic/Wegovy/semaglutide today" discussions.

PPs - yes, I did put the weight back on sadly. More or less straight away. Argh. I'm now trying to lose it again.

A new development. A few months after I wrote my OP I (stupidly) tried Ozempic again (which by this time had become Wegovy). Why on earth did I do this? I ask myself the same question! Perhaps over time I forgot the horribleness of the first time. I thought that maybe I had just been a complete wuss and did not stick with the Ozempic long enough. So, in a moment of madness I signed up again with the same health provider as before, paid them £200 and the medicine duly arrived. This time it took only 2 weeks to start feeling absolutely terrible - so I didn't take the third shot. At the back of my fridge sits a Wegovy pen with £100-worth of medicine still in it. It took about a week to start feeling more normal again. What do I take from this sad tale? Well, what we all already know - that when you are desperate to lose some weight it is very tempting to try anything. And ... that is £800 on this medicine in 2023 that I could have spent on something else.

I still want to lose weight however - and seem to need a helping hand in addition to all the usual efforts like intermittent fasting, exercise and so on. So at the moment I am very cautiously trying the half-dose orlistat (Alli) that you can buy over the counter. Not 3 tablets per day. Either 1 or 2. So far I am feeling fine with this, side effects have been minimal and I've lost a couple of pounds. It seems to be helping a bit. What do I take from this? Well, orlistat seems to have terrible PR when you Google it - mostly people discussing their oily orange poops. Even the pharmacist in Boots Chemist warned me when I went in to buy it. And Ozempic's PR seems to be much better at the moment - sort of infused with the hopes of all the people trying it for the first time. However, orlistat is older - maybe about 15 years? I will be interested to see what semaglutide's PR looks like in 15 years time. The less grand conclusion is - what suits one person might not suit another.

However, I will see what a few more weeks of Alli brings. For my next post I hope I won't be in hospital with pancreatitis!

Thank you for sharing. I have been on Ozempic and then Wegovy for nearly 18 months. I have lost weight slowly - nothing as spectacular as you see on here often. I am taking a break to see if I can feel more motivated, less tired and generally happier. If it doesn’t make a difference I will try again but I am a bit suspicious. I am worried I will gain lots of weight and then will have to weigh up pros and cons but actually mental health should he prioritised.

Hopefully anyone can help here I wanted to try semaglutide u got hold of some started on 0.1g did it Saturday night, it's now Monday and I've had nausea, heartburn and sulphate burps, tired and just had diahorrea, I won't be doing another injection at the weekend, I feel so stupid for even trying it, I'm embarrassed, can anyone help when will the side effects stop, and how long will it take to get out my system, I've got to say I feel a lot better now the diahorrea has come

Please help anyone !

About a week to come out of your system, with the gastro effects gradually fading ... Don't worry you will feel better very soon

Thankyou for your reply I feel horrendous I'm never touching it again I'm annoyed with my self for doing it

Thankyou again

I only know one person who has taken Ozempic and like the OP, she stopped because of fatigue and low mood after 6 months. She lost 2.5 stone in that time, but has put 2 stone back on in 5 months. She said she has only just started to feel like her energy has come back.

It obviously doesn’t agree with some people.

I tried saxenda a couple of years ago. OH MY GOD I felt utterly horrendous. Diarrhoea, horrible stinky burps, awful headaches, couldn't sleep, completely drained.

I persevered for a couple of weeks and it did improve but I just thought what am I doing. There is no way that can be good for me if I felt that bad.

I stopped and thankfully felt better quickly. When I was on it, it did kill my appetite but as soon as I stopped appetite back to normal so no wonder people put back on the weight. I lost about 5-6 lbs on it and it was all straight back on within a few days.

It's ridiculously hard to lose weight the normal way but I am now having success with logging everything i eat in nutracheck. I'm trying to properly change habits instead of a quick fix as I can't beat the losing/gaining cycle anymore.

I've only done one injection, I won't be doing it again that's for sure, I'm really angry with my self, my younger self would of powered through it, but I just wanted to give it a try, absolutely not ever again, I once had phentamine from a private slimming clinic, and even the side effects to that were not as bad as this, and that was a stimulant

I'm so glad to hear from someone with the same experiences I hate it, please tell me they ease quickly never ever gain I keep thinking what have I done 🥲 but never mind it's done now and won't be doing the 2nd injection that's for sure, waste of money but I can't feel like this any longer ! Any tips for relieving symptoms xx

I took Saxenda for about 7 weeks and wanted to die. Whilst, it didn't make me actively plan suicide, it very strongly made me lose any sense of life being worth the hassle and I just wished for death.

Within 2 weeks of stopping the daily injections, I was back to normal.

Scary.

This was my experience as well. Felt so down in the dumps. Calorie counting now as need to lose around 3 stone. I'm in it for the long haul.

Interesting thread but have to post in response to the “PR” line in your first post, OP.

Like any medication, it’ll work for some people and not for others. Just because some people post positively about Ozempic doesn’t mean it’s a PR exercise.

I’ve had excellent results with it and zero side effects. I’ve recommended it to people based on my experience- some have had a good outcome, others have not. Your post seems to suggest that anyone posting positively about it has an ulterior motive?

It eased very quickly in my case @Loudloopy within a couple of days of stopping taking it so don’t worry. It doesn’t sound like you had much in your system. Neither did I but still enough to make me ill so like you, I stopped taking it.

You make me feel better I've just had to stop my self from panicking, I've had diahorrea all day , but to be honest I feel a bit relieved every time I go to the toilet sorry for TMI but I husband doesn't know and he will kill me if he finds out I've taken a slimming injection, trying to ride it out hopefully turn a corner tomorrow, so angry with my self

It’s ok I felt a bit the same. Well not so much angry at myself but more I felt foolish - like why did I waste so much money just to make myself really sick??

But a lot of people don’t get bad side effects at all so I think we were just unlucky. I’m sure you will feel back to normal soon.