Hello everyone. So, as the title would suggest I have recently been prescribed Zepbound for weight loss. I won't go too far into my long history of struggling with my weight as an adult, but suffice it to say I have been fat for basically my whole life. High school, fat. College, fat. After college, lost some weight, gained it all back, and wouldn't you know it, as a young professional, fat. You can therefore hopefully imagine my excitement and hope when I heard about these things called GLP-1s, and how they were something of a miracle drug for weight loss. Sure there were a bunch of other neat effects that some papers started reporting on, but frankly I did not, and do not, give a shit. I thought that the Motte might get a bit of enjoyment out of reading a weekly post about how Zepbound is effecting me. Call it a case study, though it'll probably be more of a blog. My current plan is to post on Fridays, injection day, and take notes throughout the week. Ideally. We'll see how that goes. At some point I'll probably switch to one post a month, simply because I'll be on a full-scale dose and the week-to-week changes will likely be minimal. Per the manufacturer's instructions, I'll be rotating the injection site weekly, and I'll include that in the biodata section below for your consumption, though frankly I don't know if I have the guts (hah) to inject into my stomach. I might just alternate thighs. If you have questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, whatever, let me know. If these do well or if there is clearly an appetite (hah) for more, I'll keep posting. If the obvious vibe is "shut up fatty nobody cares" then I won't. Please do say so if there's something you think I'm leaving out that I'd like to mention.
Bio-data
Sex: Male
Age: 29
Height: 71.25"*
Starting Weight: 278.0lbs**
Current Weight: 273.5lbs
Goal Weight: 200lbs***
Starting BMI: 38.8
Starting Dose: 2.5mg
Current Dose: 2.5mg
Injection Site: Right Thigh
* Yes I lie on dating apps and say I'm 6'.
** At my weight, daily fluctuations in the 2-3lb range are pretty standard. But 278.0 is what the scale said on Day 1, so that's what I'm going with.
*** Technically still in the middle of the "overweight" BMI range, but the idea of being 200lbs is as foreign to me as the idea of being thin. So we start with a nice round number, and see how it goes from there.
Day One
Notes: I'm incredibly excited about starting. I get off work, drive directly to the pharmacy, and pick up my prescription. Fortunately (well, ish) because I am a Level 3 Fat (Obese Class II) insurance covered it, and Eli Lilly has a manufacturer's coupon, which together brings the cost down from the extortionate $1500 a month to an affordable $25 a month. I get home, and pretty much immediately pop open the container, read the instructions, and inject the first pen. It stings a little, though honestly it's not as painful as I'd feared.
Effects: None noted
Day Two
Notes: I notice that I'm simply less hungry throughout the day. I know that the 2.5mg dose is not really supposed to have that much of an effect, it's mostly to get your body adjusted to the drug so that when you ramp up to the real effective dosages (5mg-15mg), you're less likely to suffer adverse effects like nausea and diarrhea. So I'm wondering if this is placebo effect, but I'm not going to question it. Less hungry = eating less food = less calories = weight loss. Placebo effect or drug, as long as the number on the scale goes down I'm happy.
Effects: Appetite suppression
Day Three
Notes: I again note that I'm less hungry throughout the day, and realize I probably should start actively logging my food intake, both for calorie counting purposes and to see if I actually do trend down in terms of consumption. I resolve to start this. Today I ate one 8" sandwich (lunch and quasi-dinner), 8oz of potato salad (lunch), one almond croissant (evening), and one hot chocolate (evening). I've added the approximate caloric intake to each day's log. I was planning on eating the entire sandwich for lunch, but felt absolutely stuffed after only eating half. I saved the other half for a few hours later, and ate it then. Around 7pm I felt moderately hungry but not that hungry. Out of what I now think was pure habit I went out and got something to eat, the aforementioned croissant and hot chocolate. After consuming both I feel grossly overfed, and a bit nauseous. Was it too much food? Or was it the processed sugars? Is this what a normal person eats in a day? I try to temper my expectations and keep from getting too hopeful too fast, but I can't remember the last time I've eaten this little in a day.
Effects: Appetite suppression, increased feeling of satiety, nausea(?).
Caloric Intake: 1850 calories.
Day Four
Notes: First day back at work since I started. I read that most people experience side-effects 1-2 days after the injection, so I made sure to do it on Friday hoping any issues would crop up over the weekend, not while I'm at work. If my company ever needed to worry about my loyalty, the fact that the insurance I'm getting from them covers Zepbound should reassure them mightily. I noticed lowered appetite suppression today, but still increased feelings of satiety. I wanted to eat more, but I felt absolutely stuffed after eating about 2/3rds of my lunch (rice, sweet potato, beef). Perhaps most importantly, I was able to actually stop eating when I felt full. This is something I've struggled with my whole life. If there is food in front of me, I want to eat it, and I rarely felt full before finishing everything in front of me. This is two days in a row when I have felt completely full before finishing my food, and actually been able to stop eating. It sounds dumb, but this actually is a serious behavioral change. Dinner was a bowl of cereal.
Effects: Lowered appetite suppression, increased feeling of satiety.
Caloric Intake: 1800 calories.
Day Five
Notes: Continued downward trend of appetite suppression today, but a similar "eyes bigger than stomach" effect vis-a-vis increased satiety. I had a chicken sandwich and fries for lunch, and while I ate the chicken breast, the pickle, the tomato, and the fries, I left about 2/3rds of the bun un-eaten. I finished eating lunch around 12:30pm, by 5pm I still felt full. Not my usual level of full where I think "oh I could probably eat something if I wanted to, but I just don't really want to" but "if I eat anything larger than an apple I am going to hurl it right back up." Not quite nausea, I didn't want to throw up, but certainly uncomfortably full. I think getting used to this increased satiety is going to take me a little while. I'm going to try making a conscious effort to slow down my pace of eating, in hopes of noticing I'm full before I actually feel full. While this isn't quite nausea, it's certainly not that pleasant either.
