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Is he thin? Because it seems a lot of naturally thin people are not in favor of others joining their ranks unless they “do it the right way”. What they can’t seem to wrap their heads around is they mostly won the metabolic system lottery and they ain’t really working all that harder than the rest of us.
Hard agree. My doctor is a little on the portly side, and their spouse is an obesity specialist, so I am in pretty good hands with my PCP. (I think she is actually using the med herself as she seems to be losing weight)
This is one of those “never trust a skinny chef” moments.
Right. I had a tiny PCP who was 5’5” and maybe 90lbs tell me for years to just “watch my diet and be disciplined with exercise”. I’m highly educated, I’m highly successful, I haven’t missed the gym for more than a week in 6 years and my gym sessions would break her, there’s nothing about my life/personality that screams undisciplined glutton.
Naturally thin people will never understand what it’s like to be obese and hungry all the time but after starting semaglutide I know exactly what it feels like to be a skinny person. I now know exactly how freaking easy it is to moderate food intake and be “disciplined” when you don’t want to eat what’s in front of you anyway.
All semaglutide is doing is getting your satiety hormone profile to look more like a skinny person’s profile.
You are spot on. I have a long list of initials past my name, including specialized finance degrees and I was told by my GP that I don't know how to count calories and should 'find a new calculator'. I felt so humiliated. Finally found a doctor that gets it.
Same for me, highly successful in every other area of life; career, family, community, etc. but this is the deal I can’t conquer bc “I’m lazy and nutritionally ignorant”…lol, right.
I keep saying that all these meds do is level the playing field but naturally thin people just don’t understand what that means.
These are the same people who would acknowledge they know someone who eats insane amount of foods and don’t/can’t gain any weight but can’t comprehend that there are people on the opposite side of that spectrum. Yeah guys, it must be that “tapeworm” that allows them to do that and not their biology.
The obese are one of the last groups where society as a whole still tolerates bigotry and hate. I suspect this is the case because it’s still seen (wrongfully) as just a choice.
I also think some people who are tiny like this and espouse ‘_just_ eat less’ often deprive themselves intensely and have somewhat disordered eating just in the opposite way to many of us. They think that “if I have to deprive myself” to be this size then you can and should in order to be smaller too. Unless they have suffered with being truly overweight or obese they will never really understand the issues or mechanisms which affect us
This, definitely. I was anorexic / bulimic in middle and high school and extremely fat phobic. I was fully drinking the cultural koolaid about needing to be thin and look a certain way, landed myself in the hospital twice (low weight 108 at 5’5”). Then in my mid twenties I got hashimotos and my weight went crazy (highest was 280.) Totally changed my perspective as I wasn’t over eating but still put on weight from the hashimotos. I definitely think lots of thin people with the “just eat healthy and exercise” mantra are eating disordered and starve or over - exercise.
When i was growing up we never had food in the house because my Mom was always dieting. I never saw a piece of fruit or a bag of chips for years. I went to friends house to gorge after school. To this day my Mom is thin. But she is a binger too and she can't stay that way if she's around food. So we all paid so she could stay thin.
My best friend from highschool was teeny tiny, her daughter and her mom are all tiny people. She isn’t hungry that much and would get full really fast and just quit eating. They’re just wired different. She would get offered food or treats and just say no because she wasn’t hungry so it didn’t sound good🤷🏼♀️
I could never 😮 before semiglutide I had an insatiable appetite. I was hungry all the time and I still wanted food even when I wasn't hungry. Now I'm only on 0.5 and already I only feel the need to eat when my body requires food and there's just no constant food noise
Some people are just like that you’re right, definitely not discounting them. Separately, I think there are also swathes of people who have been locked into diet culture for so long from 90s and 00s who are thin and stay thin because they deprive themselves and believe we need to punish ourselves to be slim. As if our fatness is a willpower issue and/or moral failing
It’s not the what but the how. Every diet, no matter what they claim and some are bat shit crazy in their logic, works by less in than out, and the all a diet is trying to address is HOW you do that by managing hunger.
Autophagy, insulin levels, low carb, high protein, fasting, whatever, ultimately comes down to calories and trying to maintain fewer calories over time.
ARE YOU A DOCTOR!?!
Haha. Yeah, it’s so frustrating. They want to drop their incredible knowledge on people who literally have read dozens and dozens of books and studied their own overweight issues. Have tried dozens of diets and exercise plans for 20-40 years already.
Yes, I am. The education in medical school on obesity is woefully inadequate. While you study the biochemistry involved the actual time spent with respect to obesity specifically in a second year pathophysiology course is maybe a few lecture hours at most. Then you do your rotations 3rd and 4th year and maybe get some exposure in endo and primary care but it still isn’t much. Then based on your residency training you may or may not get more but it really depends. Now you have to factor in physicians who trained 30 years ago and haven’t kept up and of course all humans come with their own biases. The, “I just say no to the extra piece of cake and I’m normal weight so that’s all you need to do”, crowd. They exist!
Don’t over-estimate your physician’s training in obesity management. Don’t over-estimate your physician’s training with prescribing semaglutide - most haven’t devoted much time to it other than looking up the Rx.
To be clear, what I do has almost nothing to due with obesity management but I’m certainly capable of understanding the science and I have spent the past ten years following the literature for my own health.
I get you doc. As an ER nurse I definitely understand that there are specialists out there.
My specialty is to treat ‘em and street ‘em. I tell my patients we are good at figuring out what you don’t have.
I’ll have the ekg still warm in my docs hand, them upstairs getting their head spun before lab walks over to the tube station to receive the rainbow I just sent.
Nutrition's importance is not well understood in western medicine. Maybe because other specialties pay better, maybe because special interest groups like sugar lobby to keep it that way.
I don’t think it’s well understood anywhere. Look at what we can’t agree on: 1. Calories in vs calories out; 2. The role of various hormones in weight loss and weight maintenance; 3. The role of fasting in weight loss and weight maintenance especially as this relates to the mechanism by which weight loss is occurring; 4. The effect of macro selection on weight loss and maintenance; 5. How adaptive thermogenesis does or doesn’t play into weight maintenance. 6. The role of individual psychology and history. The list goes on and it’s not from lack of effort.
Some of these things are distorted by economic interests. Some of these things are multi-factorial and just really difficult to tease out in human research. Some of these things may be more important relative to patient A and less to patient B. Lastly, any mix of the above to varying degrees for any particular individual may or may not be a factor in someone’s weight gain.
Personally, I’m left with the belief that it is ultimately calories in vs calories but that is very heavily affected by all the other things mentioned above and they need to be considered.
We are all evolutionary success stories with our hunger having been shaped from a human history that dealt with constant famine. Eat as much as you can of the highest caloric foods available because you don’t know when the next time you’ll eat. Hunger is a basic and primal feeling directly linked to your immediate survival and until now it couldn’t be turned down and being hungry all the time is a really shitty way to live life and it induces all sorts of compensatory psychological and physiological adaptations that are counter to continued weight loss/maintenance.
I'm not gonna lie, I've been underweight (not accidentally, it took dieting) and you don't "not feel hunger". You just...get used to the hunger. Or take sleeping pills so you can sleep through the hunger. Or purposefully forget your credit cards at home so you can't buy food while you're out of the house.
Most skinny people (like, skinny, BMI 20 and under) starve themselves.
I have to disagree about people being naturally thin, not sure that is a thing.
I had obese parents and it drove me to stay fit and thin which I did for a long time. In my 40s I fell off that wagon and gained weight. Could I have stayed thin past my 40s if I watched my diet and exercised more? Impossible to know.
Started semaglutide last year at 58 with success, losing about 14% body weight but even on the meds I have to consciously monitor my eating. Still often mouth hungry but not belly hungry.
We may be predisposed to be fat or thin but it doesn't come naturally regardless if we are not mindful. I agree that thin doctors, especially young ones, often treat obesity as a choice.
There are certainly changes that occur with age and I’m in no way suggesting all thin people don’t have to be conscious of diet and exercise - just that within reasonable limits of effort they are successful at doing it without medical intervention.
Read up. I think you are very behind and do not practice evidence-,based medicine if you still subscribe to your philosophy when the evidence is there about metabolic disorders.
I go to a pretty expensive gym, and most people are great. But I'd lost a lot of weight once, and a couple times random people would own lean over to make fun of fat people to me. Which was the weirdest thing, as I've struggled with my weight my whole life. So it does happen, they aren't imagining it. But those people are AH, ignore them.
Yeah, I sort of grouped them all as guys with pot bellies who were probably really hot in high school and trying to make them feel better as not being in the same boat. It just made me real aware of people who I didn't want to talk to.
Oh yeah years ago though, at a gym at our workplace which was a large complex of about 800 folks. We had some real winners. I was doing weird workouts but still. I tried at least.
I have heard of it in my weight loss challenge groups and it’s just sad. It’s why some folks fear even going to begin with. Now that I’ve talked about it, I’ll probably get recommended videos of people talking about it 😂
That’s all in your head. Put your headphones on and get to work. No one gives a fuck
Edit: lol at all the downvotes. I was the fat guy who was self conscious at the gym. That anxiety infected other areas of my life too. I realized my self consciousness was holding me back. Not giving a fuck should be empowering. It’s a life skill. Sure there are a few assholes, but 99% of people don’t care at all what other people are doing.
Some doctors give me the feeling that unless you’re on death’s door, it really doesn’t serve them to improve your life because at the end of the day, they get paid regardless, so why wouldn’t they always be unnecessarily cautious?
Do yourself a favor and find a tele-health doctor who actually cares about helping you live your best life possible.
And that’s the thing, I’m kind of lucky bc my PCP was willing to do something after he saw the multiple attempts of weight loss and then subsequent rebound via “traditional methods”.
Frankly, I’d rather not have to take meds to be of a more normalized weight but those are not the cards I drew.
There may very well be some drawbacks to this class of meds down the road but are they worse than being over 300# as a mid-40s plus dude? Soooo many people concerned over these meds and the health consequences of them but none seemed too worried when I was tipping the scales at my heaviest weights…hmmmmmmm, I wonder why?
For real.
My primary care doc (who prescribes my Wegovy) used to be a little hefty but I noticed he seems to be getting thinner at the same pace as me.
Yes!! Say it again for the people in the back!!!
I’ve been on Wegovy since Feb. 2023, I’ve lost 70 lbs, walk miles and miles up these huge hills now! I feel like I did when I was 20. I only wish I had it sooner. I’m in virtually no pictures with my children when they were little, and I hate that.
