Wegovy and emotional/binge eating

[trakehner]

I've been on Wegovy for 5 weeks now and just wanted to share my general musings and wonder if anyone else taking it is coming from a similar place and is having a similar experience with regards emotional eating rather than over-eating.

I have never been a "big meals" person so overeating portion-size wise has not been my issue. I am an emotional eater, I pick and graze all day long, hunger doesn't really come in to it. I'm often not hungry at official meal times because I've basically been snacking the whole time. I snack when bored, stressed, sad, happy etc etc. I'm also a dreadful nailbiter and have been all my life. It's a compulsion I think and the chewing/mouthing (no pen is safe!) is part of a self-soothing/comfort thing and the constant grazing is part of that also.

I'm about 3 stone overweight but my diet had become so awful - just full of crisps and sweets, constant nibbles and now in perimenopause body shape starting to change with more flab around tummy (I always had quite a small waist despite being overweight), tops of arms, neck flab.

Anyway, I'm finding Wegovy absolutely miraculous for breaking my comfort eating habit/compulsion. Despite only being on the 0.25 dose, the "need" to have something in my mouth has almost totally disappeared. For the first time in as many years as i can remember I am not thinking about snacks. I am able to eat one biscuit and feel satisfied, not keep mindlessly nibbling away until the whole packet gone! I am eating proper meals! Healthy breakfast and then don't even think about snacks (just don't fancy anything or hear it calling to me from the kitchen anymore!). Don't feel particularly hungry again until mid-afternoon.

It's been an absolute revelation to me. This must be how normal people with a healthy relationship to food feel!!! Having lived with disordered eating my whole life (and genuinely thought I was a hopeless case - talking therapy and hypnotherapy having not worked for me) I'm almost still in disbelief that its possible for me to feel so free of compulsion!

That sounds really good, glad to hear it's working so well for you. I would love to try it but it's just mind bogglingly expensive. I wonder whether the price will ever come down and make it more attainable generally

Thanks @Lanawashington. I agree it is so expensive but I try and justify it by thinking about all the money I'm saving not buying snacks (and of course the weight loss and health benefits associated with that and making better food choices). I'm also hoping that it may be possible to stay on a low dose long term since I don't have issues with "hunger" as such, just the need to be constantly grazing, with the occasional full on binge when my emotions get totally out of control. This would mean I could buy a higher dose pen and count the clicks to make it last twice as long at half the cost, but I know only time will tell if the low dose will continue to be successful in the longer term

I do hope that eventually it will become more accessible and perhaps prescribed on NHS for binge eating/emotional eating disorders if research goes on to show it is helpful for this.

I don't think it's too bad. My last pen was £148 and will last 8 weeks as I'm using a half dose.

I'm saving lots on snacks

@witte where have you managed to find it for that price? The only ones I've seen are around £200 and then go up to £250 ish which I definitely couldn't justify. £148 sounds more manageable as like you say the saving on food spending would probably balance it out

That's been my experience with Wegovy too OP.

This must be how normal people with a healthy relationship to food feel!!!

I said these exact words to my mum when I first started taking it. It's miraculous ✨

Good luck with your weight loss journey.

Try Med express, Bolt or Asda, they have discount codes. £200 was a bit too much for me so I had to shop around a bit.

Good luck if you try it, I'm so happy with it so far.

I felt this way, I felt like my slim friend who isn't overly fussed with food.

I order from ASDA online and it's currently £171.49 including next day delivery. Next month I will be approved to move up to a 1mg pen but plan to stick to taking 0.5, making each pen last 8 weeks instead of 4. This will make it so much more affordable if it works!

As an addicted emotional eater myself, your progress sounds amazing! My fear is all these drugs are a sticking plaster - albeit a brilliant one - for the underlying issues. I’d love to try them but I am terrified of then having to stop and all the cravings, bad habits and bingeing will come flooding back with a vengeance. Are you doing any kind of counselling alongside to get to bottom of why you emotionally ate in the first place? I’ve been wondering if doing that in tandem could help. But would be v. costly!

Same.

I’m just not bothered.

It made me pretty angry to start with. Fat people are so judged, but we don’t all start on an even playing field.

If I felt like this all the time, naturally, I wouldn’t be fat! Some people do feel like this all the time. They are not fat.

Fat is always presented as a moral failing, but it’s not. It’s an external manifestation of a hormonal situation inside the body.

Wegovy has put me in the same playing field as those who naturally have higher levels of semiglutide. So I don’t eat as much. And the weight is dropping off me. I’m no more worthy now than when my hormone levels were different, but society deems me more worthy thin than fat. It’s crap.

But I am doing it for health, not approval 😉

Congrats by the way!

That sounds good but what are you going to do when you stop taking it? You need to address the underlying causes of your emotional eating rather than just covering up the problem.

For those asking about addressing the underlying causes and what will happen when I stop taking it, I think that's one of the points I was trying to make. That this drug has had an effect on me and my compulsive eating patterns that nothing else I have ever tried has. Unfortunately I DO know why I am like I am and I DO know and understand why I have developed emotional and compulsive eating disorders as a coping/self-soothing mechanism. In my case there is no secret cause that needs exploring and I am sure that there are many, many other people out there in a similar situation.