Effects: Lowered appetite suppression, increased feeling of satiety.
Caloric Intake: 1500 calories.
Day Six
Notes: No appetite suppression at all today, I was angrily eyeing the clock by 10 wondering when I could reasonably eat my lunch, and I was already hungry when I got home. That said, I still ended up eating my lunch in two parts (half at noon, half at 2pm). So still some increased feeling of satiety, just not to the same effect as yesterday or Monday. Not surprising in the least, lowest dose of the medicine and the first week of taking it, honestly I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. Overall I'm very pleased with the effects so far, I just wish they'd lasted longer but I'm sure that'll happen either next week or when I step up to the 5mg dose.
Effects: Less feeling of satiety.
Caloric Intake: 2000 calories.
Day Seven
Notes: Nether appetite suppression nor increased feelings of satiety today. Still, I was able to maintain some good habits, like slowly eating my relatively healthy (fish & rice) lunch. I'm assuming I'll more-or-less revert to form tomorrow, but overall this has been a very successful first week.
Effects: None
Caloric Intake: 2000 calories.
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Notes -
Is this stuff from Lilly the choicest weight loss drug right now?
Seems that way. Tirzepatide is the current hotness, beating out semaglutide in terms of weight loss efficacy, and the in-trials medication that has some eyebrows raised is an oral GLP-1 also by Lilly, which is apparently "as good" as semaglutide while not requiring an injection. They're also trialing something called an amylin agonist.
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I found this interesting and encourage you to continue the write-ups.
It's notable that tirzepatide is exclusively for weight loss (and obstructive sleep apnea), and unlike Semaglutide is not approved for treatment of diabetes. How is your blood work/HbA1c? You're still pretty young but you say you've been overweight a while. Just curious, no need to answer if you'd rather not.
No worries. My bloodwork has actually always been pretty good. No pre-diabetes, no high cholesterol, nada. Complete luck to be clear, it's not like I've been eating healthy. Just for whatever reason I haven't tripped any of those indicators of "hey you are really fucking up." My blood pressure, while a little elevated, has always remained within the realm of normal.
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Best of luck with it. I'm interested to read more as you go on. I hope to eventually be able to post the "Awesome pics. Great size. Look thick" copypasta for your progress.
Thanks for the vote of interest. I figure it's my civic duty to try and be one less stereotype (fat and likes guns, or fat lawyer, take your pick). I figure whether people care or not I'll probably end up doing a 1-year recap where I'll hopefully have some progress pics to post.
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Congrats friendo. I started GLP-1 drugs almost a year ago and could have written a similar post. I'm in my mid-40s though.
Day 2-4 after dosing is my peak appetite suppressing effect and I have to remember to eat lest I feel tired.
I have had some immediate taste changes as well. I used to consistently put two sugars into coffee and tea my whole life but now that sounds gross and I limit myself to one.
It has like a 5 day half life or so, so after you've been on a therapeutic dose for a few months you'll still have appetite suppressing effects weeks after discontinuing.
Conversely, I do notice that after upping my dose it takes about 3-4 weeks to reach the peak effect.
I have noticed I'm not as excited about sugary foods as I was, at least during the days that I felt the effects, but I'm not/wasn't sure if that was simply a satiety thing or a tastebuds change thing. I'll keep it in mind going forward, may add it to my effects list if it continues. How's your journey been?
overall great. the diminished cravings are very mindfuck. I used to have to go to a coffee shop nearby every morning to get a latte and a goodie. like I just had to
and about a week after going on GLP-1s the whole place started sounding disgusting. I've been there twice in the last year and didn't enjoy anything
I'm sure going on this drug cost them like $2000 a year in revenue alone
the thing is I don't enjoy food any less when I do eat something I like. I just find the space of what sounds good, and at what frequency, very reduced.
I still deeply enjoy a good rib eye and burgers and french fries and stuff.
it's also not bulletproof. some foods break through. pizza and french fries are unaffected and I can really overdo those and feel disgusting.
I've felt the same way. Like, I still enjoy a good meal, I just want less of it.
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How have they worked for you over the year?
Amazing success.
I was on semaglutide but started over with tirzepatide halfway through due to costs.
Lost about 30 pounds effortlessly. I chose to go slowly so that I could still continue to do my run club and also preserve strength. Gained about a minute on my mile time. I lost a bit of absolute strength but relative to my weight my lifts have mostly held, with some improvement on stuff like chinups.
Compared to how much misery and struggle it usually takes to do this through dieting these results are fucking incredible for me. I can basically forget about food.
A lot of anxiety around travel has disappeared as well. I used to worry quite a bit whenever I would go on trips to make sure I booked places near healthy food options so I wouldn't binge on junk food. But now it's not a worry at all.
The success stories for these drugs are fascinating/impressive to read.
You said elsewhere mid-40s. Height and post-drug weight?
5'11
190 last I weighed myself, but that was about 2 months ago
my starting weight was 220
my all time max weight before GLP-1s was about 260. I bounced between 210 and 230 most of my adult life while dieting and exercising and trying to be health conscious
I've never been 190 in my adult life before! could I hit 180?! seemed impossibly out of reach until now
probably I'll get my muscle and fat mass tested at the one year anniversary
I am in the same boat you were in, ok I’ll shoot this gun
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