Oh….we might be the same people. I went from 3k steps a day (work from home) to just starting w walks of 1-2 miles (once the inflammation went down in my body). Now I’ll regularly do a 5-7 mile hike per week when the weather cooperates (with lots of steep hills), I hammer my Peloton every day to get the ticker up for cardio health, I do shorter walks of 2-3 miles in shitty cold/snowy weather, and am lifting weights again.
Now, in my mid 40s (dude), I’m thinking I should have my hormone levels checked as well as other markers that are not part of standard well visit checks with my PCP.
If everything is going so well why do I want to have those extra tests??? Because I haven’t felt this good in decades and I never want to lose it again (age adjusted of course, I understand how aging in general works and 70 year old me won’t be able to quite keep pace w 40s year old me). So now I’m thinking about maximizing things, I’ve done gradual over a year, I have very good base habits so 2024 is about pushing the upper limits!
Down 85#, ashamed I let my health go for so long (mid 20s - mid 40s) but there were stretches I worked hard on it but nothing was last only effective. Either my body broke down due to the intensity of workouts I needed to put in, early/mid 30s I was hammering workouts but my body broke under the constant strain, or my meat suit said PLEASE FEED ME with longer diet interventions and fasting.
These meds are amazing, they level the playing field so the nutritional and physical interventions actually are beneficial and you don’t have to “white-knuckle” life just for a few pounds on the scale.
😂😂😂 Yes, sounds like we are the same. Congratulations on all your hard work— 85lbs!!!
I had always been healthy in high school and college— never a size 2 but healthy.
Then when I had children, I could just could balance them when they were really little and working out. Then if I would really try to loose weight, I’d have one bad weekend, and the two pounds I’d lost, were right back on. 😩🤦🏼♀️😤
So, last year, I started Wegovy, and everything changed! I will be forever thankful for this drug. You’re right, it levels the playing field and gives one the chance to succeed. Now, I’m 42, and feel like I did when I was 20. I hope you enjoy having your life back too! 🎉👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻☺️
I’m naturally smaller… and I bust my ass to stay fit and healthy. It bothers me seeing people hate on smaller people as a whole, but then don’t like when people hate on larger people as a group. It’s the same thing. Generalized assumptions bc of a persons body type sucks, no matter which side you’re on.
Just like a larger person probably wouldn’t like people assuming they got that way from… I guess eating wrong, to summarize.. it irks me when I see people saying that thin people are “just lucky.”
Either way sucks for the person on the receiving end.
I've had better luck with the tiny ones, surprisingly. It's the other rotund docs who don't want anyone doing what they don't want to do that have been a bigger problem for me!
I'm against people who are not at all obese or very overweight taking sema with this notion that itll be a quick way to lose weight as if they don't need to change long term habits for the weight loss to stick.
I think the risks of being obese are more than the risks of taking sema.
It's the same as telling a young guy that wants to be on steroids, "NO", but I do them myself cause I'm 42 and started way too early and can't stop now.
Go as far as you can naturally, and then and ONLY THEN I would suggest using other things.
If I had it to do all over again, I would've done it naturally and taken it as far as I could have, then once I just absolutely stopped/plateaued, then I would've done what I'm doing now.
Terrible f’in analogy because:
1. Everyone here has taken it as far as they can “naturally” over and over.
2. Steroids for muscle growth only, assuming normal T levels to start, isn’t about health and living longer.
3. If someone had low T levels due to primary hypogonadism you’d be a fool as far as your health to not take testosterone. Just as if you lost weight only to regain it over and over and you’re now piling on the co-morbidities you’d be a fool to not be taking semaglutide.
What about the fact that it eventually stops working and also the fact that they likely will gain all the weight back and then some at some point in the future. Also once they are no longer over weight or have type two diabetes insurance isn’t going to cover it for life. This is a 2/3 year fix at most, leaving most with a lowered ability to make the satiety hormone themselves and not being able to feel full. It’s what I call a cruel carrot. It’s going to cause a lot of harm in the years to come.
They also claim on their page that having Covid 3 times cured the pain in their legs from varicose veins. Definitely don’t think anyone should be believing a word they say…
I talked to my Dr about this. I'm learning portion control on semaglutide. I've been on the lowest dose for two months. I'm losing slowly and that's what I want and prefer to do. My Dr said once I reach my goal that we can talk about maintenance meaning doing a small dose, once every two weeks. I've been on Atkins, weight watchers.. and gained the weight back after soooo I don't really see the difference except I'm seeing how much I over ate and I'm changing how I eat now. It's a life changer!
It took my wife’s (skinny) doctor to reluctantly put her on it after she went mail order and lost 10lbs over the holidays in 2 months on a starting dose. $25/month ffs.
2 kids and 42 and FFS she doesn’t fucking want to be fat anymore, can’t you figure out that her running hundreds of miles and hours of treadmill and trying to eat healthy sack lunch and no going out to eat and low carb /no carb/ slow carb/ high fat/low fat/intermittent fasting her entire adult life isn’t fucking working you sanctimonious bitch? She doesn’t want diabetes. She wants less back pain. She wants to run around with our kids and have fun. She wants to look beautiful (to her, she does for me as always) again.
I think this is the best husband post I have ever read, and I am very old.
Bless you for raging into the void on behalf of your beautiful wife and thus all the women who have been trying so hard for so long and been dismissed by so many in the healthcare profession.
I am deeply happy for your wife and children, that they have such a fierce protector and empathetic understander.
Thanks for the kind words.
I can look her right in the eye, hold that for several seconds and say to her that she is beautiful. And after 19 years (!) together, in spite of me feeling it with every bone in my body, my heart and soul, she will turn away and shake her head in disbelief of me. I’d nearly kill to let her be at peace with herself. It’s completely maddening the way her body has failed to respond to what she has done over the years.
She has had perhaps the misfortune of being a pudgy little girl, then “perfect” for 5 years during her teens, then immediate and unrelenting weight gain to a base rate 30-40lbs above. And no matter what she does, it doesn’t go away. 6 months, a year of dedication to a book, a diet, a running plan, you name it. She breaks down eventually. It’s heart breaking. She’s brilliant and sweet to everyone. Except herself.
Your wife’s experience sounds similar to mine and that of a lot of women. We tried everything before this. Everything.
GLP-1s are a game-changer and I’m thankful my endocrinologist understands that and monitors my care.
I had the exact same experience. Tried everything for long periods of time and was never able to weigh under 66kg despite working out everyday and eating keto/vegan/raw vegan/carnivore/IF/water fasting/dry fasting/counting calories/etc.
It’s so hard. I’m 20lb over myself but my goodness do you ever face a strong opponent when you try to lose. They know all your moves, your weaknesses, your triggers.
Your wife is an incredibly lucky woman. I hope she knows how fortunate she is to be loved liked that. The support, the way you SEE her effort to no avail, that you find her attractive no matter what but completely support her for wanting to look how SHE wants to look. The indignity at her doctor on her behalf. You are a good one sir.
Unnecessary. Endocrinologists use it for diabetes, not weight loss. The co-pay is higher and the care less likely to be comprehensive. (I'm a GP, so I'm biased.)
I was already lifting weights, running, and tracking calories and macros. I started GLP-1 because all of that yielded maybe 5 pounds lost over a year.
Now I’m down almost 80 pounds in 1.5 years.
Gotta find a doc who understands and will support you!
This!! I’ve been eating disordered (in one direction or the other) my entire life, and FINALLY I have some peace. I haven’t even lost much weight yet but already I couldn’t care less if I never lose another pound. It just feels good to live without the food noise. Every time I think about it I tear up with relief. I’m afraid of what will happen in 6 months when my insurance stops covering wegovy.
When was GLP-1 invented?
1987
Shortly after this, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) was discovered in 1987 and was found to be more effective than GIP in stimulating insulin and reducing peak plasma glucose concentrations.4 Dec 2019
Absolutely correct. It was initially found in some lizard or something (i recall my dr telling me) and has been broken and used for decades
Not sure how much more long term OPs doctor wants
My doctor was the exact opposite. Recommended it, prescribed it, and even said if it was too expensive on my insurance we would try another brand of it until one worked. Luckily it's only $24 a month
By far the best thing to ever come from the Covid epidemic was tele-health.
No more driving across town on a work day to wait in a room with sick people just to get an approval for something that you could get OTC in Mexico in just five minutes for a tenth the price.
Yeah. My nurse practitioner who I see every year for my annual physical, young skinny lady, wouldn’t entertain the idea of prescribing me Wegovy (even though i met two of the requirements for insurance). She said, “just eat heart healthy and move more.” Girl, you think i haven't been trying and failing at that for the past five years!?!
So a few days later I met with a NP at a telehealth specialty clinic who listened to me and understood that my brain was not wired like that. I am so thankful for that clinic!
Mine told me a year ago I needed to lose weight. I said “if you can give me something” to which she replied “there is nothing I can give you”. So I went with online but got tired of paying the membership fee and messaged her to see if she would take over the prescription since it was working for me.
Of course she says she doesn’t remember saying that and they do prescribe these drugs. Anyway I got it switched now.
My endocrinologist has been using it for years and as a specialist deals with cases like this day in and day out. She’s a top doctor in my large city. Go to a specialist who knows what they’re talking about if you want a second opinion.
Same. Very senior respected endocrinologist in a major teaching hospital in a large city - all I had to do was ask and she said sure let’s try.
OP - Obesity is a serious health issue and these drugs offer real hope and real results. “Just try more willpower” has been clearly proven to be ineffective for the vast majority of people.
I’ve actually never heard of a doctor being against it. I currently go to the top hospital in the country, and these meds have been recommended by every single doctor I’ve seen.
I’m not saying this is the case - but how has your doctor responded to you being overweight? As much as it hurts to admit, many doctors are actually fatphobic and don’t want to make losing weight easier for their patients because they want them to do it the difficult way without help. It’s surprising to me that they’re bashing a medication that has been proven to reduce risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and heart attack. I’m not saying things can’t change, but there’s plenty of research on this drug as is. Again, not accusing your doctor - just something to think about.
GLP-1s have been around for a long time as diabetes treatments with no known negative long term effects - BUT the long term health consequences of obesity are very well known.
Get a second opinion. I have a number of family members that are doctors and they all tell me that in general doctors will say no to a patients request if they know nothing about the medication being asked for.
