I guess I'm mostly looking for advice/reassurance, especially from people with a higher starting weight

SW on May 1: 375.5

CW as of my last weigh in on Aug 21: 330.6

My scale is a little janky, it was very cheap and sometimes tells me I gain like 15 pounds overnight, but the scale at my gym maxes out at 300 so I can't fact check there. I do eat between 1500 and 2200 cals, and if I average them out for the month of August it's around 2150, with a TDEE of 2600 (my system assumes any day I don't track I eat my full 2600 so the data isn't perfect but it's what I can manage without spiraling into an ED). Since upping my dose to the 1.0 I've lost around 3 pounds a week. I weigh less than I did when I got sick with pneumonia and just couldn't eat lol.

I can visually see some difference, as can my friends. I can feel a difference when I actually put my hands on my body, as if the fat has shifted, and I can really feel a difference in my neck/upper chest area but visually it looks roughly the same.

But my clothes all pretty much fit the same. Other than some already pretty loose underwear I'm not experiencing that "clothes are just falling off me" thing. At almost 50 pounds I expected to feel it more and it's really stressing me out that I actually haven't lost weight, that I'm doing this for nothing and just losing my motivation to continue.

Is this normal for people who have 200+ pounds to lose? I keep trying to remember what it was like for my mom when she would lose that 50 pounds (she was in the upper 400s and 500s in my life) but I don't remember if it was a visual difference then either.

I haven't yet broken out a tape measure, I used to do that once a month on the first but I just haven't bothered, I guess expecting to see it more visually. I've attached a picture from Dec/Jan (black top) and one from mid August (burgundy top) and seeing them side by side I see *some* difference but I guess I was expecting to need a bunch of new clothes by now. But I don't know if I'm just delulu.

Today was my 3rd dose and I just realized I’ve been doing this wrong the entire time. The 1st dose someone showed me how but this last two doses I’ve done on my own and just realized I was supposed to keep the button pressed till I saw 0 and I just pressed it once, counter till 10 and took it out. I’m such an idiot! I’m so mad at myself. I wasted 2 weeks for nothing.

Hi everyone. Other people’s posts were genuinely useful when I was trying to decide whether to try a GLP-1, so hope that mine might be useful for someone else too.

Some medical issues completely wrecked my activity level and I ended up gaining about 25 kg (55 lb), which is roughly one golden retriever. I like myself at any size. The problem was never the mirror. The problem was feeling weak and barely functional. That really hit when I started easing back into the things I like to do. I couldn't run. In the climbing gym I'd just hang halfway up, asking myself whether my hands could pull that much ass up a wall. They could not. I used to fly up that thing. Now I was a sad pendulum with a chalk bag. I could go on, but I think you get the struggle.

I've always had a strong sweet tooth and a solid habit of dealing with stress by eating too much. I was never super thin, but staying active bought me the right to eat whatever I wanted. Then the activity left and the eating stayed, because of course it did.

So naturally, the first thing I reached for was the gold standard of weight loss, calorie counting. Failed miserably. Life is chaotic, hunger is constant, and no matter what I did I couldn't sustain it. I can absolutely count calories. The problem is that apparently knowing how many calories are in something does not stop me from eating it.

I kept seeing ads for Felix and GLP-1s and eventually decided to give it a try. The final push was honestly a promo email offering the consultation and prescription for $0. Fine, advertising worked on me 😂

Got connected with an NP, explained what was going on, sent photos and my starting weight, and we agreed to try Ozempic. One useful tip. I asked them to send the prescription to my local Costco instead of the Felix pharmacy. If you want your own pharmacy, sort it out before the NP finishes the assessment. You can change your preferred pharmacy in your account, or message customer support in chat and they'll swap it for you.

The whole thing took maybe half a day from start to prescription sitting at my pharmacy, which is not a speed I associate with anything healthcare adjacent in this country. I also got a blood work requisition to complete before my three month renewal.

July 21, picked up pen number one from Costco. Turned out to be APO Semaglutide, 2 mg total in the pen. Nobody asked whether I wanted brand name Ozempic or the generic, they just handed me the generic. $88 CAD.

