So sister 1 is taking this experimental drug, tirzepatide?
Yikes. That sounds awful and frustrating 
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I was thinking of all sorts of abuses, including black market sales or quack practitioners. Folks have died from trying to obtain backroom liposuction or cheaper rates from quacks for other weight loss methods.
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GoodRX is showing Costco has 4 pens/2 cartons (no idea how many pens per carton) for about $980.
I also see they are planning to offer a savings assistance/“co-pay” card, which could drop a person’s out of pocket to low double digits or less.
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Unexpected! Thanks.
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Yes. I was 285 and they helped me get down to 245, and I’m hoping to continue. I’ve struggled with hunger pangs a lot since I got up to this weight and it’s made weight loss hugely frustrating, because it’s not just a matter of ‘oh just eat less!’ it’s a matter of ‘Go ahead and eat less…and now you’re irritable all the time because all you can think about is how hungry you are.’ Diet changes helped a lot too, but the main thing that Saxenda / Wegovy gave me was the ‘buffer room’ to make those changes more easily. I could avoid a fair bit of snacking because I didn’t have that hunger hanging over me. I also would get full, something I never really did beforehand.
The hunger is back, unfortunately - Wegovy was $900 a month after the manufacturer discount program and the manufacturer also recently stopped being able to manufacture enough, so I went off it, but now I’ve got a regular exercise routine and better eating habits, but it’s still pretty tough. Saxenda was cheaper, but a daily injection and frankly that was a lot to ask. (and the efficacy was less than the Wegovy)
Any of these weight loss medications might be a serious benefit for folks, but I agree they should be matched with a dietician/etc to help people make better decisions, because for me the big change was that those healthy decisions became so much easier to make when I didn’t have that frustrating hunger overwhelming me.
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16 months is pretty gradual, though. A regimen of moderate diet and exercise can achieve the same results.
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Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea are the side effects of living. Seriously, if you read a lot of clinical studies, those “side effects” are almost always reported. They are pretty much meaningless, unless they escalate to serious versions that have more serious names.
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Not too shabby. I’m going to ask my doctor about Placebo™!
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Those are all common side effects of taking metformin as well.
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Yep, as far as I know the new injectable drug she’s on is tirzepatide. Unless there’s another new injectable drug for diabetes.
Thanks. It is awful and frustrating. I’m so, so tempted to go back to Coke and even more tempted to return to smoking (stopped cold turkey six months ago, quit Coke about nine months ago). Feels like I’ve made massive sacrifices for absolutely no difference.
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Not that I’m aware of. The side effects for Sister 1 sound more awful than what is discussed in the article.
It’s hard not to focus on the weight. But quitting smoking is a huge accomplishment! There are definitely benefits from that besides weight. Same with giving up Coke. For me, personally, it was easier to just give it up entirely and switch to green tea and hibiscus mint tea and no-calorie fizzy water then try to switch to no calorie kind.
ETA: ok, that Hero gif seems kind of condescending. Which was not my intent! This one is better
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For some people some of the time. I also struggle with constant hunger unconnected to how much or what I’ve eaten, and I stay well hydrated. A functional reduction in caloric intake leaves me irritable, easily fatigued, prone to muscle cramps and generally unhappy. Even knowing that losing weight would be good for my health if I could stay at a lower weight I have chosen to be happier. I also don’t actually eat that much- people have said I must be lying when I show them my food logs.
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Totally agree. I was just trying to make the point that the weight loss from the study wasn’t rapid or unreasonable, and is consistent with the kind of results achievable with diet and exercise when it works.
I should have been more clear.
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Get yourself back to your GP. I moved on to seeing a specialist to assess what drugs to add after the basic ones and because they are so busy the follow up appointment is 5 months after the initial appointment. One of several conditions that I was told to come back early was if I was suffering. They would find time to see me even if their schedule was full. Just enduring was not recommended. On the other hand the additional drugs and dosage did require adjustment. When I went up to the current dose of Osempic I did spend quality time on the toilet with in a day or two of the injection. That happened for about three weeks.