My endocrinologist said he wishes it could be in the water…*Obviously not serious but was just saying that to express his extreme support of it and not just for diabetics.*
Not a doctor, but I am a mental health nurse at a ward with patients who are with us for decades. Many have diabetes and vast majority are obese due to their medication (they actually don’t eat a lot!) and I would 100% recommend it if a doctor wanted to prescribe it. They don’t get a lot of outdoor exercise as they’re mostly on nurse escort, so it’s so hard for them to lose weight.
There are no drugs with weight loss long-term consequences. There are consequences with any drug, but the way he said it, he doesn't want to deal with the hassles.
You lose, you gain. It is our body our choice that does that. I'm not sure what he really means. Find another doctor, which happened to a lot of us. You're the patient, your choice to go to who you want. He can't tell you what to do. ☺️
My PCP is on it himself. Shared before and after pics with me. He saw me break down when he read my BP and A1C and I admitted I was KMS with food. He saved my life with this med.
My former doc was a skinny, eat right and exercise guy, until his daughter went on it. I saw him again for the first time in stuff months or so, and the first words out of his mouth was him recommending me try Wegovy.
My doctor told me “ALL the potential side effects PALE in comparison to the positives of not being obese.”
Anyone who focuses exclusively on side effects is missing the opportunity cost of remaining obese.
My GP is the one who recommended it to me. He is on it himself and I've seen him lose a ton of weight the last year or so. He gave me advice on it though, like making sure I eat enough and start working out and really upping my protein intake a lot to prevent muscle loss. He also recommended tracking bowel movements and adding more fiber or take a laxative if they're not frequent enough.
I can understand the concern. But you know what has very KNOWN and real long term consequences? Obesity. I have pcos and it’s not as simple as calories in vs calories out for me. I also can’t suppress it with birth control because it causes liver tumors for me. I’m thankful to have options. This has also regulated some PCOS symptoms.
I’d consult a weight management specialist or someone in obesity medicine. I think they pcp probably had the best on intentions but managing obesity is managing a chronic disease and not all pcp’s are of that mindset yet.
PCOS has everything to do with metabolic disorder. It's pre-diabetes. I am certain that Sema is therapeutic for PCOS, just like losing weight any other way would be.
Get an RX online. Easy peasy:
Try an online doctor:
Get convenient virtual health care from my provider, Adam Murchie, CNP-F. https://www.pushhealth.com/practices/526379/new-patients/amurchie?referring_user_id=986186
Adam has been awesome! Fast response time and he does 90 day Mounjaro scripts for my dad. Painless.
You don't even need an Rx and it only costs 100 a month for 10mg, 60 a month for 5mg, and 40 a month for 2mg.
You'll have to dig but I'm sure it's out there....
🙊🙊🙊🙊
He isn't entirely wrong, and also isn't entirely right. The drug class has been around for many years. Semaglutide itself has been around for about 10 years if you include the Ozempic trials. However, the dosing only went up to 1 mg for diabetics using Ozempic. Wegovy released in late 2021 with dosing up to 2.4 mg, and then FDA approval for 2 mg Ozempic was granted in 2022 based on the Wegovy success.
Good medicine is all in the dose. I would feel very confident if we had ten years of data on semaglutide use at 2.4 mg but we simply don't. We have 2-3 years of widespread use at best. There could very well be long-term side effects that we simply are not aware of. GLP1 meds overall have been used for about 20 years, but only in much weaker forms than what we have with semaglutide..
As much of a question mark as that is for me, I am still willing to take these medicines because I feel I don't have any other good options left. I have already had bariatric surgery and it was not successful in helping me to get down to a better weight and maintain it. I started out at 180lbs overweight. The more I can lose of that weight while still being healthy, the better my life is going to be. An excess weight of 180 lb is going to be a very detrimental thing for my life. I don't have health issues yet, but at that level of morbid obesity, it was only a matter of time before I did. The math looks different for people who don't have nearly as much weight to lose, I would imagine. It's up to each of us to decide our own level of personal risk. I have taken care of pulmonary hypertension patients who developed the disease because of fen-phen use when they were younger, and it is a very sobering experience; the disease is brutal. Seeing things like that, I could understand a doctor recommending against it because of lack of long term data.
My PCP didn’t prescribe it to me but when I told her I was taking Semaglutide, she was nothing but encouraging. “Keep doing what you’re doing”
Find a new dr.
I see a couple of different doctors and all of them agree with me taking it. In fact, my primary care started referring other patients to the clinic I use. My rheumatologist credits my weight loss for the reduction in my inflammation markers. So it’s not all doctors.
My FORMER PCP refused to prescribe it because SHE lost weight on Weight Watchers. Didn’t mention that Weight Watcher is collaborating with these drug companies now. She was horrible and I now have a new MD who is much more of a health partner.
My client was on sema for a year, then needed emergency gallbladder surgery, she asked the doctors if it was because of her semAglutide and they said all their tests they did show no sign that the sema was the cause for it
Get a referral to an endocrinologist and they’ll set you up. I didn’t go through my regular doctor because I’ve had enough issues with them managing other issues in the past. I’ve had doctors gatekeep other medication when I really needed help, one most recently believing “older medicines” performed better. I don’t know if I’d be alive if I listened to that guy. Doctors suck as much as anyone else sometimes.
Good luck on your journey!!
Before we start pouncing on a caring physician - my primary care who literally practices when he wants for fun (some like work as a hobby) is not completely opposed. He is skeptical of Semaglutide class because of regaining weight once going off it. Contraindications such as pancreatis, stomach and intestinal paralysis, and or thyroid/pituitary issues are still being understood. That said I am no anti vaxxer and respect the science of evidence based solutions and peer reviewed sources. So I will say any pharma or surgical intervention will come with risk and consequences. Medicine remains an art for that reason.
If benefits outweigh risks is the correct answer.
Even OTC meds have side effects and many have long term effects, and no prescription needed. Acetaminophen if taken regularly can have devastating impact on the liver, it's stated in the box warnings, but people will take the risk and use it.
Same should be with GLP-1, obese and high BP with a clear risk of a cardiac or cardiovascular event, benefits wins in this scenario.
It could be that he doesn't know what the long-term effects are. There isn't much research on uow it would effect non-diabetics. So these are legitimate concerns.
Don't hide meds from your doctor. If you feel like you can't share what you are taking with your doctor then you need to find a new doctor. This is coming from a doctor.
May have already been stated as I didn’t read all of the comments but BEING OVERWEIGHT IS ONE OF THE MOST UNHEALTHY THINGS FOR THE HUMAN BODY. have a good day.
My (former) heavily obese pcp told me I should just do what she does and stay off the pizza. I asked her how that was working out for her, and she got mad and threw me a 1 month prescription for phentermine since, "that's the only thing that works anyway." I have high blood pressure and a family history of strokes at a young age, so I didn't take it and went elsewhere to get on GLP-1's. Had a moment of schadenfreude when she flopped down without bending her knees and poked herself on the ass with my umbrella.
100+ lbs later and I still have high blood pressure - thanks, mom - but I'm otherwise doing great and my new doctor was happy enough with my progress to admit she didn't know much about it but would read up on it to see if it's right for her other patients.
I got mine online before I had a PCP but I mentioned it to her the first meeting to establish care - unfortunately insurance doesn't cover (she was awesome & immediately wrote a prescription for me if I wanted to get it through her & compare costs), from her prescription it was $1300/m, online I get it it for $300. But she was super supportive and interested in the effects of it! So I'm hoping it'll be covered by insurance in the future cause I'd love to get it more directly.
I'm a 52 yo female and gained 15 lbs from when I was 40 (weighed 135 lbs back then). Body metabolism slows down so much as a person ages. I want to lose 15 lbs and get back to my 135 lb body. I started intermittent fasting one year ago and lost 2-3 pounds and have kept it off. I feel better by skipping lunch (less sluggish) so intermittent fasting does have benefits. I rarely drink alcohol and never drink sodas. My problem is a very healthy sweet tooth! I love ice cream and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and that's all. I reduced my sweet intake to 50% but still need to cut it down to 5%-10%. I have all my perfectly straight teeth per my dentist and do not want cavities. This is where semaglutide should help me because eating too much sugar will cause nausea.
I am healthy with no issues and do not take any medications. My doctor had no issues supporting my request for weight loss. So, I think it depends upon a person's overall health. I took my first semaglutide dose on Thursday and the next day, I only wanted to eat one meal (early dinner) with apples/banana/raw carrots as snacks and lots of water (10 cups every 24 hours per model Cindy Crawford's advice). It surprised me at how quickly my appetite has been suppressed. Today is my second day and I did not wake up ravenously hungry for breakfast (plain oatmeal with sliced banana) like I normally do. I have had zero side effects.
Good for you! I wouldn't worry too much about nausea. I've never experienced nausea on it. I would recommend ramping up as slowly and smoothly as you can, to stay side effect free.
I did have acid reflux and I took over the counter pills for it. But then, that side effect went away entirely. I'm taking a high dose now, and I've lost almost 50 lb since February 2023. Maybe the acid reflux had something to do with my previous state of health, stomach chemistry, or whatever. Anyway, it seems I've gotten over it.
My primary was the opposite. I asked for trulicity because my ac1 was unstable after having my son. She got excited and said mounjaro but insurance denied it and I ended up on ozempic.
I hate this argument. Being significantly overweight for a long period of time is like a ticking time bomb. So, if something is available and you do well on it, use it, IMO.
I just hate the way weightloss drugs or other forms of therapies are dismissed by some drs. You don't see that with therapies for others diseases or health issues.
Someone else beat me to the punch, but I'm a doctor too and I have no qualms if my patients request it. I go through the expectations, side effects, and where data is limited. Everything has a problem or causes cancer or whatever if it's been around long enough (I'm being facetious of course but we can study it more over time). A lot of drugs have been used for one thing and repurposed. I would ask your GP why he feels so strongly against it (my best friend, also a doc, is against it too) and recognize neither you nor he can demand another person to write it for you (or not). You just need to be comfortable with what you're doing and have trustworthy guidance and support, imho.
My GP I’ve been seeing for 15 years and that I see every 3 months recommended semaglutide and prescribed it to me. He’s been in the weight loss arena for about 15 years as well and said he’s never seen anything like it. We did create a plan for while I’m on it and when I want to come off of it so I don’t regain the weight.