Over the years I have had extensive talking therapy, hypnotherapy, EMDR and CBT but whilst wonderful for helping me understand myself as well as I do, they have all been useless at actually "fixing" me or changing my behaviours long term. It remains to be seen whether Wegovy will work long term too of course, but I am just fascinated by what it has achieved for me so far. I really hope there are some studies going on which will shed light on its long term use for disordered eating and binge eating.

I think it may be something that a someone like me would need to stay on for the rest of my life, on a low dose - not for ever-continuing weight loss but to allow me to eat like a "normal" person. No different to other health conditions that may require lifelong control with medication, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or depression.

Can I ask do you have any bad side effects on it? I'm tempted to try but I'm worried about the side effects.

@cloudchaos I haven't had any real side effects thankfully but I am still on a low-ish dose, having only just moved up from 0.25 to 0.5 yesterday. I am making a conscious effort to drink plenty of water which I think may help.

It was a revelation to me too and I had the same background

I now believe that I used 'emotional eating' as a phrase which sounded viable and as a good reason but wasnt really the issue. Its convenient and gives over eating a veil of validity but it was literally just over eating due to cravings which the medication helped

Once the cravings went, so did my over eating. Im not convinced that the numbers of people who say they have emotional eating realy do have emotional eating or that there are underlying causes. I think we look for them to say that and justify it. I also had lots of therapeutic input which didnt make any difference

For me it was purely mechanics, stop the cravings, prevention of eating too much, I stopped eating too much.

Agree OP! The food noise is gone. Has been transformative for me.

On a completely different subject (and apologies for the derail) but do you have a Trakehner?

I agree with what you have said here.
I've had years of therapy, and even therapy for binge eating disorder- which has been the closest to helpful, however took me over 10 years to access.

When stopping, it does feel a bit like being a hungry bear within a few days, however the amount of food you can consume is greatly reduced and the physical symptoms of eating poorly seem to be fairly severe. Like feeling sluggish!
Sure over time the affects will diminish, but you have given yourself time to work on your relationship with food, and usually, gotten yourself further from the danger zone of diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.

It's much easier to make better food decisions when the amusement lights aren't lighting up in your brain whenever you eat something.

I think it's an amazing drug, and there are numerous studies being completed about addictive behaviours ceasing whilst people take Ozempic.

I love it, it's liquid willpower.
I've been on it since November and have lost over 2 stone, I have no desire to snack at all and only ever think about food when I know I need to plan a meal, eating is now just a part of my routine like getting dressed and is no longer consuming my thoughts.

I do worry a bit about what will happen when I stop, it'll take me 7 or 8 months to get to goal and I'm hoping that I'll have broken the habit of snacking, like when a smoker quits their 20 a day habit.

I'm really hopeful that it will come down in price. That there will be better supply. That it will be more widely available on the NHS.

There are likely to be more drugs of a similar type. I think the drugs will get smarter as well. I think people will take them preventatively eventually. And people will take them like blood pressure meds, statins etc.

I'm in the overweight category and have high blood pressure, under active thyroid and at risk of diabetes from genetic factors and gestational diabetes.

The sort of savings that healthcare can make by preventing disease associated with being overweight is a no brainer for these drugs imo.

I’m not currently on wegovy or similar btw.

@trakehner You are me!

The reason why I started on these drugs because of my increasing inability to control my emotional eating. It's all stress related with me. I asked on this forum if Wegovy would help, people suggested it would - and they were right.

I also have three stone to lose. I am also on week 5. I have lost half a stone so far, but have decided to stay on the 0.25 dose for now, as I seem to have control. No snacking, healthy low-carb meals and doing some light exercise. Yes, I've had a few mild side effects, but a lot of them are indistinguishable from stress side effects.

Like people have said elsewhere, I am using this to help my transition into healthy eating. It's working so far. I'm hoping not to go up to the highest doses so coming off won't be too much of a shock. It's easy to say I'm determined to keep the weight off afterwards, and stress can always trigger old behaviours, but I am menopausal and the health effects of my weight were beginning to worry me.

I worked out, if I lose an average of one pound a week, it'll take me ten months to reach goal. I'm losing more than that at the moment, but I'd rather aim for ten months and be pleased if I get there earlier, rather than five months at 2lb/month and not make it.

Wishing us both continued good fortune on the Wegovy Train.

@Striving4Better We are Wegovy twins 😂. I love your suggestion of thinking of it as a 10 month process and am definitely going to try and adopt that way of thinking. I lost a few pounds the first week but am now only losing a pound a week ish. I am the sort of person who easily gets obsessed with checking the scales several times a day and in the past have lost motivation when they don't appear to be going down fast enough. I need to remind myself how quickly the weeks whizz past and each of those little pounds will start to add up. In 10 months, by November, we could both be 40lbs down! Best of luck to you too - we can do it!!!

@Fannyfiggs sadly not . All mine are fluffy natives and quite the opposite of the graceful Trakehner as am I. I think I actually chose the name after the type of XC jump that used to give me sleepless nights 😂

😂😂 Awww fluffy natives are better. I've wanted a Trakehner since I realised that the horse in the Lloyds advert is a Trakehner and not a Friesian.

I'm not familiar with the Trakehner XC jump. That's one for Google ☺️

Hey! Just wondering how it works to half dose? I want to do this but am unsure how!