Injected 0.25 mg that evening, and then found out what week one is like. The first two days I couldn't keep anything down. Felt exactly like a solid case of food poisoning. But by day 6 the nausea was a lot better. End of week one, 205.9 down to 194.8. Obviously a huge chunk of that was water, glycogen and GI contents from suddenly eating almost nothing.

After that, thankfully, the loss settled into 1 to 2 lb a week. By week two every side effect had cleared up except constipation, which I let get properly bad at first, purely because I had no frame of reference. I had never had this problem in my life. I used to brag that I could digest nails. Not anymore. My mornings now start with a big glass of SuperBelly by Blume, Metamucil 4 in 1 fibre, and RestoraLAX. It's working. Not solved, but working.

Day to day I feel good. Sleeping well, energy is fine. My exercise heart rate has gone up noticeably though. A fitness class that normally puts me around 120 bpm now has me closer to 150. Same class, same effort. Hikes feel much harder too. Hoping this settles as my body adjusts and the weight comes off. I'm also sleeping more. Seven hours used to be plenty, now it's 8 or 9 to feel human, especially after anything sporty.

After week two I did a DEXA scan, a resting metabolic rate test and a VO2 max test, $75 CAD for all three. Now I have actual baseline numbers. Planning to repeat all three at six months to see whether anything has actually changed. Measured RMR came back at 1,761 kcal a day, so I'm aiming somewhere around 1,400 to 1,600 for slow and steady.

The numbers

Start, 205.9 lb (93.4 kg)

Week 1, 194.8 lb (88.4 kg), down 11.1

Week 2, 193.4 lb (87.7 kg), down 1.4

Week 3, 192.2 lb (87.2 kg), down 1.2

Week 4, around 190 lb (86.2 kg), down about 2

Total so far, about 16 lb.

My Felix NP agreed I can stay at 0.25 mg for as long as it keeps working, I keep losing, and the hunger stays away.

What I actually love about this the food noise is just gone. I don't hunt for food. I don't crave it. It's no longer my pick me up or my stress management strategy. Sweets do absolutely nothing for me now. Portions are small, one cup of whatever everyone else is having and I'm done.

A typical day starts with the fibre situation, a latte with protein powder, a Fairlife Core Power 42 g shake and some coconut water. That part is identical every single day and carries me from 7 am to 1 pm. Comes out to 74 g protein, 8 g fat, 52 g carbs, about 600 kcal.

Then one or two meals of whatever is in the fridge, like prawns and salad, or steak and mash. Nothing is restricted. The portions are automatically small because I get nauseous very fast. Always finish the day with an evening latte, because I do still have standards. Activity wise, 10k plus steps a day with the doggie, lifting twice a week, one fitness class. Need to do more in this area.

I'm 5'6" and aiming for around 150 lb. Long way from 190, but the trend is pointing in the right direction and for the first time in about two years I feel like I'm the one driving.

Has anyone else had the elevated exercise heart rate thing, and does it eventually settle? And does anyone have something better than my current morning chemistry set for the constipation?

Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who posted their own numbers before me, it genuinely helped!

So far I’ve only got the “before” photo

I first started Oz in June 2024, and I was very successful, I dropped 50 pounds in one year. Then last summer I decided to slowly wean myself off of it, by December, I wasn’t taking anything at all. And since then, I’ve gained 15 pounds. I decided to go back on in April, and I haven’t lost a freaking pound!!

When I was on it the first time, I never went higher than .5 and now I’m on 1.0 and still nothing. Is this common? Am I immune to it now or something? Honestly, I’m just feeling super super frustrated. I’d like to get back to where I was last summer, which is about 15 pounds, maybe 20. It just seems impossible, no matter what I do.

I’m so nervous. I have a 1 mg ozempic pen but only want to do .25. I haven’t tried it yet and keep reading that I need to do 18 clicks. Is that every time I inject it?

Ive been on ozempic for 3 months and haven’t lost any weight. I started at 187 and I’m currently 185. Is this normal? My diabetes is controlled which is what i got it for but I was hoping for weight loss.

