I like it.
I am having a good experience with the GLP-1 drug.
I feel fully, comfortably satiated all the time. The drug turned off the background "food noise" that has been with me my entire life.
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| Zepbound, by Lilly |
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| The thimble-size vial containing a few drops of liquid |
Let me start with the disclaimers:
-- I am not a doctor. I am not giving medical advice. I am just someone sharing his own experience and observation.
-- GLP-1 may not be right for you. You might have side-effects or contraindications. I don't appear to.
-- I have have been taking an GLP-1 drug for less than three weeks, so I am describing my own before-and-after experience as a new user. I am in awe of how dramatically it changed my relationship to food.
I had seen the advertisements: Retired tennis pro Serena Williams and retired NBA player Charles Barkley praised it. They lost weight, buying it through Ro.co. (Note: dot co, not com) I was curious. I had presumed that it mostly affected how a body absorbed nutrition out of food. That is incorrect. The drug works primarily on signals to the brain. Within hours of the first self-injection, GLP-1 eliminated my food appetite. I felt comfortable and satiated even though I had not eaten for eight hours. I did not feel "full," exactly, because my stomach was mostly empty. But instead of an empty stomach being a matter of gnawing discomfort, I felt fine just as I was, stomach empty. Comfortable. I had no particular desire to eat. That feeling has persisted throughout each week that I inject the drug.
A person can lose weight because small portions or skipped meals feel just fine when one's food appetite is gone.
Don't I miss having an appetite for food? Doesn't GLP-1 take away one of the great pleasures of life, eating tasty food? Maybe a little. Food still tastes good, but that never-quite-enough appetite was more a burden than a joy. We are surrounded by wonderful foods -- sweet stuff, salty and savory chips, and of course healthy foods, too -- but without the constant brain signals saying "more food would be great!" I can eat a reasonable amount of food if I want to. Or not. I mostly feel relief.
The injection needle is less than a quarter of an inch long. It is like a mosquito bite. Self-injection is no big deal.
The drug costs me $250/month, paying totally out of pocket. I didn't want to fool with Medicare or insurance or fight with anyone over whether I was overweight, way-overweight or whatever.
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13 comments:
How about just using good old fashioned will power to control your weight?
Have you seen all the people with "Ozempic faces"? They look like concentration camp survivors. Ozempic is the new trend in Hollywood. Oprah Winfrey looks emaciated now.
We'll see in 5 or 10 years the real side effects of this drug. It won't be pretty.
No judgement here.
I suppose it makes sense for us to need pharmaceuticals to combat what food manufacturers have nefariously engineered in their products. They intentionally create formulas that produce cravings and exploit our natural evolutionary drives to eat more of their addictive foods than we should. There are endless studies on this.
The other option is to not eat, or minimize eating processed foods. But that’s almost impossible, right? Besides the giant prepared “grab and go” foods bars at my local Safeway, 90% of the shelves and freezers in the store are filled with packaged processed foods. It’s how America eats.
Try eating only fresh unprocessed foods for three weeks (no eating out) and see what happens. Nothing from a package. It’s quite difficult.
Well, my BMI is 31, and I am a long way from gaunt. But thanks for the warning not to get too thin. I appreciate the call to just use "good old fashioned will power." If eating is not an issue for you, great. Be happy. Possibly there are other areas of your life where you have struggled. Have you achieved significant wealth? If not, you should have gone to better schools, got qualified for better jobs, earned more money, saved and invested it smarter, and have been a better contributor to society. What is WRONG with you? You should have buckled up. Or maybe food and wealth aren't your issue. Maybe your have had problems with partners, spouse, kids? Why did that part of your life work out less than perfectly? Why didn't you show some integrity and will power and make better choices? Maybe you should feel a little remorse and shame here. I will stop. My point is not to accuse. It is to say that everyone has problems. I am happy that eating is not one of yours. Lucky you.
I do not blame myself for being only five feet, seven inches tall. I am happy that I was good at school, but I did not EARN that. It was a gift. I have about the same body type as my father. My sense is that we are dropped into this world with some mix of predisposition and choice. We can row against the current of predisposition, and we do have agency, but it is a mix of things. I did not need braces on my teeth, but I did need to have my wisdom teeth pulled at age 18. I am ok with interventions.
I worked with a grossly obese friend for 30 years. Through him, I have long been aware of the unrestrained prejudice toward overweight people, especially women. I remember my liberal, tolerant, kind friends talking disparaging about overweight people. I quietly disagreed with them by talking about how difficult a life it is to be obese. My coworker of 30 years should have become commissioner of corrections in Alaska, and while he did achieve a fairly high level position, it is my perception his weight was a factor in not achieving more. Fat shaming is still an acceptable prejudice, but not for me.
Please don’t misunderstand my comment. I agree that we all have what we were born with and I sure have my list of medical technologies to keep me somewhat healthy and functioning.
If this drug blocks your brain from wanting more of the addictive food that companies engineer to be addictive, then isn’t that evidence that it isn’t necessarily your genetic predisposition that causes you (or your dad) to be overweight?
Several good points.
There are many different ways to control or even lose weight. For some of us, though, activities and life style are sufficient for weight control.
My wife and I have chosen the natural way, and we are fortunate as we both maintain a healthy weight thru activity and diet. And by diet, I mean that we don't eat or drink in excess.
We don't need anything to change our healthy ways.
We are also fortunate in that we adjust our eating to satisfy what's needed to maintain our weight as we age.
I'm the cook in our family, and we eat a variety of different types of foods. We both travel the world. I took over the cooking duties decades ago, because I wanted to duplicate the many meal experiences we've had. Our preferences are foods and meals that take an hour or less to prepare. We also know what foods to defer to restaurants to provide for us.
But back to the drug industry that tries hard to help those who need help to limit what, how much, and when they eat.
Will have to wait and see if the drugs are one and done, or are necessary for continued weight maintenance. Likely the latter as the drug companies are likely most interested in a form of dependency (addiction?) and long term revenue. Well learn about the side effects later.
Meanwhile, just keep the recipes and food shows coming for me. I get inspired!
There's some truth in your observation, Peter. In the 1940s, William Sheldon created the somatotype which chactegorized body types, ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph. Reminds me a bit of John Calvin belief that God predestined you to be what you turned out to be, so why fight it. With GLP-1 you are now in control of your body type for good or ill.
As the Ancient Greeks once said..."All things in moderation".
The quota continues… including moderation
If your wife has a birthday coming up, a bathroom scale would be a perfect gift.
Happy zebound. You’ll have to start the thin OGs running club …
Thanks for taking us through the thick and thin of politics.
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