Ozempic - for those of us a few months in - Part 2

[Peridot1]

Just spotted the other thread had filled up so started I new one.

@AndSoFinally - thanks so much for sharing your experience. It’s really interesting. I have definitely plateaued recently. Even going up to 1.5 didn’t make much difference. I dropped back down to 1mg last week due to the shortage issue although I have enough for a couple of months. Was a bit worried this week and I was away and went out for pizza one night and managed to eat quite a lot of a whole pizza! Although hadn’t eaten much that day at all. Im due to take my next dose today and wondering if I should go back to 1.5. So hard to know what to do! I’ve been on Ozempic for over a year and the loss has been really really slow since December. Like about 7lbs in that time. I might have a look at that research you mentioned. Where did you find it?

@VanellopeVonSchweetz99 - that’s amazing. You are definitely a super responder!

@LovelaceBiggWither - oh no! That’s a shame. Better safe than sorry though. You definitely don’t want long term damage to your kidneys.

@themuminator - that is a shame but it definitely doesn’t agree with everyone. Or even work for everyone in the same way. I knew of someone in a FB group who had to stop taking it due to the exhaustion she experienced. Hope you feel better when it’s out of your system.

@Peridot1 it's this one:

www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00494-6/fulltext

I've screen shot the results table. The number of trials was small but you can see the weight loss is more than double, even using the 95% CI

I've been on a plateau for about 3 weeks now, 1lb on, 1lb off, repeat. I upped my water intake after reading this post the other day and bingo...4lbs off in 3 days. Thank you @Teddypops .

@nebulae it's one of the things I find really easy to forget. I'm a huge coffee addict, can easily drink 12 cups a day but have to actively think about and remind myself to drink water even though I know from experience that my weight loss will be better if I drink it. It's like a mental block.

Me too @FatAgainItsLettuceTime , though for me it's tea rather than coffee. I tend to do well with my water intake for a few days then it falls by the wayside. I'm going to really try to be consistent now though. Don't really understand why it helps with weight loss though. Is it because it keeps the digestion moving?

Few different reasons all of which make sense once you know them but still don't actually make it stick in my brain 😂

1 - keeps your bowels moving
2 - helps to heal muscles, so if you're doing more exercise and get sore muscles that's little tears which need hydration to heal, if you don't drink water your body retains water to do that
3 - the process of breaking down fat uses water (lipolysis) if you don't have enough then that process can't work
4 - general water retention, if you arent putting enough in, your body becomes reluctant to let it go and starts storing it up for later. If you are consistently and adequately hydrating it stops doing that.

Forgot to say, if you stick to the 2lts a day thing for a couple of weeks and have a big belly like me then you start to actually feel the difference in your belly fat, it goes kind of soft and marshmallowy and more jiggly, like it's deflated. It's really weird and kind of mesmerising to squidge. I remember during lockdown when I lost about 4 stone in 6 months, my DD lent her head on my belly and just sat there for about 5 mins going 'you're soooooo squishy', I decided to take it as a complement to try to save some level of self confidence 😜

Very interesting, thanks @FatAgainItsLettuceTime

OMG the price of Ozempic has shot up!!

I haven't followed this thread for a little while but coming to the end of my last pen in a couple of weeks and it looks like everywhere is charging almost £300!

Where are you all ordering from?

In order to eke out my 2 remaining pens and wean myself off I have dropped down to 0.5mg. I refuse to be held hostage to silly prices. I'm on such a low dose that I wonder how much is actually the Ozempic and how much is my new habits?

Anyway, I am 2.5lbs away from getting my BMI under 30 so still going in the right direction. I'm actually feeling fairly confident as I don't have that much to lose now in comparison to my start weight of 20st 2lbs. It helped me when I was honestly in despair and was so unfit and heavy I could hardly move.

Now I weight train 4 times a week, do yoga every day and am planning to start spin classes again soon. I am so much more metabolically healthy than I was. If the supply improves over the next few months then I will reconsider but how often do prices drop when companies find out that people will pay eye-watering sums of money?