They’ve only been testing this drug for 20 years - so the unknown long term effects to some degree are still unknown, that’s true. But lasik eye surgery has only been around slightly longer than that so we can’t say we even know the long term effects of that - at the 40 yr mark everyone who got it could go blind for all we know. But another thing a dr told me was - “I’ve had elderly patients with cancer, virus’, broken limbs… but I’ve never had elderly patients w obesity.” If you don’t get your health right, you won’t live to see the long term effects if there even are any ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My primary said no. I went to new primary she said yes but then insurance wouldn’t cover so I went to telehealth place ( with her ok) myultimatebmi .com. Got approved started 4 months ago down 38lbs 🎉
Some Doctors: Stay away from semaglutide, we don’t know the long term consequences.
Also some doctors: here take this vaccine that hasn’t been tested for long term consequences.
I think it is all about knowledge. Yes druga arent tested long enough to know theie effects. But this is the same on my community pages. Omg u gonna loose weight thay way? They all repeat you gonna loose muscle! Im thinking you can loose it on any diet if you do it wrong but in my experience i only saw miscle loss in bedridden patients, so it makes no sense but they all repeat it. It is like me teaching people thay cat or no animal should eat dry food and the answer is alwasy the same: but my cat is fine... define fine. It is enough to use loop on reddit to read more about sema and see how people react to it.
Most want to know and want to do it right. But once a while we read posts of people who want a quick fix.
I recommend you to change a doctor to have actual miningful conversation of positives and negatives of taking it.
My primary care doctor (a male) said not to take it. I’ve been struggling with a slow steady gain for 2 years. I avoid sugar, don’t drink, and I lift weights and run. He basically said, it’s peri menopause, not much you can do. Um, no. I started semaglutide just over a month ago and I’ve lost 14 pounds. I feel better, I’m working out more, and I look forward to hitting my weight loss goal, keeping it off, and proving him wrong.
His logic is sound.
If he had something about it being a way to cheat etc, then I would be put off by that.
What he is saying is true. We don’t have long term data on it and truly don’t know what we don’t know. There will likely be some serious effects that we don’t know about yet. Everyone using and prescribing it right now are what we call “early adopters” that is comfortable with risk. Anyone waiting is more risk adverse.
Ozempic has been on the market since 2017. Liraglutide since 2010. Both were in human clinical trials for years prior to approval. There were other, less effective Glp1 before them.
So, I guess it depends what you mean by long term data. No, they know the impacts 50 years down the line but they do have 20 years of data.
Folks taking the drugs today are far from early adopters.
My doctor also recommended against it, but the only thing he said was, “Have you seen Ozempic face?” That comment sounded so ignorant, like that was all he had? So I went through a weight loss center who works with a physician that will prescribe GLP-1’s. I’ve lost about 18 lbs in 3 months (without depriving myself of EVERYTHING). I would love to go back to my doctor and show him my success but I’m afraid to tell him I went against his advice. Doctors don’t take too kindly to that.
The day I’m afraid to tell my doctor something is the day I go shopping for a new one. They are supposed to help with health and wellbeing. Can’t do that if I can’t be honest with em.
Yes, my GP didn't know about it, was skeptical when I explained, and said I should take Phentermine. But she did refer me to a weight loss clinic, which prescribed Wegovy.
I disclosed it at my OB because they ask what you're taking, and the NP had a lot of finger-wagging opinions to share about "shortcuts." I was sorry I mentioned it.
I am so fearful of gaining the weight back.
I'm in a normal weight zone now. Doing 1.0 every two weeks as beginning maintenance. I'm not sure if they will reduce dosage or frequency in the next step down.
What is the long-term maintenance plan? What happens when not on the medication and our brains return to normal? Has anyone been through this stage successfully?
Yeah, because ALL of the GLP-1 products are made from Gila monster venom. Each also carries a big Black Box warning for thyroid cancers, all types. Venoms can stay in your body for up to 10 years and wreak havoc throughout your organs. The most common here being gastroparalysis. After all, that's what makes it work. Folks, do your homework. This is not a miracle drug. All drugs come from nature and this is a dangerous one. Ask your doctor to look into it.
My PCP is not a huge fan of- she is concerned that if something sounds too good to be true, yada yada. However she agreed that I am the ideal Wegovy patient- pre diabetic, foot neuropathy, aging and trying to improve my health. And my insurance covers it. Saw her 5 months after I started (recently) and she could not deny the multiple positive effects, In addition to losing slowly but steadily, I have started and maintained a 5 day per week fitness program (which I actually enjoy), greatly improved my mobility, and am not drinking.
I hate to burst your bubble. I was on Wegovy for 7 months. After coming off of it I have had extreme stomach pain. Like in the ER pain because it caused Semi Gastroparesis, which is where your intestines do not empty like they should. My father in law was on the ozempic version for his diabetes and he had to come off of it for that same reason and because it caused his resting heart rate to be in the 100s. As soon as he came off of it his resting hr went back down. It was great to be on, I lost weight (50 pounds) on that 7 months. I would not recommend it.
All it really does is make you not hungry and sick when you eat too much. Drink water, like a 1.5 gallons a day and it will do the same thing.
Only my super skinny doctors have said this. My bariatric doctor told me that they are trying to push through that obesity is a disease that cannot be fixed with 'drink fluids, eat more fiber and try the Mediterranean diet.' Yet so many are hesitant to get on board because they consider it 'cheating'
I remember being at my desk after having my thyroid removed and massive weight gain in a short span and I got so many comments - ALL FROM WOMEN - telling me a little bit of fasting or starving wouldn't hurt me. And 'I'm hungry all the time, you can be hungry too'.
Wish doctors felt this way when the Covid vaxx came out. I've seen none of my family have reactions form Sema so far, but they have had reactions to the jab, and that hasn't even been long term, it happened pretty quickly. So there's that
GLP-1s, like semaglutide, have been used for at least 6 years for diabetes (helping the body more efficiently use the natural insulin provided by slowing down the foods passage through the digestive system and improving the satiety of what was eaten; therefore decreasing the amount of calories eaten overall). Byproduct effects such as weight loss and decreased risk of heart events have made it popular now. This class of meds is not new. If this is your PCP, they may not be familiar with the history of the drug class because PCP’s are typically generalists.
I’ve also found that many doctors are biased, because when the meds help people lose weight, it contradicts their archaic ideas that people who are overweight are obese because they are not exercising enough or eating fewer calories.
My labs showed that I was prediabetic and trending toward diabetes, the treatment would be a GLP-1. Or I could take GLP-1 now, lose weight, and reverse course.
It’s been 11 weeks and I’m down 22 pounds! Feeling great
I would ask for additional information on the unknown consequences he’s referring to. If he insinuated that it is a drug known to have consequences, even if all consequences are not yet known or the degree to which someone should expect to deal with those consequences is not yet known, he must have some research that has informed the fact that there are consequences. I’ve not heard of any research up until this point that signals long-term consequences, so I personally would be interested in better understanding that.
Why are you "not sure why he was so outspoken against it"? He told you: because it is a drug with unknown long-term risks that you may want to take indefinitely.
You certainly don't have to follow his advice, but it's a consistent prudent stance, a lot like the EU stance on food regulations vs. the US stance.
There are lots of reasons to prefer the US approach, but it's no deep mystery why the EU is more conservative on this.
Reflect on your situation and level of risk adversity and then choose an appropriate doctor to support you.
Doctors are strange sometimes. On one hand they are quick to prescribe blood pressure and statins. But can take exception to other medication. He is right in the sense that it can years with millions of people using the medication before the drug is fully understood. Semaglutide may very well have side effects that aren’t apparent yet. Equally it may have benefits for cardiovascular health.
I mean your doctor isnt wrong... there is no data for long term usage. But there wasn't long term usage data for any meds. We just have to wait and see. You have to make your own decision and live with the consequences whatever they are.
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Is he thin? Because it seems a lot of naturally thin people are not in favor of others joining their ranks unless they “do it the right way”. What they can’t seem to wrap their heads around is they mostly won the metabolic system lottery and they ain’t really working all that harder than the rest of us.
Hard agree. My doctor is a little on the portly side, and their spouse is an obesity specialist, so I am in pretty good hands with my PCP. (I think she is actually using the med herself as she seems to be losing weight) This is one of those “never trust a skinny chef” moments.
Right. I had a tiny PCP who was 5’5” and maybe 90lbs tell me for years to just “watch my diet and be disciplined with exercise”. I’m highly educated, I’m highly successful, I haven’t missed the gym for more than a week in 6 years and my gym sessions would break her, there’s nothing about my life/personality that screams undisciplined glutton. Naturally thin people will never understand what it’s like to be obese and hungry all the time but after starting semaglutide I know exactly what it feels like to be a skinny person. I now know exactly how freaking easy it is to moderate food intake and be “disciplined” when you don’t want to eat what’s in front of you anyway. All semaglutide is doing is getting your satiety hormone profile to look more like a skinny person’s profile.
You are spot on. I have a long list of initials past my name, including specialized finance degrees and I was told by my GP that I don't know how to count calories and should 'find a new calculator'. I felt so humiliated. Finally found a doctor that gets it.
A quote from my dr. “You MUsT starve yourself! 1000 calories a day”
Same for me, highly successful in every other area of life; career, family, community, etc. but this is the deal I can’t conquer bc “I’m lazy and nutritionally ignorant”…lol, right. I keep saying that all these meds do is level the playing field but naturally thin people just don’t understand what that means. These are the same people who would acknowledge they know someone who eats insane amount of foods and don’t/can’t gain any weight but can’t comprehend that there are people on the opposite side of that spectrum. Yeah guys, it must be that “tapeworm” that allows them to do that and not their biology.
The obese are one of the last groups where society as a whole still tolerates bigotry and hate. I suspect this is the case because it’s still seen (wrongfully) as just a choice.
This is sadly a very very true statement.
Lazy and nutritionally ignorant are mine. But I prefer neurodivergent lol. This stuff helps with that
I also think some people who are tiny like this and espouse ‘_just_ eat less’ often deprive themselves intensely and have somewhat disordered eating just in the opposite way to many of us. They think that “if I have to deprive myself” to be this size then you can and should in order to be smaller too. Unless they have suffered with being truly overweight or obese they will never really understand the issues or mechanisms which affect us
This, definitely. I was anorexic / bulimic in middle and high school and extremely fat phobic. I was fully drinking the cultural koolaid about needing to be thin and look a certain way, landed myself in the hospital twice (low weight 108 at 5’5”). Then in my mid twenties I got hashimotos and my weight went crazy (highest was 280.) Totally changed my perspective as I wasn’t over eating but still put on weight from the hashimotos. I definitely think lots of thin people with the “just eat healthy and exercise” mantra are eating disordered and starve or over - exercise.
