I'm feeling happy today because it's been two years since I started GLP-1 treatment (ozempic) and it's working very well **for me**

In the first seven months I lost 48 pounds because I was just less hungry. Since then, my weight has been stable and I don't really think about it.

I talked to my doctor today who asked "what is your goal weight"

"I'm at my goal weight"

It's not really something I ever thought I'd say. But it's been true for over a year.

The most important thing about GLP-1 weight loss drugs like ozempic that I wish more people understood was this:

These are drugs you take for the rest of your life. They change how fast your body can digest food. By slowing digestion down, some people find that they are less hungry and we lose weight. If you stop taking the drug this effect stops and you slowly gain the weight back.

1/

I'm feeling happy today because it's been two years since I started GLP-1 treatment (ozempic) and it's working very well **for me**

In the first seven months I lost 48 pounds because I was just less hungry. Since then, my weight has been stable and I don't really think about it.

I talked to my doctor today who asked "what is your goal weight"

"I'm at my goal weight"

It's not really something I ever thought I'd say. But it's been true for over a year.

The ability to digest food quickly was probably an advantage for my ancestors. Not helpful in the modern world where food is abundant.

There are moral judgements we project on to weight and diet. Notions of "self control" and goal setting.

For me? This has all proven to be totally irrelevant.

I can run up five flights of stairs and not be out of breath, I can walk several miles for fun. I take my meds. It's not that complex.

2/

I've lost weight and "kept it off" and it's not about willpower. It's about how I'm not fighting with my body anymore.

I'm also not depressed anymore.

Turned out most of my depression was tied to the strict diet I lived with and hated (I was still always hungry and still overweight. I was trying so hard and failing. That's depressing.)

Now there is no strict diet. I'm not overweight so the anxiety is gone.

3/

@futurebird I take high-dose Mounjaro, I maintain a weight 50 pounds below my lifetime maximum weight with zero effort — and I have STILL gotten grief from my MD about the supposed need to count calories to go even lower. Sounds like your doctor was trying to nudge you in a similar way. I'm glad you were able to draw the line.

I keep telling them I have ZERO interest in trying willpower-based dieting EVER AGAIN. I have a long history of psychological major depression, but the one time in my life when I was seriously contemplating suicide was after two years of losing 50 pounds by willpower-based "white-knuckle" dieting, with no pharmaceutical help at all. It was the worst experience of my life and I will NEVER repeat it. People who try willpower-based diets and give them up because they lack the willpower are LUCKY. Actually HAVING the willpower, as I did, is far worse.

@futurebird if that really is the most important thing, then this makes the decision easy, now that there's a pill form. Just one more drug to take for the rest of my life immediately sounds less dramatic!

And, like, the current three are to make that life a bit more productive, a bit less unpleasant, and a bit less likely to abruptly end without warning. It's absolutely a trade I'll make again.

Just had a dialogue with my mom a few days ago where she complained about everyone around her drinking themselves to death and after a few changes of topic said she worried i'm getting "addicted and zombified" by the prescription stimulants and antidepressants. So, like everyone else, but without the bad parts, then?

The most important thing about GLP-1 weight loss drugs like ozempic that I wish more people understood was this:

These are drugs you take for the rest of your life. They change how fast your body can digest food. By slowing digestion down, some people find that they are less hungry and we lose weight. If you stop taking the drug this effect stops and you slowly gain the weight back.

1/

@futurebird I just started on a glp-1, and I attribute the huge gains I've had so far more on a renewed focus on diet and exercise than the med. but either way I stretched my belt today, trying to find the next notch, and there WAS no next notch. I've been pushing my meals away half eaten in the last few days - half being a normal portion - and that's exciting.

but the idea "this is for the rest of my life" is still somehow scary.