Hope I can join. I am 3 weeks in and the relief of not being “hungry” all the time is immense. I do feel a bit sad at not having that craving and then delight at food but there is the reward. I have not been weighing because I am too scared to know what I started at but I assume I have lost some as I am on about one small meal a day and feel some change in my clothes already.
I know it’s only the beginning but am happy to be on it and will see how things go.
lucky to be overseas and although our pens are in short supply I have vials I can draw up and inject which means I feel less guilty but also gives me full control over dosing
I sometimes wonder if this is what skinny people feel like? That food is just meh and something one needs to take every so often rather than a massive pleasure in life and solution to all emotions!!

I thought the news today about Ozempic and suicide risk was interesting. I’ve been on Ozempic for 5 months now and have been feeling really down recently. Definitely not suicidal but just a bit melancholy.

Though also I’m ecstatic to have lost 2 stone in weight and keep looking at myself in the mirror so that outweighs the feeling a bit down!

Has anyone tried taking Ozempic every 10 days instead of every 7 days?

I want to eek out what I have left as everywhere seems to be out of stock. I should have gone up to 1mg 6 weeks ago but haven't been able to get it anywhere.

0.5mg is still working for me though- I've lost 1.5lbs a week on average. I'm on day 9 and still have reduced appetite at the moment but wondering if its not a good idea to do this. Thanks!

I'm 6 weeks in and am down from 14 stone 10 to 14 stone 2 which I'm happy with. I'm using it as a push to improve my diet generally. I've been reading ultra processed people and trying to cut as much ultra processed food out as possible.
I didn't start to put on weight until I was 40 which coincided with me eating much more ultra processed stuff, ready meals etc rather than cooking. I find it's a lot easier to eat a pile of sliced white toast than it is to eat lots of homemade bread toasted. I'm not buying cake or biscuits, if I want to eat them I have to make them which tends to delay the craving! Not having children at home helps with that too.
I don't seem to have had many side effects, a tiny bit of nausea and a dry mouth which has encouraged me to drink more water. Every cloud and all that,

@Movinghouseatlast My last 3 jabs I have done every 10 days, seems to be working fine for me, also sticking to 0.5 for now. I'm on week 12 & was losing 1lb every week, with no effort, the past 2 weeks I've been doing low carb, plus tracking calories & have lost 3lb both weeks.

I'm still happy on 0.5. Losing. Slowly but still losing. And it's not just the price that's making me want to stay on 0.5. I have no side effects apart from constipation. I neither want to make that worse or invite other side effects so that's the main thing keeping me on 0.5.

I am still tempted by one more pen (so another 2 months at 0.5) then to wean myself off it. I am worried about bouncing back up and wasting all the £ I've spent by piling it back on.

just had a new 1mg pen from juniper delivered this morning! V different packaging with a note saying they’re sourcing from abroad, but juniper seems legitimate enough I’m not concerned. £225 but hey ho, I think that’s as cheap as it comes at the moment.

I know it's been posted before that the 0.25mg pens have around 6 doses but can't remember if the same applies for the 0.5mg. I've done 4 doses of this 0.5mg pen and seem to have a bit (possibly 0.25mg) left. I can't find the post - would anyone know and mind sharing again?

The 0.25mg pens and 0.5mg pens apparently have the same amount in them.
So you won't get another 0.5 dose out of your pen though as you say, there may be a tiny amount left in it.

Thanks @Twiglets1

I am exhausted all the time and I don’t know if it is because it is the middle of winter or the medication itself or the fact that I have so little energy because I am eating almost nothing! I could do with a LITTLE bit of appetite back. Today I had a coffee and a slice of bed and it’s almost bed time and I am not hungry at all

@bobblyjob I am also exhausted on Ozempic. I have been on it for 5 months and still so tired.

bobblyjob, part of the issue will be your body is starving and so it's taking it's energy from somewhere else, i.e. your energy. Even if you have to force it, some protein or a small amount of fats will help. Slices of ham or cheese, etc. Your body still needs food to make fuel.

@Kfjsjdbd I find the reports of suicidal thoughts interesting too. Although I love how much weight I lost, at the first of using GLP-1 drugs( saxenda first then ozempic) I was definitely depressed znd extremly anxious. At the time I even considered quitting. Those side effects did pass after few months of use.

That sounds quite scary feeling depressed and anxious due to medication.

I can't remember if it was this group or the other but I find Mel on IG cgo (underscore) of (underscore) me really helpful

She's posted about how the tiredness is linked to lack of food. She also recommends eating 1800 calories to lose weight.