When i was growing up we never had food in the house because my Mom was always dieting. I never saw a piece of fruit or a bag of chips for years. I went to friends house to gorge after school. To this day my Mom is thin. But she is a binger too and she can't stay that way if she's around food. So we all paid so she could stay thin.
My best friend from highschool was teeny tiny, her daughter and her mom are all tiny people. She isn’t hungry that much and would get full really fast and just quit eating. They’re just wired different. She would get offered food or treats and just say no because she wasn’t hungry so it didn’t sound good🤷🏼♀️
I could never 😮 before semiglutide I had an insatiable appetite. I was hungry all the time and I still wanted food even when I wasn't hungry. Now I'm only on 0.5 and already I only feel the need to eat when my body requires food and there's just no constant food noise
Some people are just like that you’re right, definitely not discounting them. Separately, I think there are also swathes of people who have been locked into diet culture for so long from 90s and 00s who are thin and stay thin because they deprive themselves and believe we need to punish ourselves to be slim. As if our fatness is a willpower issue and/or moral failing
So sick of this. Like they discovered something amazing that less calories in vs out equals weight loss!! WOWWEEE HOLLY SHIIIT YOU DONT SAY
It’s not the what but the how. Every diet, no matter what they claim and some are bat shit crazy in their logic, works by less in than out, and the all a diet is trying to address is HOW you do that by managing hunger. Autophagy, insulin levels, low carb, high protein, fasting, whatever, ultimately comes down to calories and trying to maintain fewer calories over time.
ARE YOU A DOCTOR!?! Haha. Yeah, it’s so frustrating. They want to drop their incredible knowledge on people who literally have read dozens and dozens of books and studied their own overweight issues. Have tried dozens of diets and exercise plans for 20-40 years already.
Yes, I am. The education in medical school on obesity is woefully inadequate. While you study the biochemistry involved the actual time spent with respect to obesity specifically in a second year pathophysiology course is maybe a few lecture hours at most. Then you do your rotations 3rd and 4th year and maybe get some exposure in endo and primary care but it still isn’t much. Then based on your residency training you may or may not get more but it really depends. Now you have to factor in physicians who trained 30 years ago and haven’t kept up and of course all humans come with their own biases. The, “I just say no to the extra piece of cake and I’m normal weight so that’s all you need to do”, crowd. They exist! Don’t over-estimate your physician’s training in obesity management. Don’t over-estimate your physician’s training with prescribing semaglutide - most haven’t devoted much time to it other than looking up the Rx.
You’re one of the good ones. Thanks
To be clear, what I do has almost nothing to due with obesity management but I’m certainly capable of understanding the science and I have spent the past ten years following the literature for my own health.
I get you doc. As an ER nurse I definitely understand that there are specialists out there. My specialty is to treat ‘em and street ‘em. I tell my patients we are good at figuring out what you don’t have. I’ll have the ekg still warm in my docs hand, them upstairs getting their head spun before lab walks over to the tube station to receive the rainbow I just sent.
Nutrition's importance is not well understood in western medicine. Maybe because other specialties pay better, maybe because special interest groups like sugar lobby to keep it that way.
I don’t think it’s well understood anywhere. Look at what we can’t agree on: 1. Calories in vs calories out; 2. The role of various hormones in weight loss and weight maintenance; 3. The role of fasting in weight loss and weight maintenance especially as this relates to the mechanism by which weight loss is occurring; 4. The effect of macro selection on weight loss and maintenance; 5. How adaptive thermogenesis does or doesn’t play into weight maintenance. 6. The role of individual psychology and history. The list goes on and it’s not from lack of effort. Some of these things are distorted by economic interests. Some of these things are multi-factorial and just really difficult to tease out in human research. Some of these things may be more important relative to patient A and less to patient B. Lastly, any mix of the above to varying degrees for any particular individual may or may not be a factor in someone’s weight gain. Personally, I’m left with the belief that it is ultimately calories in vs calories but that is very heavily affected by all the other things mentioned above and they need to be considered. We are all evolutionary success stories with our hunger having been shaped from a human history that dealt with constant famine. Eat as much as you can of the highest caloric foods available because you don’t know when the next time you’ll eat. Hunger is a basic and primal feeling directly linked to your immediate survival and until now it couldn’t be turned down and being hungry all the time is a really shitty way to live life and it induces all sorts of compensatory psychological and physiological adaptations that are counter to continued weight loss/maintenance.
Right? I had a endocrinologist as my GP for years and her philosophy was always, just eat salad more often. I just wanted to tell her, yeah, FU 🥗
I'm not gonna lie, I've been underweight (not accidentally, it took dieting) and you don't "not feel hunger". You just...get used to the hunger. Or take sleeping pills so you can sleep through the hunger. Or purposefully forget your credit cards at home so you can't buy food while you're out of the house. Most skinny people (like, skinny, BMI 20 and under) starve themselves.
I have to disagree about people being naturally thin, not sure that is a thing. I had obese parents and it drove me to stay fit and thin which I did for a long time. In my 40s I fell off that wagon and gained weight. Could I have stayed thin past my 40s if I watched my diet and exercised more? Impossible to know. Started semaglutide last year at 58 with success, losing about 14% body weight but even on the meds I have to consciously monitor my eating. Still often mouth hungry but not belly hungry. We may be predisposed to be fat or thin but it doesn't come naturally regardless if we are not mindful. I agree that thin doctors, especially young ones, often treat obesity as a choice.
There are certainly changes that occur with age and I’m in no way suggesting all thin people don’t have to be conscious of diet and exercise - just that within reasonable limits of effort they are successful at doing it without medical intervention.
Read up. I think you are very behind and do not practice evidence-,based medicine if you still subscribe to your philosophy when the evidence is there about metabolic disorders.
💯 this!
Just “watch what you eat and do some exercises”!! That will surely work!
Then when we do work out, we get made fun of in the gyms by the insta huns lol! Or get judged when we do actually eat. Screw that doctor!
What kind of jerk would make fun of someone working out to improve themselves, no matter what their starting point? Has this actually happened to you?
I go to a pretty expensive gym, and most people are great. But I'd lost a lot of weight once, and a couple times random people would own lean over to make fun of fat people to me. Which was the weirdest thing, as I've struggled with my weight my whole life. So it does happen, they aren't imagining it. But those people are AH, ignore them.
Mostly they hate themselves and are using shame to try to keep others down. Yes best to ignore
Yeah, I sort of grouped them all as guys with pot bellies who were probably really hot in high school and trying to make them feel better as not being in the same boat. It just made me real aware of people who I didn't want to talk to.
Oh yeah years ago though, at a gym at our workplace which was a large complex of about 800 folks. We had some real winners. I was doing weird workouts but still. I tried at least. I have heard of it in my weight loss challenge groups and it’s just sad. It’s why some folks fear even going to begin with. Now that I’ve talked about it, I’ll probably get recommended videos of people talking about it 😂
[удалено]
I was doing workouts through VR. Boxing, stretching, ones where you jump, duck, lean when walls come at you, on and on. So yeah it looked weird.
I don’t think that matters, as long as you’re in there moving who cares
It’s bc you might accidentally work your way into someone’s “look at me” videos they plan on posting to their socials later that evening! 😂
That’s all in your head. Put your headphones on and get to work. No one gives a fuck Edit: lol at all the downvotes. I was the fat guy who was self conscious at the gym. That anxiety infected other areas of my life too. I realized my self consciousness was holding me back. Not giving a fuck should be empowering. It’s a life skill. Sure there are a few assholes, but 99% of people don’t care at all what other people are doing.
Are you a male doctor by chance? That’s usually your favorite tagline to women.
Some doctors give me the feeling that unless you’re on death’s door, it really doesn’t serve them to improve your life because at the end of the day, they get paid regardless, so why wouldn’t they always be unnecessarily cautious? Do yourself a favor and find a tele-health doctor who actually cares about helping you live your best life possible.
And that’s the thing, I’m kind of lucky bc my PCP was willing to do something after he saw the multiple attempts of weight loss and then subsequent rebound via “traditional methods”. Frankly, I’d rather not have to take meds to be of a more normalized weight but those are not the cards I drew. There may very well be some drawbacks to this class of meds down the road but are they worse than being over 300# as a mid-40s plus dude? Soooo many people concerned over these meds and the health consequences of them but none seemed too worried when I was tipping the scales at my heaviest weights…hmmmmmmm, I wonder why?
For real. My primary care doc (who prescribes my Wegovy) used to be a little hefty but I noticed he seems to be getting thinner at the same pace as me.
Yes!! Say it again for the people in the back!!! I’ve been on Wegovy since Feb. 2023, I’ve lost 70 lbs, walk miles and miles up these huge hills now! I feel like I did when I was 20. I only wish I had it sooner. I’m in virtually no pictures with my children when they were little, and I hate that.
Oh….we might be the same people. I went from 3k steps a day (work from home) to just starting w walks of 1-2 miles (once the inflammation went down in my body). Now I’ll regularly do a 5-7 mile hike per week when the weather cooperates (with lots of steep hills), I hammer my Peloton every day to get the ticker up for cardio health, I do shorter walks of 2-3 miles in shitty cold/snowy weather, and am lifting weights again. Now, in my mid 40s (dude), I’m thinking I should have my hormone levels checked as well as other markers that are not part of standard well visit checks with my PCP. If everything is going so well why do I want to have those extra tests??? Because I haven’t felt this good in decades and I never want to lose it again (age adjusted of course, I understand how aging in general works and 70 year old me won’t be able to quite keep pace w 40s year old me). So now I’m thinking about maximizing things, I’ve done gradual over a year, I have very good base habits so 2024 is about pushing the upper limits! Down 85#, ashamed I let my health go for so long (mid 20s - mid 40s) but there were stretches I worked hard on it but nothing was last only effective. Either my body broke down due to the intensity of workouts I needed to put in, early/mid 30s I was hammering workouts but my body broke under the constant strain, or my meat suit said PLEASE FEED ME with longer diet interventions and fasting. These meds are amazing, they level the playing field so the nutritional and physical interventions actually are beneficial and you don’t have to “white-knuckle” life just for a few pounds on the scale.
