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Teknoman117yesterday at 11:19 PM10 repliesview on HN

I’m always kind of envious of the people who were able to lose weight on GLP-1 drugs. I lost a bunch of weight a few years ago, and still need to lose a lot more (430 lb -> 330, goal 240), but I fell out of the good habits for, well, no good reasons…

Decided to try Ozempic and was on it for about 6 months. Didn’t do a single thing for my appetite unfortunately, even on the max dose.

Sample size of one here, but if you’ve got mental health struggles that feed into your eating patterns, GLP-1s might not help with your weight problems.


Replies

tsoukasetoday at 4:27 AM

Try Fluoxetine 20mg, first 1 per day, later 2. Glp-1 doesn't work in stress related obesity.

brapyesterday at 11:26 PM

Wegovy/Ozempic didn’t do anything for me for months. Then my doc put me on Tirzepatide+Phentermine combo and I forgot what being hungry even feels like.

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01100011yesterday at 11:45 PM

It lets me more or less skip a meal but holy hell I am craving sugar more than ever. On the whole I'm cutting calories and have lost a lot of weight, I just wish I didn't want sugar this much.

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cthalupayesterday at 11:23 PM

That's unfortunate! It might be worth checking out Tirzepatide or Retatrutide once it is released. The GIP and Glucagon receptors might be better targets for you, even if the GLP-1 receptor seems to not help.

bradleyyyesterday at 11:21 PM

Hey, I can identify. Sending good thoughts your way.

pitchedyesterday at 11:25 PM

I really had thought (with no research) the correlation between mental health and glp1 effectiveness went the other way around. Thank you for this check-your-biases moment, you probably just saved me a ton of embarrassment down the line, if these drugs ever enter my life.

rjurneytoday at 1:46 AM

So try Mounjaro. It works better.

rootusrootustoday at 12:05 AM

You missed out on both of the weight suppression tricks, which really does suck. Appetite suppression (or reduction of food noise) is pretty useful, but GLP1s also tend to punish you mightily if you overeat. For me, even if I were hungry, overeating will make me hurt for hours. I could not gain weight on this even if I wanted to.

There are some difference, too, between the various drugs. I never tried ozempic, I went directly to tirzepatide (zepbound). And then to retatrutide. I will say that reta is in some ways the most interesting, because it has less appetite suppressing activity than tirzepatide (this is common, not just me), but it still cuts my stomach capacity quite a lot, and ramps up my metabolism. I had stalled at about 90 pounds down with tirzepatide, and reta immediately knocked off another 15. I track calories, and I had changed nothing. Felt more hungry, still lost more weight. Wild.

From one rando to another, I recommend trying tirzepatide. Or try semaglutide again but stacked with cagrilintide -- some people get pretty great results with that, similar to tirz.

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ameliusyesterday at 11:38 PM

Did you try those zero-sugar candy bars (often labeled as protein bars)? They work quite well for me, no messing with GLP-1 necessary.

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sublineartoday at 1:05 AM

I went down from 390lbs to 240lbs gradually over 5 years. I have maintained a weight of 240lbs since then (6'1" tall).

The first year was the most dramatic loss of 100lbs. I was miserable and didn't know what I was doing other than counting calories. The rest of it was more considerate of total nutrition, and that's what made my good eating habits stick.

I say this because while I'm not a doctor I think GLP-1 is probably unnecessary for the vast majority of patients. Better food and information is more available than ever before.

I would strongly advise to watch your A1C and get out of the diabetes danger zone if you are. Most people can drop a few percent in as little as 6 months and it makes a massive difference in mental health. Blood glucose has a direct impact on the brain and overall cardiovascular health. If you drink alcohol, you might want to take a break also to let your liver/kidneys/pancreas do their jobs properly and restore insulin sensitivity and other hormones. Look into the "fruit paradox", and more generally get a good salad in for lunch to address nutrient deficiencies. Not crappy salads either. You're not a rabbit. Treat them like the amazing sandwiches without bread that they are.

Sounds like old advice, because it is, but I find people aren't listening because they want to more deeply understand why to do it and what the effects are. Convenience and unintuitive pricing are false bargains that get in the way of healthier habits. Focus on nutrition and not quantity. Change your groceries, change your life.

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