Ozempic for weight loss

In Australia there's actually a shortage of this drugs for use in pre-diabetics, because it's being used so heavily for weight loss purposes, largely thanks to viral Tik-Toks touting it as the latest thing.

I started taking Semaglutide Friday last week and I will be on the 0.25ml for another 3 doses. They will be raising it up to the 1g.

I’m on it as I have been struggling with losing and maintaining weight loss since I was 16, nearly 30 years ago now.
I put a lot of weight on (90-115kg, I should be a fit 80-85kg) since covid started as I got a bad dose and then bad long covid which has damaged my lungs. I am verging on being pre diabetic.
I could try exercise alone again but that’s difficult again thanks to long covid as I am exhausted to the point of needing 3x24hrs sleep if I do 30 minutes of very mild exercise.
I’m also unable to work due to the exhaustion. I worked in A&E and would do 4x12hr very intense shifts in a row on my feet for the majority. I’m trying to get back there in the autumn of 2023. Currently it is no way feasible.

I am on the waiting list, and going through the assessment process for a gastric bypass. I’m not looking forward to the eating section of that.
My preference however would have been a abdominoplasty as it’s tough but the stomach is intact. It’s also an overall lower duration (4hrs on the table and a month recovery vs 1-2hrs on the table and 1-2 years recovery and weight loss). I’ve been told that I don’t have a hope of the abdominoplasty (my medical conditions primarily) but yes to the gastric bypass if all the assessments go ok.

In essence, losing the weight and finding a way to keep it off while being able to work and live a normal life is my ultimate goal. If the Semaglutide is the key to this, fantastic!

Any update?
I used Ozempic at half the starting dose, in October 2021, as I tend to be extremely sensitive to medication side effects.
After 2 weeks, I moved up to the starting dose of 0.25. I used it for about 10 weeks. I was also following a well balanced 1200-1400 cal diet. I was pretty nauseated the first week, then it eased off, then nauseated again when I moved up the dose. What I wasn’t, was hungry. The bugaboo in my weight loss journey over the last decade has been ravenous hunger when I am trying to lose or even maintain my weight. I had been able to lose 52 lbs, from an all time high of 207, back in 2011, though a severely restricted diet of under 1000 cals and extreme workouts of 2-3 hours daily. But by 2021, my weight had crept up, 3 or 4 pounds a year, to almost 200 lbs in 2021, which was affecting my health. I’ve read the studies- the lack of hunger from Ozempic is a central brain effect, not secondary to the nausea.
From October 2021, until December, about 10 weeks, I was comfortably able to lose 18 lbs, down to 182. In late December 2021, I had to start a different medication for a different medical condition, which laid me flat with nausea and vomiting. I stopped the Ozempic at that point in case it was adding to the nausea. It wasn't- it was the other medication. My response to nausea is to usually eat more to settle my stomach, so I usually gain weight as a result of such side effects. But this time I was able to still eat normally and wasn't hungry in response to the n&v. Finally, after 8 weeks of being non functional due to the n&v, my doctor took me off the other med. I never re-started the Ozempic, but was able to eat normally all the last 9 months, and maintain my weight at around 182 until this fall. I have been feeling better, so I decided to try MFP again. (I had failed at MFP in 2015 and 2016, actually gaining weight while eating as directed by MFP and exercising 1-2 hours a day, exhausted all the time). That turned out to be from inability to convert my thyroid medication into the active hormone, so I was actually hypothyroid despite being on meds for it. That took several years and 3 endocrinologists to figure out. In the meantime, I was told that I would be permanently hypothyroid as my metabolism had been damaged by the lack of effective hormone. So I just very carefully watched my diet and tried not to gain weight. But still did. At that point, the Ozempic was a godsend. The sensitization to leptin and other hormones which Ozempic is theorized to do, appears to have been a permanent reset for my body. Now following the MFP program, and exercising very moderately- an hour of walking or gardening a day, I am steadily losing weight. I have dropped from 182 to 172.5 in the last 6 weeks, eating 1300-1400 cals. I am generally not hungry in between meals. I eat about 40% carbs, 35% fat and 25% protein. I dont eat sugar except as fruit or a little maple syrup or honey or homemade jams in small amounts. My goal weight is still 22 lbs away, but it actually looks like I might be able to do it. My goal weight will put me at a BMI of 24.8, technically overweight. But I have also had my body fat percentage done by caliper, and even at my current weight, it is barely over the normal for a woman of my advanced age (over 65).
Ozempic was a game changer for me. I sound like a commercial, but it is a miracle not to be tortured by hunger all my waking and even sleeping hours during the current weight loss journey.

They do not work “by filtering glucose”- that is a total misunderstanding of their several neurocentric and metabolic modes of action.

yes they do. In simplified terms, as I stated in my first post

that is how they lower blood sugar level for diabetics. And it is primarily a diabetic medication

I wont appeal to authority of myself, because of course anyone can claim expert status on the internet - a simple google will confirm that.