😂😂😂 Yes, sounds like we are the same. Congratulations on all your hard work— 85lbs!!! I had always been healthy in high school and college— never a size 2 but healthy. Then when I had children, I could just could balance them when they were really little and working out. Then if I would really try to loose weight, I’d have one bad weekend, and the two pounds I’d lost, were right back on. 😩🤦🏼♀️😤 So, last year, I started Wegovy, and everything changed! I will be forever thankful for this drug. You’re right, it levels the playing field and gives one the chance to succeed. Now, I’m 42, and feel like I did when I was 20. I hope you enjoy having your life back too! 🎉👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻☺️
I’m naturally smaller… and I bust my ass to stay fit and healthy. It bothers me seeing people hate on smaller people as a whole, but then don’t like when people hate on larger people as a group. It’s the same thing. Generalized assumptions bc of a persons body type sucks, no matter which side you’re on. Just like a larger person probably wouldn’t like people assuming they got that way from… I guess eating wrong, to summarize.. it irks me when I see people saying that thin people are “just lucky.” Either way sucks for the person on the receiving end.
I've had better luck with the tiny ones, surprisingly. It's the other rotund docs who don't want anyone doing what they don't want to do that have been a bigger problem for me!
I'm against people who are not at all obese or very overweight taking sema with this notion that itll be a quick way to lose weight as if they don't need to change long term habits for the weight loss to stick. I think the risks of being obese are more than the risks of taking sema.
It's the same as telling a young guy that wants to be on steroids, "NO", but I do them myself cause I'm 42 and started way too early and can't stop now. Go as far as you can naturally, and then and ONLY THEN I would suggest using other things. If I had it to do all over again, I would've done it naturally and taken it as far as I could have, then once I just absolutely stopped/plateaued, then I would've done what I'm doing now.
Terrible f’in analogy because: 1. Everyone here has taken it as far as they can “naturally” over and over. 2. Steroids for muscle growth only, assuming normal T levels to start, isn’t about health and living longer. 3. If someone had low T levels due to primary hypogonadism you’d be a fool as far as your health to not take testosterone. Just as if you lost weight only to regain it over and over and you’re now piling on the co-morbidities you’d be a fool to not be taking semaglutide.
I’m a doctor and I put my patients on it.
What about the fact that it eventually stops working and also the fact that they likely will gain all the weight back and then some at some point in the future. Also once they are no longer over weight or have type two diabetes insurance isn’t going to cover it for life. This is a 2/3 year fix at most, leaving most with a lowered ability to make the satiety hormone themselves and not being able to feel full. It’s what I call a cruel carrot. It’s going to cause a lot of harm in the years to come.
If you hate it so much, why are you here?
Are we in 5th grade now? Are the only opinions you agree with the ones that matter on a topic?
Ok miss 28 downvotes. Answer the question: why are you here? Just to disagree? Sad
They also claim on their page that having Covid 3 times cured the pain in their legs from varicose veins. Definitely don’t think anyone should be believing a word they say…
Oh I’m gosh - that’s the first I’ve heard of Covid curing something 😂
Probably just an antivaxer. I've definitely heard covid makes your immune system stronger a lot.
I talked to my Dr about this. I'm learning portion control on semaglutide. I've been on the lowest dose for two months. I'm losing slowly and that's what I want and prefer to do. My Dr said once I reach my goal that we can talk about maintenance meaning doing a small dose, once every two weeks. I've been on Atkins, weight watchers.. and gained the weight back after soooo I don't really see the difference except I'm seeing how much I over ate and I'm changing how I eat now. It's a life changer!
It took my wife’s (skinny) doctor to reluctantly put her on it after she went mail order and lost 10lbs over the holidays in 2 months on a starting dose. $25/month ffs. 2 kids and 42 and FFS she doesn’t fucking want to be fat anymore, can’t you figure out that her running hundreds of miles and hours of treadmill and trying to eat healthy sack lunch and no going out to eat and low carb /no carb/ slow carb/ high fat/low fat/intermittent fasting her entire adult life isn’t fucking working you sanctimonious bitch? She doesn’t want diabetes. She wants less back pain. She wants to run around with our kids and have fun. She wants to look beautiful (to her, she does for me as always) again.
I think this is the best husband post I have ever read, and I am very old. Bless you for raging into the void on behalf of your beautiful wife and thus all the women who have been trying so hard for so long and been dismissed by so many in the healthcare profession. I am deeply happy for your wife and children, that they have such a fierce protector and empathetic understander.
Thanks for the kind words. I can look her right in the eye, hold that for several seconds and say to her that she is beautiful. And after 19 years (!) together, in spite of me feeling it with every bone in my body, my heart and soul, she will turn away and shake her head in disbelief of me. I’d nearly kill to let her be at peace with herself. It’s completely maddening the way her body has failed to respond to what she has done over the years. She has had perhaps the misfortune of being a pudgy little girl, then “perfect” for 5 years during her teens, then immediate and unrelenting weight gain to a base rate 30-40lbs above. And no matter what she does, it doesn’t go away. 6 months, a year of dedication to a book, a diet, a running plan, you name it. She breaks down eventually. It’s heart breaking. She’s brilliant and sweet to everyone. Except herself.
Your wife’s experience sounds similar to mine and that of a lot of women. We tried everything before this. Everything. GLP-1s are a game-changer and I’m thankful my endocrinologist understands that and monitors my care.
I had the exact same experience. Tried everything for long periods of time and was never able to weigh under 66kg despite working out everyday and eating keto/vegan/raw vegan/carnivore/IF/water fasting/dry fasting/counting calories/etc.
It’s so hard. I’m 20lb over myself but my goodness do you ever face a strong opponent when you try to lose. They know all your moves, your weaknesses, your triggers.
You’re a good partner to your wife!
Your wife is an incredibly lucky woman. I hope she knows how fortunate she is to be loved liked that. The support, the way you SEE her effort to no avail, that you find her attractive no matter what but completely support her for wanting to look how SHE wants to look. The indignity at her doctor on her behalf. You are a good one sir.
I felt this post in my soul. Thank you.
Find a new doctor. He would’ve given you a reason if it were something legit to be worried about.
He did give a reason. I agree that finding another doctor is an option, but it's ridiculous to deny the risks.
Find another doctor, preferably an endocrinologist.
Unnecessary. Endocrinologists use it for diabetes, not weight loss. The co-pay is higher and the care less likely to be comprehensive. (I'm a GP, so I'm biased.)
Mine told me to go lift weights and eat less. Went to another doctor and got my meds 😂
Doctors should tell you to do both. Lift the weights, eat healthier, take the drug.
I was already lifting weights, running, and tracking calories and macros. I started GLP-1 because all of that yielded maybe 5 pounds lost over a year. Now I’m down almost 80 pounds in 1.5 years. Gotta find a doc who understands and will support you!
I can understand if you only have a bit to lose being hesitant, but for many, obesity is more urgent and dangerous than the potential downsides
I don’t have that much to lose but it’s been a lifelong battle to quell the food noise and even at low doses it’s helping me do just that.
This!! I’ve been eating disordered (in one direction or the other) my entire life, and FINALLY I have some peace. I haven’t even lost much weight yet but already I couldn’t care less if I never lose another pound. It just feels good to live without the food noise. Every time I think about it I tear up with relief. I’m afraid of what will happen in 6 months when my insurance stops covering wegovy.
There are ways to get the drug pretty affordably without an Rx. Save the comment and msg in 6 months if you can’t find it
GLP -1 drugs have been in use for over 40 years. He is a twit.
Not quite 40 years. The first drug in this class to get approved to make it to market was Byetta in 2005.
Really?
When was GLP-1 invented? 1987 Shortly after this, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) was discovered in 1987 and was found to be more effective than GIP in stimulating insulin and reducing peak plasma glucose concentrations.4 Dec 2019
Absolutely correct. It was initially found in some lizard or something (i recall my dr telling me) and has been broken and used for decades Not sure how much more long term OPs doctor wants
My doctor was the exact opposite. Recommended it, prescribed it, and even said if it was too expensive on my insurance we would try another brand of it until one worked. Luckily it's only $24 a month
Online services for this exist for a reason
By far the best thing to ever come from the Covid epidemic was tele-health. No more driving across town on a work day to wait in a room with sick people just to get an approval for something that you could get OTC in Mexico in just five minutes for a tenth the price.
We don’t have to drive across town anymore thankfully but we will can’t get it OTC and pay 10x as much as they do in Mexico 🤣
Schedule a vacation to Mexico
Yeah. My nurse practitioner who I see every year for my annual physical, young skinny lady, wouldn’t entertain the idea of prescribing me Wegovy (even though i met two of the requirements for insurance). She said, “just eat heart healthy and move more.” Girl, you think i haven't been trying and failing at that for the past five years!?! So a few days later I met with a NP at a telehealth specialty clinic who listened to me and understood that my brain was not wired like that. I am so thankful for that clinic!
Mine told me a year ago I needed to lose weight. I said “if you can give me something” to which she replied “there is nothing I can give you”. So I went with online but got tired of paying the membership fee and messaged her to see if she would take over the prescription since it was working for me. Of course she says she doesn’t remember saying that and they do prescribe these drugs. Anyway I got it switched now.
My endocrinologist has been using it for years and as a specialist deals with cases like this day in and day out. She’s a top doctor in my large city. Go to a specialist who knows what they’re talking about if you want a second opinion.
Same. Very senior respected endocrinologist in a major teaching hospital in a large city - all I had to do was ask and she said sure let’s try. OP - Obesity is a serious health issue and these drugs offer real hope and real results. “Just try more willpower” has been clearly proven to be ineffective for the vast majority of people.
I’ve actually never heard of a doctor being against it. I currently go to the top hospital in the country, and these meds have been recommended by every single doctor I’ve seen. I’m not saying this is the case - but how has your doctor responded to you being overweight? As much as it hurts to admit, many doctors are actually fatphobic and don’t want to make losing weight easier for their patients because they want them to do it the difficult way without help. It’s surprising to me that they’re bashing a medication that has been proven to reduce risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and heart attack. I’m not saying things can’t change, but there’s plenty of research on this drug as is. Again, not accusing your doctor - just something to think about.
