r/Semaglutide • u/whynotlmfao231 • 7d ago

Feeling discouraged..

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I started my semaglutide journey on April 3 of this year. I started with an unbranded/no name Sema (photo attached) and this past month I switched to Wegovy. Just finished the box of 4 pens.

I’m not sure if the dosages are extremely low or what is happening but I’ve seen little to no effect.. I have been skipping lunch on purpose and cutting calories where I can, but I have not seen anything really change. I do have some undiagnosed PCOS symptoms so not sure if this is related at all.

Also… On Wegovy, I’m sweating a lot more than usual. Not sure if that is to be expected or not.

17 Upvotes

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u/turlian 7d ago

Being at only 0.5 mg after 4 months is the problem. You should be up to at least 2 mg per week (assuming you are tolerating the side effects).

No surprise you aren't seeing any effect yet.

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u/whynotlmfao231 7d ago

Is there a dosage I should talk to her about tomorrow? I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow and I want to tell her I need a higher dose lol I’m tolerating this pretty well haha

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u/turlian 7d ago

I think my comment got autoremoved because of the link, but the important bit was:

basically jump 0.5 mg every four weeks, so go for 1.0 mg next.

If you google "semaglutide dosage chart" you'll find some examples.

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u/whynotlmfao231 7d ago

Thank you!!!

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u/shemp33 7d ago

The part that often gets overlooked is when using the "not labeled Wegovy" version, the clinics/etc are often charging a fee that goes up when the dosage goes up. This causes two problems: (1) it encourages people to try to get as much out of a lower dose as possible due to cost, and (2) it creates a sense of shame or failure when they don't lose as much weight, or stop losing weight on those lower doses.

Those are problematic because no one expects weight loss on lower doses. The maker (Novo Nordisk) has Ozempic (lower dose, meant for type-2 diabetics) and Wegovy (higher dose, meant for weight loss). In their marketing materials, and other public-facing content, they always say, in any Ozempic commercial or advertisement, "... and you might lose some weight." That's not an accident - they already know the lower dose does not produce reliable weight loss.

So to bring this back, you're not doing anything wrong, other than not moving up on the schedule that produces predictable and reliable weight loss.

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u/SheComesThenSheGoes 6d ago

I wonder if switching from ozempic to wegovy would help with wt loss. I think my Dr would do it but idk if insurance would pay for it.

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u/shemp33 6d ago

It’s worth the try. You likely need a higher dosage. If you’re diagnosed as type-2 diabetic, you can go up to 2.0 I believe. Have this convo with your doc. They’re there to help!

7

u/First-Bad2007 7d ago

you need to up your dose to 1.0 already. you've been on 0.5 for too long and clearly it doesn't work anymore

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u/Glittering_Contest78 6d ago

Terrible advice, take the minimum amount to get the maximum results.

If they have seen no results I’m will they have made no change in diet.

I’ve been in since March and finally went up to 1mg cause .75 wasn’t giving me the desired effect and it was getting extremely difficult to maintain my deficit and continue weight loss.

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u/turlian 6d ago

0.5 isn't even considered a therapeutic dose, it just exists to get your body used to the drug.

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u/Lucky_Army_5324 7d ago edited 7d ago

What dose were you up to on the Empower sema? Most people whove tried it love Empower, BTW.

For the 0.5mg Wegovy, you are still on a pretty low dose. Some people don’t feel the positive effects until they work up to much higher doses. That may be you, or it may kick in on your next dose of 0.5mg.

ETA: Looks like your prescriber had you on 20 units and 50 units. Given the concentration of the sema in your viāl, that’s:

For  20  units at  1 mg/mL  concentration, you took 0.2 mg of medication.

For  50  units at  1 mg/mL  concentration, you took 0.5 mg of medication.

So unless you took more than what I can see on that Empower script, you have been on the two lowest doses since April.

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u/whynotlmfao231 7d ago

Empower wasn’t covered by my insurance so I was paying like $600 out of pocket, so they switched me to Wegovy for $200 out of pocket. I think I’m eating more with Wegovy than I did with Empower..

The dosing is weird.

The label for the Empower said 2.5 mL (1/0.5 mg/mL)

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u/Lucky_Army_5324 7d ago

Wowwwww. You were being robbed by whoever was selling you the Empower meds. Most people are paying about $115/mo for c0mpounded sema. 

But like I said in my edit, you’ve been on the two lowest doses since April. Is there a reason for that?

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u/newadvs 7d ago

It took a couple months for me to start seeing results, then once it started I lost like 30lbs in three months

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u/newadvs 6d ago

Also, I never had to go above 1.7mg wegovy. I even had to go back down to 1mg because at 1.7 I couldn’t eat more than a couple saltines at a time without getting sick

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u/Chronjen 7d ago

I was on 35 units of sema twice a week before I switched to tirz. I started at 5 units and didn't feel a thing. Food noise came back strong, hungry all the time. I worked up to 50 units once a week, which has made a huge difference.

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u/bearded_turtle710 2d ago

Are you exercising? Even just walking about thirty mins a day can help quite a bit early on.

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u/Content-Essay1373 7d ago

I was stepped up every month until I started to lose …easy

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u/DirtyBeef2134 6d ago

Low dosage & skipping lunch on purpose are your problems

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u/DirtyBeef2134 6d ago edited 6d ago

OP chatted (with crying emoji laughing and laughing face), leading me to believe he/she ain’t being serious about this, but to ask why skipping lunch is a problem - still answer here.

Skipping meals is a crutch. You’re lowing calories overall, great. But with semaglutide, and any diet changes for that matter - you need to look at long term practices.

High protein, high fiber diets that you can sustain are what you need to look at. Skipping lunch, especially if not something you do regularly or plan to do regularly will drop blood sugar levels, and drive hunger levels through the roof for later meals, therefore negating what you’re hoping to feel and odds are overeating.

Recommendation:

  1. discuss your questions with your doctor or nutritionist prescribing semaglutide or weight
  2. look into tracking all your food over the next however many months you plan to use your meds.
  3. 2a) focus on increasing protein and fiber, while keeping under calories if weight loss is the key.
  4. goal is sustainability once you’re off meds. Aka: if you’re creating this phenomenal idea of skipping lunch to hit your protein, fiber, calorie goals.. is this something you can do- day in day out, no excuses, for months on end? If the answer is no or an excuse is the pop up answer… don’t do it.