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timpicks
Posts: 151 Member
I had my first Ozempic shot yesterday and don't feel a major difference yet. I need to lose 30-50 pounds (I'm a 5' 8" 210 lb. guy) that I have put on over the years, with most of the damage happening post-COVID from too much cooped-up, boredom eating.
I'm generally skeptical of magic bullet solutions, but my insurance covers the drug so I thought that I'd give it a try. I'm also watching my diet and exercising more. I'll post my progress from time to time and am happy to answer any questions as long as you understand that I'm not a doctor and my experience may differ from yours.
I'm generally skeptical of magic bullet solutions, but my insurance covers the drug so I thought that I'd give it a try. I'm also watching my diet and exercising more. I'll post my progress from time to time and am happy to answer any questions as long as you understand that I'm not a doctor and my experience may differ from yours.
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Replies
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I've taken two .25 mg doses over the past week and a half and have had no adverse symptoms yet. I'm down to 204 pounds, a decrease of six pounds, at least partially due to sticking to a net 1,500 calorie diet and eliminating all after dinner snacking. The latter has been a big issue for me, as I have sometimes been unable to sleep without eating something before going to bed. My hunger pangs at night are still there but are much diminished and manageable so far.2
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I've taken my third .25 MG dose and it definitely has reduced my appetite. I've lost another two pounds in the past week, and I'm not struggling to maintain discipline as I have in the past. The only side effect is less regular bowel movements. I'm not sure if that is directly due to the medication or from the fact that I am eating less. It isn't a problem or anything, but it is noticeable.1
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I've ramped up to a .5 mg dose since my last post and have dropped 10 pounds in five weeks. I continue to have some minor digestive issues but no significant adverse effects. My hunger pangs are definitely less with the medication. I just did some traveling last week and was more active than usual and that perhaps helped me lose weight despite eating less healthily.2
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I took my eighth dose today and so far, so good. The minor digestive issues are pretty much gone. My appetite is less than it was. I can much more easily stick to no snacking after dinner when before I sometimes had trouble sleeping if I didn't have at least something to eat late at night. My weight loss has been slow but steady and I've dropped 13 pounds in seven weeks. Clothes are fitting better, so that's a positive reinforcement that helps me be disciplined. I am traveling this weekend and that often throws me off good eating habits, so we'll see that goes.4
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Talked with my doctor and we are both pleased with my progress. I'm down just under 15 pounds since starting the medication and am tolerating it well, so next Wednesday my weekly dose will go up to 1 mg.1
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I increased my dose to 1 mg three weeks ago, but realized that I still had a .5 mg dose last week, so I used that up, decreasing my dose. I felt hungrier in that week and went back to the 1 mg dose today. It makes me wonder what will happen when I eventually stop taking this medication. My doctor seemed to think that I will be on this drug long term/indefinitely, but I'm not sure I want that. My weight has been holding steady despite my being good with my diet and exercise. I've been biking for the past four days and I'm able to wear pants that I couldn't earlier this year, so I feel like I'm still progressing even if the scale isn't reflecting it and will just try to remain disciplined.2
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I am continuing with the 1 mg. dose and have now lost more than 20 pounds since I started this medication in February. I have been very disciplined in my eating (I log everything and my food diary is open) and the weight loss has helped me up my physical activity. I now feel that I am getting into a virtuous cycle where my progress can accelerate, as weight loss helps me be more active, which leads to more weight loss. I would be very, very happy if I can continue losing ~5 pounds a months, which would get me down to ~175 pounds by the end of the summer My goal is to maintain between 160 and 170 pounds.
It is not entirely clear that the drug is responsible for my progress. Is it more my focus on diet and exercise? I think it has helped me do that. For instance, I stop eating every night after dinner and so have at least 12 hours of no eating before breakfast. I had tremendous difficulty doing that before taking Ozempic, and was often unable to sleep until I ate something. I still get hungry at times before bed but it isn't severe enough to prevent sleep. This is a huge improvement. So I'd say that the drug has enabled me to stay more disciplined.
My doctor told me that Ozempic will be cleared by the FDA for weight loss in the near future. I have zero connections with drug companies and have no idea what kinds of tests they are doing to get this approval. I would never recommend taking a medication like this--that's for you and your doctor to decide (and maybe your health insurance too--this isn't covered by many plans and it is ridiculously expensive). But anecdotally, my experience has been positive.3 -
It's unclear if anyone ever reads this except me, but who cares? It is helpful for me to capture my thoughts about this medication if I'm going to be on it indefinitely. I have been experiencing some more digestive issues in the past week. Nothing serious and it could be due to something else, but my stomach just hasn't felt right at times. Mild nausea, bloating, and irregular bowel movements with at times loose stools have been the primary issues. TMI, I know, just keepin' it real! It is nothing serious but worth noting and monitoring.18
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I'm on my 4th month and I'm at 1 mg. So far down 12.5, but in the last month I gained 1 lb of it back. The nausea is finally bearable, no appetite most days but still working out 4-5 days a week. I go back to the gym today (it finally opened again here). I'm beyond frustrated. I have PCOS, celiac and 5 years ago lost 130 in 12 months with no drugs. My body revolted and I gained back over half while still training and eating clean in a deficit. I'll keep going with it for a bit longer to see if adding a consistent gym routine works.3
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I just started with Ozempic. I asked my doctor for Wegovy (same medication, injected semaglutide) but she put "semaglutide" into the health center's computer and that ended up as a prescription for Ozempic because they haven't got Wegovy in their system yet. Since Ozempic is the same for the first three tiers of dosing, she told me to start, so I'm on the first week, .25 dose. It's doing... something? to my appetite, but I was unprepared for how ill it makes me feel at times. Also for how abruptly when eating I go from eating normally to very uncomfortably full. I am hoping these symptoms settle down over time. I have lost large amounts of weight in the past, but I have regained because when I am on a lower calorie diet I am brutally hungry, which I can muscle through by force of will right up until something really hard happens in my life; then I have to choose where to put the energy, and dieting gets set aside until the situation can be resolved (which has at times been several months, during which time I regain weight). My hope for semaglutide is to blunt that desperate, grinding hunger down to just hungry, which I can handle without superhuman effort. But I worry that it will make me "less hungry" by making me feel nauseated and overfull and giving me a rumbling unhappy queasy belly and clogged up pooping. I am not sure if I want to spend years, perhaps decades, of my life eating less because I feel uncomfortable and unwell. But, like I said, this is my first week, so I will see what happens. If side effects are unpleasant but not intolerable, I'll ramp up to the 2.4 dose that is recommended for maintenance, and give it a solid few months to see if things settle down then. If not, well, even if I reconsider using it, perhaps it will have at least helped me adjust to eating healthier portions. I hope.3
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Hey there. I started my weight loss journey at 235, and I've spent the past 13ish years trying to get down to my "ideal" weight of 135. I've consistently stalled out around 155. I've tried phendimetrizine but it doesn't do much for me. My Dr. prescribed Ozempic today and I got my first dose. We'll see how it goes.