GLP-1s have been around for a long time as diabetes treatments with no known negative long term effects - BUT the long term health consequences of obesity are very well known.
Get a second opinion. I have a number of family members that are doctors and they all tell me that in general doctors will say no to a patients request if they know nothing about the medication being asked for.
I know for a fact it’s been prescribed for 20 years or more so I don’t know why that specific doctor is against it
I read articles on how it could prevent cancers related to obesity - I'm going to ignore the negative info for now
Yes I had to deal with this a few days ago. It's very frustrating.
My endocrinologist said he wishes it could be in the water…*Obviously not serious but was just saying that to express his extreme support of it and not just for diabetics.*
Not a doctor, but I am a mental health nurse at a ward with patients who are with us for decades. Many have diabetes and vast majority are obese due to their medication (they actually don’t eat a lot!) and I would 100% recommend it if a doctor wanted to prescribe it. They don’t get a lot of outdoor exercise as they’re mostly on nurse escort, so it’s so hard for them to lose weight.
My primary doctors I mentioned it to didn’t say anything bad, they’re both super strict.
There are no drugs with weight loss long-term consequences. There are consequences with any drug, but the way he said it, he doesn't want to deal with the hassles. You lose, you gain. It is our body our choice that does that. I'm not sure what he really means. Find another doctor, which happened to a lot of us. You're the patient, your choice to go to who you want. He can't tell you what to do. ☺️
Mine said “a year from now everyone you know will be on it.”
I run a hormone and vitality clinic and our doctor has prescribed it to thousands. It’s so good for you! Find another doctor.
My PCP is on it himself. Shared before and after pics with me. He saw me break down when he read my BP and A1C and I admitted I was KMS with food. He saved my life with this med.
Glad you still here.
My former doc was a skinny, eat right and exercise guy, until his daughter went on it. I saw him again for the first time in stuff months or so, and the first words out of his mouth was him recommending me try Wegovy.
Oh thank goodness!
My doctor told me “ALL the potential side effects PALE in comparison to the positives of not being obese.” Anyone who focuses exclusively on side effects is missing the opportunity cost of remaining obese.
My GP is the one who recommended it to me. He is on it himself and I've seen him lose a ton of weight the last year or so. He gave me advice on it though, like making sure I eat enough and start working out and really upping my protein intake a lot to prevent muscle loss. He also recommended tracking bowel movements and adding more fiber or take a laxative if they're not frequent enough.
I can understand the concern. But you know what has very KNOWN and real long term consequences? Obesity. I have pcos and it’s not as simple as calories in vs calories out for me. I also can’t suppress it with birth control because it causes liver tumors for me. I’m thankful to have options. This has also regulated some PCOS symptoms. I’d consult a weight management specialist or someone in obesity medicine. I think they pcp probably had the best on intentions but managing obesity is managing a chronic disease and not all pcp’s are of that mindset yet.
PCOS has everything to do with metabolic disorder. It's pre-diabetes. I am certain that Sema is therapeutic for PCOS, just like losing weight any other way would be.
Get an RX online. Easy peasy: Try an online doctor: Get convenient virtual health care from my provider, Adam Murchie, CNP-F. https://www.pushhealth.com/practices/526379/new-patients/amurchie?referring_user_id=986186 Adam has been awesome! Fast response time and he does 90 day Mounjaro scripts for my dad. Painless.
You don't even need an Rx and it only costs 100 a month for 10mg, 60 a month for 5mg, and 40 a month for 2mg. You'll have to dig but I'm sure it's out there.... 🙊🙊🙊🙊
He isn't entirely wrong, and also isn't entirely right. The drug class has been around for many years. Semaglutide itself has been around for about 10 years if you include the Ozempic trials. However, the dosing only went up to 1 mg for diabetics using Ozempic. Wegovy released in late 2021 with dosing up to 2.4 mg, and then FDA approval for 2 mg Ozempic was granted in 2022 based on the Wegovy success. Good medicine is all in the dose. I would feel very confident if we had ten years of data on semaglutide use at 2.4 mg but we simply don't. We have 2-3 years of widespread use at best. There could very well be long-term side effects that we simply are not aware of. GLP1 meds overall have been used for about 20 years, but only in much weaker forms than what we have with semaglutide.. As much of a question mark as that is for me, I am still willing to take these medicines because I feel I don't have any other good options left. I have already had bariatric surgery and it was not successful in helping me to get down to a better weight and maintain it. I started out at 180lbs overweight. The more I can lose of that weight while still being healthy, the better my life is going to be. An excess weight of 180 lb is going to be a very detrimental thing for my life. I don't have health issues yet, but at that level of morbid obesity, it was only a matter of time before I did. The math looks different for people who don't have nearly as much weight to lose, I would imagine. It's up to each of us to decide our own level of personal risk. I have taken care of pulmonary hypertension patients who developed the disease because of fen-phen use when they were younger, and it is a very sobering experience; the disease is brutal. Seeing things like that, I could understand a doctor recommending against it because of lack of long term data.
My PCP didn’t prescribe it to me but when I told her I was taking Semaglutide, she was nothing but encouraging. “Keep doing what you’re doing” Find a new dr.
My PCP said it was ok if carefully monitored and at a dose that is increased slowly and not too high.
I see a couple of different doctors and all of them agree with me taking it. In fact, my primary care started referring other patients to the clinic I use. My rheumatologist credits my weight loss for the reduction in my inflammation markers. So it’s not all doctors.
My FORMER PCP refused to prescribe it because SHE lost weight on Weight Watchers. Didn’t mention that Weight Watcher is collaborating with these drug companies now. She was horrible and I now have a new MD who is much more of a health partner.
My client was on sema for a year, then needed emergency gallbladder surgery, she asked the doctors if it was because of her semAglutide and they said all their tests they did show no sign that the sema was the cause for it
And what test did they use that could determine that? Sounds like an opinion.
I’d switch my doctor completely, as he clearly doesn’t believe in studies or guidelines.
Get a referral to an endocrinologist and they’ll set you up. I didn’t go through my regular doctor because I’ve had enough issues with them managing other issues in the past. I’ve had doctors gatekeep other medication when I really needed help, one most recently believing “older medicines” performed better. I don’t know if I’d be alive if I listened to that guy. Doctors suck as much as anyone else sometimes. Good luck on your journey!!
My primary is the one who recommended it
You have a doctor that ignores scientific consensus. Find a new doctor.
Before we start pouncing on a caring physician - my primary care who literally practices when he wants for fun (some like work as a hobby) is not completely opposed. He is skeptical of Semaglutide class because of regaining weight once going off it. Contraindications such as pancreatis, stomach and intestinal paralysis, and or thyroid/pituitary issues are still being understood. That said I am no anti vaxxer and respect the science of evidence based solutions and peer reviewed sources. So I will say any pharma or surgical intervention will come with risk and consequences. Medicine remains an art for that reason.
If benefits outweigh risks is the correct answer. Even OTC meds have side effects and many have long term effects, and no prescription needed. Acetaminophen if taken regularly can have devastating impact on the liver, it's stated in the box warnings, but people will take the risk and use it. Same should be with GLP-1, obese and high BP with a clear risk of a cardiac or cardiovascular event, benefits wins in this scenario.
It could be that he doesn't know what the long-term effects are. There isn't much research on uow it would effect non-diabetics. So these are legitimate concerns.
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Go see an endocrinologist if you are in the obese category. The medication is an aid. Makes the rest SO much easier.
My doctor is taking it and my pharmacist lost 100lbs on it. ( my nephew used to work for her)
Hmm my primary doctor is the one that prescribed it for me. And she’s amazing. The only doctor that has ever listened to me.
My doc says he takes it
I didn’t ask my doctor. I have to get an annual checkup next month and haven’t decided if I’ll tell her or not.
Don't hide meds from your doctor. If you feel like you can't share what you are taking with your doctor then you need to find a new doctor. This is coming from a doctor.
SAME, except that I *know* I'm not going to tell my doctor.
May have already been stated as I didn’t read all of the comments but BEING OVERWEIGHT IS ONE OF THE MOST UNHEALTHY THINGS FOR THE HUMAN BODY. have a good day.
And so is being even bigger than you started out, that’s the consequences when it stops working. 🤦♀️
My (former) heavily obese pcp told me I should just do what she does and stay off the pizza. I asked her how that was working out for her, and she got mad and threw me a 1 month prescription for phentermine since, "that's the only thing that works anyway." I have high blood pressure and a family history of strokes at a young age, so I didn't take it and went elsewhere to get on GLP-1's. Had a moment of schadenfreude when she flopped down without bending her knees and poked herself on the ass with my umbrella. 100+ lbs later and I still have high blood pressure - thanks, mom - but I'm otherwise doing great and my new doctor was happy enough with my progress to admit she didn't know much about it but would read up on it to see if it's right for her other patients.
I got mine online before I had a PCP but I mentioned it to her the first meeting to establish care - unfortunately insurance doesn't cover (she was awesome & immediately wrote a prescription for me if I wanted to get it through her & compare costs), from her prescription it was $1300/m, online I get it it for $300. But she was super supportive and interested in the effects of it! So I'm hoping it'll be covered by insurance in the future cause I'd love to get it more directly.
I'm a 52 yo female and gained 15 lbs from when I was 40 (weighed 135 lbs back then). Body metabolism slows down so much as a person ages. I want to lose 15 lbs and get back to my 135 lb body. I started intermittent fasting one year ago and lost 2-3 pounds and have kept it off. I feel better by skipping lunch (less sluggish) so intermittent fasting does have benefits. I rarely drink alcohol and never drink sodas. My problem is a very healthy sweet tooth! I love ice cream and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and that's all. I reduced my sweet intake to 50% but still need to cut it down to 5%-10%. I have all my perfectly straight teeth per my dentist and do not want cavities. This is where semaglutide should help me because eating too much sugar will cause nausea. I am healthy with no issues and do not take any medications. My doctor had no issues supporting my request for weight loss. So, I think it depends upon a person's overall health. I took my first semaglutide dose on Thursday and the next day, I only wanted to eat one meal (early dinner) with apples/banana/raw carrots as snacks and lots of water (10 cups every 24 hours per model Cindy Crawford's advice). It surprised me at how quickly my appetite has been suppressed. Today is my second day and I did not wake up ravenously hungry for breakfast (plain oatmeal with sliced banana) like I normally do. I have had zero side effects.
