I am thinking about starting a GLP-1 weight loss injection. I am mid 40’s, peri-menopausal and about 18 stone and have been for about 8 years now. Last year I joined the Gym and go 4 days a week, I am much fitter than I was and to be honest my actual meals are not awful I am vegetarian; I cook everything from scratch and my diet has a wide variety of fresh veg and some fruit daily. My issue is that I am pretty much addicted to Cola (the full sugar version) and drink at least 2 cans a day I also snack on a lot of chocolate bars and crisps. Working it out I easily spend about £25 - £30 a week on cola, chocolate and other snack foods.
All I want to be able to do is to cut out the junk food, the snacking and just stick to my fairly healthy meals without constantly craving cola, sweets, cake and crisps. I’d like to still be able to enjoy my meals and make a switch to healthier snacks like more fruit or oat cakes and switch cola for water. I’d also probably still count calories.
I am wary though as I have read so many bad things about these medications and how awful people feel on them. I don’t want to feel nauseous or crappy all the time. I also suffer from frequent migraines and have since my teens (well before my weight gain) it is bad enough without a medication making it worse. I have other things I need to be doing so I really don’t want to be feeling ill on a medication. Minor transient side effects I can put up with, my father and younger sister are already type 2 diabetic due to a similar issue with overeating sweet foods, I am not but I am sure it will come if I don’t stop and lose some weight.
I am not looking to lose weight superfast or to severely cut calories from healthy food as I still want to make sure I am getting at least 1800 – 2000 calories a day from food and to ensure I am getting enough protein, healthy fats and nutrition but I want to be able to cut out the extra stuff for example today I have consumed around 1200 extra calories in the form of cola drinks and chocolate alone, it’s that I want to stop.
Ideally, I just want to be able to take the injection and stop craving all this extra sugar and fat and just stick to my healthy meals and I would keep working out as I already am and perhaps a bit more. I think if I did this, I could lose weight at about 1 – 2 lbs a week.
Is this realistic? Would I be able to stop the medications after a few months once I had broken the cycle of my overeating? I am not really hungry as such for these foods but I do crave them to the point of distraction and I feel very annoyed at the money I waste on them as well as the time I spend walking to the shops to buy them.
Do you think that the GLP-1 weight loss injections would work for me and meet my hopes?
Any tips and advice on using them to cut down on junk food snacks but still being able to eat healthily?
Also who is a good provider? If they worked then I could hopefully see them as being the cost - the £100 + I currently spend a month on junk food!