My biggest struggle is figuring out how many calories I should be eating. Whether it is 1200, 1000, or 800, the scale still doesn't budge. I reverse-dieted earlier this year (slowly increasing to a normal 1,500 calorie intake over several weeks) and then reduced, but there was no real change. This is so frustrating. I guess I shouldn't complain being that I don't have any other health struggles. Anyway, I'm curious to know how Ozempic is working for other people and what calorie goals they have.0 -
Thanks for your posts, all! I had kinda given up on anyone ever looking at this so hadn't checked in lately. My bad! I'm sorry to hear that some of your initial side effects are worse than what I experienced and hope that they lessen with time. I'm now down 30 pounds since starting the medication (210 to 180), and I tolerate the drug reasonably well. It continues to help me avoid overeating, especially late night snack binges that used to derail my weight loss progress. I am able to maintain a net 1500 calorie diet. I have occasional feelings of light nausea and am not quite the "regular" guy I once was, but no major side effects beyond that.
I did have a nasty stomach virus recently that just wouldn't go away, and I'm not sure if the drug contributed to that. I got it from my wife, who had some symptoms for two days, but I then developed more severe symptoms (primarily the trots) for a full five days. Not fun! I kept thinking that it would just go away, so I didn't see my doc, but I will take any future stomach bugs more seriously.1 -
After reading this article in the NYT:
www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/well/eat/yogurt-kimchi-kombucha-microbiome.html
I wonder if my steady diet of yogurt helps me with Ozempic side effects. I make my own in an instant pot (happy to share if you are interested but don't want to preach) and try to have some daily. I don't eat much of the other fermented items cited in the article, but I like them well enough so maybe I will increase my intake. I have no idea if this really helps but it can't hurt, right?3 -
I'm up to the .5 dosage of Wegovy at the moment. It seems to help some with appetite. Will be interesting to see if that effect increases as the dose increases. Managed to throw up part of my dinner tonight; this is the day of the week I take the shot, don't know if that's involved. I think the "delayed gastric emptying" thing is the culprit. Still feel full after coughing back up part of dinner
And had to take a covid test because vomiting can be a symptom! Negative, thankfully. I'm losing weight slowly. Slow's good, according to my doctor, as long as it keeps on going. Wish me luck! 3 -
Well, at the 1mg dose now, side effects have gone away, it was worth sticking with it. Down 17lbs since I started, which is not a huge amount, alas, but I'm trying to go for sustainable long term gradual loss - just to be different
I've lost a lot of weight in the past by working at it really hard, and then other things in my life get hard, and it falls apart. Trying a different path this time... 2 -
I hope that it works for you. Losing 17 pounds sounds like a really good start--hang in there! I've kind of plateaued at ~180 lbs. and I'd like to lose another 10 pounds (I'm 5' 9"). I have been watching my diet closely and have been doing well there but need to be more active to make further progress. At least I'm maintaining the 40 lbs. I've lost from my peak weight when I was sheltering in place due to COVID.0
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I'm trundling along losing about 2lbs a week. Up to the 1.7 dose, and not used to it yet - got all shaky and low blood sugar around 3:15pm and then realized I had barely eaten all day A little food perked me right back up, but I need to be a little more mindful and scheduled about eating, it seems, with hunger cues gone awry. Are you still at 1.0 dose? 0
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I just started Ozempic for weight loss earlier this month. I did 2 doses at .25, and then moved up to .5. I do my second of the .5 (and 4th dose altogether) tomorrow. Not much for side effects except I'm not at all regular anymore lol - which has been kind of disturbing. I also find that I get uncomfortably bloated and crampy kind of if I do let myself overeat or eat too much "crap" foods, but I don't really mind that because it's kind of incentive to be mindful lol. I also find that it helps me to not compulsively, emotionally, mindlessly eat2
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Just started Ozempic today. My pharmacist wants to start slow to get my body used to it, so started with a half dose and will do the .25 next week. Trying to feel hopeful that side effects will be tolerable and weight loss will come.1
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I started Ozempic 2 weeks ago. Down 6 lbs. so far. The pharmacist warned me that it may cause nausea, and oh boy was she right! The day after my first shot it was so bad that my lunch made another appearance about half an hour after I finished it (sorry if that was TMI). The nausea has subsided now but I am definitely noticing that I am not as hungry as I was before. I am getting through maybe half of a meal and I'm full. I've upped my water intake and that is helping me stay regular. I guess all of those combined is what will help me lose weight, which is why my doctor prescribed this to me.1