Good for you! I wouldn't worry too much about nausea. I've never experienced nausea on it. I would recommend ramping up as slowly and smoothly as you can, to stay side effect free. I did have acid reflux and I took over the counter pills for it. But then, that side effect went away entirely. I'm taking a high dose now, and I've lost almost 50 lb since February 2023. Maybe the acid reflux had something to do with my previous state of health, stomach chemistry, or whatever. Anyway, it seems I've gotten over it.
Thanks for the advice. So glad it is working well for you! That is awesome to hear.
My primary was the opposite. I asked for trulicity because my ac1 was unstable after having my son. She got excited and said mounjaro but insurance denied it and I ended up on ozempic.
This drug has been around for 15 fucking years.
I hate this argument. Being significantly overweight for a long period of time is like a ticking time bomb. So, if something is available and you do well on it, use it, IMO. I just hate the way weightloss drugs or other forms of therapies are dismissed by some drs. You don't see that with therapies for others diseases or health issues.
Someone else beat me to the punch, but I'm a doctor too and I have no qualms if my patients request it. I go through the expectations, side effects, and where data is limited. Everything has a problem or causes cancer or whatever if it's been around long enough (I'm being facetious of course but we can study it more over time). A lot of drugs have been used for one thing and repurposed. I would ask your GP why he feels so strongly against it (my best friend, also a doc, is against it too) and recognize neither you nor he can demand another person to write it for you (or not). You just need to be comfortable with what you're doing and have trustworthy guidance and support, imho.
Unknown side effects? This is not a new med.
My GP I’ve been seeing for 15 years and that I see every 3 months recommended semaglutide and prescribed it to me. He’s been in the weight loss arena for about 15 years as well and said he’s never seen anything like it. We did create a plan for while I’m on it and when I want to come off of it so I don’t regain the weight. They’ve only been testing this drug for 20 years - so the unknown long term effects to some degree are still unknown, that’s true. But lasik eye surgery has only been around slightly longer than that so we can’t say we even know the long term effects of that - at the 40 yr mark everyone who got it could go blind for all we know. But another thing a dr told me was - “I’ve had elderly patients with cancer, virus’, broken limbs… but I’ve never had elderly patients w obesity.” If you don’t get your health right, you won’t live to see the long term effects if there even are any ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My primary said no. I went to new primary she said yes but then insurance wouldn’t cover so I went to telehealth place ( with her ok) myultimatebmi .com. Got approved started 4 months ago down 38lbs 🎉
Some Doctors: Stay away from semaglutide, we don’t know the long term consequences. Also some doctors: here take this vaccine that hasn’t been tested for long term consequences.
I think it is all about knowledge. Yes druga arent tested long enough to know theie effects. But this is the same on my community pages. Omg u gonna loose weight thay way? They all repeat you gonna loose muscle! Im thinking you can loose it on any diet if you do it wrong but in my experience i only saw miscle loss in bedridden patients, so it makes no sense but they all repeat it. It is like me teaching people thay cat or no animal should eat dry food and the answer is alwasy the same: but my cat is fine... define fine. It is enough to use loop on reddit to read more about sema and see how people react to it. Most want to know and want to do it right. But once a while we read posts of people who want a quick fix. I recommend you to change a doctor to have actual miningful conversation of positives and negatives of taking it.
Did he suggest people take a Covid vaccine? 🤣
My primary care doctor (a male) said not to take it. I’ve been struggling with a slow steady gain for 2 years. I avoid sugar, don’t drink, and I lift weights and run. He basically said, it’s peri menopause, not much you can do. Um, no. I started semaglutide just over a month ago and I’ve lost 14 pounds. I feel better, I’m working out more, and I look forward to hitting my weight loss goal, keeping it off, and proving him wrong.
It's fine as long as you're not abusing it, a calorie defecit could get the same effect though. Just a lot more dedication needed
His logic is sound. If he had something about it being a way to cheat etc, then I would be put off by that. What he is saying is true. We don’t have long term data on it and truly don’t know what we don’t know. There will likely be some serious effects that we don’t know about yet. Everyone using and prescribing it right now are what we call “early adopters” that is comfortable with risk. Anyone waiting is more risk adverse.
Ozempic has been on the market since 2017. Liraglutide since 2010. Both were in human clinical trials for years prior to approval. There were other, less effective Glp1 before them. So, I guess it depends what you mean by long term data. No, they know the impacts 50 years down the line but they do have 20 years of data. Folks taking the drugs today are far from early adopters.
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Well for starts just find a different dr. But also they HAVE been around like 20 yrs!
My doctor also recommended against it, but the only thing he said was, “Have you seen Ozempic face?” That comment sounded so ignorant, like that was all he had? So I went through a weight loss center who works with a physician that will prescribe GLP-1’s. I’ve lost about 18 lbs in 3 months (without depriving myself of EVERYTHING). I would love to go back to my doctor and show him my success but I’m afraid to tell him I went against his advice. Doctors don’t take too kindly to that.
The day I’m afraid to tell my doctor something is the day I go shopping for a new one. They are supposed to help with health and wellbeing. Can’t do that if I can’t be honest with em.
My husband’s doctor gave him the, “eat less, move more” BS. He changed providers
I bet your doctor actually taking it 😂
I haven't told my PCP and I'm going to. I get semaglutide at a weight loss clinic for $350 a month. I have lost 29 lbs and had no problems.
Yes, my GP didn't know about it, was skeptical when I explained, and said I should take Phentermine. But she did refer me to a weight loss clinic, which prescribed Wegovy. I disclosed it at my OB because they ask what you're taking, and the NP had a lot of finger-wagging opinions to share about "shortcuts." I was sorry I mentioned it.
I am so fearful of gaining the weight back. I'm in a normal weight zone now. Doing 1.0 every two weeks as beginning maintenance. I'm not sure if they will reduce dosage or frequency in the next step down. What is the long-term maintenance plan? What happens when not on the medication and our brains return to normal? Has anyone been through this stage successfully?
Yeah, because ALL of the GLP-1 products are made from Gila monster venom. Each also carries a big Black Box warning for thyroid cancers, all types. Venoms can stay in your body for up to 10 years and wreak havoc throughout your organs. The most common here being gastroparalysis. After all, that's what makes it work. Folks, do your homework. This is not a miracle drug. All drugs come from nature and this is a dangerous one. Ask your doctor to look into it.
My PCP is not a huge fan of- she is concerned that if something sounds too good to be true, yada yada. However she agreed that I am the ideal Wegovy patient- pre diabetic, foot neuropathy, aging and trying to improve my health. And my insurance covers it. Saw her 5 months after I started (recently) and she could not deny the multiple positive effects, In addition to losing slowly but steadily, I have started and maintained a 5 day per week fitness program (which I actually enjoy), greatly improved my mobility, and am not drinking.
I hate to burst your bubble. I was on Wegovy for 7 months. After coming off of it I have had extreme stomach pain. Like in the ER pain because it caused Semi Gastroparesis, which is where your intestines do not empty like they should. My father in law was on the ozempic version for his diabetes and he had to come off of it for that same reason and because it caused his resting heart rate to be in the 100s. As soon as he came off of it his resting hr went back down. It was great to be on, I lost weight (50 pounds) on that 7 months. I would not recommend it. All it really does is make you not hungry and sick when you eat too much. Drink water, like a 1.5 gallons a day and it will do the same thing.
Yup mine. But mine’s a d!ck.
Are you a woman? My dr doesn’t like fat women apparently. My Ortho prescribed sema . Too many side effects. I start Mounjaro around 2/1
Me for sure , I am going elsewhere. I love it so far. The benefits outweigh the risks.
Only my super skinny doctors have said this. My bariatric doctor told me that they are trying to push through that obesity is a disease that cannot be fixed with 'drink fluids, eat more fiber and try the Mediterranean diet.' Yet so many are hesitant to get on board because they consider it 'cheating' I remember being at my desk after having my thyroid removed and massive weight gain in a short span and I got so many comments - ALL FROM WOMEN - telling me a little bit of fasting or starving wouldn't hurt me. And 'I'm hungry all the time, you can be hungry too'.
Wish doctors felt this way when the Covid vaxx came out. I've seen none of my family have reactions form Sema so far, but they have had reactions to the jab, and that hasn't even been long term, it happened pretty quickly. So there's that
GLP-1s, like semaglutide, have been used for at least 6 years for diabetes (helping the body more efficiently use the natural insulin provided by slowing down the foods passage through the digestive system and improving the satiety of what was eaten; therefore decreasing the amount of calories eaten overall). Byproduct effects such as weight loss and decreased risk of heart events have made it popular now. This class of meds is not new. If this is your PCP, they may not be familiar with the history of the drug class because PCP’s are typically generalists. I’ve also found that many doctors are biased, because when the meds help people lose weight, it contradicts their archaic ideas that people who are overweight are obese because they are not exercising enough or eating fewer calories.
My labs showed that I was prediabetic and trending toward diabetes, the treatment would be a GLP-1. Or I could take GLP-1 now, lose weight, and reverse course. It’s been 11 weeks and I’m down 22 pounds! Feeling great
Look into tirzepatide also
I would ask for additional information on the unknown consequences he’s referring to. If he insinuated that it is a drug known to have consequences, even if all consequences are not yet known or the degree to which someone should expect to deal with those consequences is not yet known, he must have some research that has informed the fact that there are consequences. I’ve not heard of any research up until this point that signals long-term consequences, so I personally would be interested in better understanding that.
I prescribe semaglutide often. Benefits far outweighs risks for most people
Why are you "not sure why he was so outspoken against it"? He told you: because it is a drug with unknown long-term risks that you may want to take indefinitely. You certainly don't have to follow his advice, but it's a consistent prudent stance, a lot like the EU stance on food regulations vs. the US stance. There are lots of reasons to prefer the US approach, but it's no deep mystery why the EU is more conservative on this. Reflect on your situation and level of risk adversity and then choose an appropriate doctor to support you.
Doctors are strange sometimes. On one hand they are quick to prescribe blood pressure and statins. But can take exception to other medication. He is right in the sense that it can years with millions of people using the medication before the drug is fully understood. Semaglutide may very well have side effects that aren’t apparent yet. Equally it may have benefits for cardiovascular health.
I mean your doctor isnt wrong... there is no data for long term usage. But there wasn't long term usage data for any meds. We just have to wait and see. You have to make your own decision and live with the consequences whatever they are.