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Exactly so. Here’s my anecdata…
I started semaglutide (Ozempic) for diabetes last October. In 3 months my A1c dropped from 11 to 8.1 and my weight dropped from 210 to 185 (it had been stable at 210 for 25 years).
By the way, I still take a max dose of Metformin as well (and my blood sugar numbers skyrocket if I miss a dose).
My insurance pays most of the $1500/month cost. I have to self-pay for the continuous glucose monitor (bolted to my arm) that I consider a necessary accompaniment.
The very best effect of the drug faded, unfortunately–my relative lack of appetite. I have Binge Eating Disorder and for the first time in 60+ years I was not obsessed with when and what I could eat next. Incredibly, incredibly liberating!
I did eat dramatically less. Some foods I could not face at all (such as vinegary salad dressings that I love). I was eating 1/3 of a usual portion (as cooked by my spouse). Most of this effect has worn off and my numbers have hit a plateau.
I expect to continue on diabetes medication for life. (Although it would be nice not to, I think it’s too late).
I want to try this new drug. If it gives me the same sort of initial boost, I will no longer be obese OR diabetic.
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No, didn’t seem condescending! Thank you for caring. And it’s so hard to give up Coke because I really only drink it, water, black tea and the occasional small glass of milk. Sometimes juice but that’s pretty much out with diabeetus. I hate carbonated water, true soda water etc and call them ‘fart water’. Also have some kind of sensitivity to all artificial sweetners.
@Tribune the only reason I haven’t yet gone back to my GP is inertia. And fear of shitting myself in public.
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I definitely sympathize with both of those reasons.
As something that helped me that may not work or be viable for others: I inadvertently ended up with a continuous glucose monitor since the pharmacy had some as a free trial. It really showed me at that stage that while I was making progress - my glucose was still really messed up in many ways. That spurred an escalation of my treatment. It also gave me feedback that the changes that I was making actually impacted my glucose levels. My weight has been stable since the beginning.
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Serious but loaded question: what will the “it’s okay and even healthy to be fat” contingent going to say about this? Maybe they’re the “fat does not mean unhealthy” contingent, I don’t know how to word this properly. “fat positive”?. I don’t think we should shame fat people; it also just doesn’t seem healthy and there are people who claim that it’s incorrect to think of fat == unhealthy.
It seems like humans, both biologically and neuropsychologically, are intended to set their weight and not drop that set point. So if you get fat, your body does not want to lose the weight again. It would make sense for this to be an adaptation to drive you to procure food; however to a large degree people above certain economic thresholds don’t have problems procuring food in modern society, so they gain weight and they can’t lose it without their body fighting them every step of the way. Every description of someone who naturally lost weight by eating less and working out more involves some level of “it was extremely hard”. Your body and brain do not want you to do this even if it would help you.
And weight loss is seen as something that can be done just by being appropriately willful, so if you can’t do it, you aren’t ‘strong enough’ or are too ‘weak’. Weakness is a sociopolitical term in this case.
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The idea of a perfect weight was mostly conjured up by insurance companies, creating mortality charts. BMI, the current “gold standard” of measure is so inaccurate in dealing with different bodies as to make it almost useless. Athletes can have BMI numbers which would rate them as obese, yet have less than 10% body fat. Also, while weight is a factor in some diseases, it is not the only one. There are thin people who have cardiovascular issues and joint issues and most of the problems fat people get told will go away if they would only lose weight.
If you have reasonable cholesterol levels, good liver function and so on, your weight isn’t that big a deal. Some people can exercise regularly and not see much weight loss, but they do fine on stress tests. So you can be as healthy as any average person even if you weigh more than the insurance company chart says you ought to.
(I work as a baker, which means I’ve spent 50-80 hours a week for much of the last 30 years on my feet, lifting heavy stuff, walking back and forth and so on. It hasn’t kept me thin! And when my hips started showing signs of arthritis my Dr. told me to just lose some weight. I asked him what he told his thin patients who had arthritic hips. He just stared at me like a dead fish. I guess in his world thin people never have that problem.)
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Same same. Coke is my only true vice, but I try to offset one glass of Coke with one glass of 50/50 green/black tea, and water after exercise.
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