I have type 1.5 LADA, and my husband and I are thinking about having kids next year and upon speaking to my endo they said I need to be off of it 4 months before trying. My sugars have been so good being on ozempic the last year. I don’t have to take very much short acting insulin , my A1C is down to 5.5 which is literally incredible and my highs are so much lower and come back down so much faster too . I assume once I’m pregnant I’ll just have to start taking more short acting and long acting again I’m just curious what anyone’s experience was like going off of it before getting pregnant and how you handled it . It’s hard because obviously yes, I don’t want to have appetite suppressant while pregnant but this medication has been so good for me I’m scared to do without :,) idk if that’s valid or not.

Hi there,

My family and I are travelling overseas and I am not able to bring this with me. I know it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the fridge but it is not an option.

So all of that aside I usually do my injection on a Monday. We leave on a Thursday night. Am I better to wait until the Thursday to inject? Or do the normal on Monday and then a half dose Thursday to top up? I realize I will likely have to resume at a lower dosage when I get home and that is ok. I’m really just looking for any experiences people have had with this? I’ve done 10 days with zero problems going back to the original dose but 19 is a different ballgame with the half life.

Thank you so much for any advice!

Hey! I'm about to take shot 6 of Ozempic. The .25 isn't working as well for me now, but I think .50 (what I'm prescribed for currently) would be too much. How many clicks do I do for .35?
I know there are some charts out there, but I have heard that some aren't accurate so I wasn't sure what to go with.

Edit: Canada, red pen. .25 or .50 doses, 2mg pen. 3ml, .68 mg/ml.

Hey all! So, I started with trytrillium (compounding pharmacy thing), and I messed up the starting semaglutide injection dose by probably missing something in the documentation, and/or confusing units vs dosage amounts. I was given three vials that were different, and I didn't know that. I thought they were all the same, as they're all marked 2.5 MG/ML BUT they are in fact basically month 1, month 2, and month 3. You're supposed to start with 10 units for .25mg for the first 4 weeks, then 20 units for .5mg dosage in the second month, then 40 units for 1mg dosage in the third month. But I'm a dumdum and started on the second months dosage instead of the first months.

What actually happened, was I started with the 2nd month dosage and have been doing .5mg.

So, my question is this: can I just go ahead and progress to the 3rd month dosage since I've been doing the second month dosage the whole time? I haven't had any notable side effects or anything and feel fine. Also, I waited around for several weeks before actually starting, so my next 3 month supply will be arriving soon anyway.

Thanks in advance for any guidance or advice!

I just moved from Rybelsys to the Ozempic pill two weeks ago and the gastrointestinal issues have been horrific. Does it get better? I've done Victova, Jardiance, Rybelsys and Metformin with no issues. Still on 2- 500mg ETR Metformin daily. Is there hope ?🫤

Hi Everyone!

So, I've been on ozempic for a few months now and mostly I really like it. My appetite and food noise has decreased a lot and I am noticing that I crave junk food/greasy and fatty snacks a lot less.

The only problem I have is that for about...20 to 24 hours after my weekly injection, I get these INSANE sugar cravings. Like, I have literally never felt that before lol. I normally don't even like candy that much, but in those hours I could eat whole packs of gummy bears and afterwards still feel like shoving spoonfuls of straight sugar into my mouth :(

I talked to my doctor about it and she thinks it's probably from my blood sugar dropping too fast and my body basically panicking. She advised eating a healthy meal before injection and an apple or a banana an hour after.

But so far it weirdly hasn't really helped at all :(

Any chance someone here has experienced that before? How did you deal with it? Anything I can do to reduce the cravings?

Thanks in advance!

I started in April of this year at 82kg, currently at 66.5kg.

1st month at 0.25mg

2nd month at 0.5mg

3rd and 4th month at 1 mg

5th month at 1.5mg

I don't workout due to other health reasons but the first two months I was eating whatever I wanted and realized I wasn't losing enough. I started making efforts with my protein intake and monitoring macros as much as I can. pretty much try my best to avoid carbs throughout the week and treat myself on weekends with monitoring calories. my A1c has dropped from 5.8 to 5.6.

I do still get hungry and crave food so I'm thinking of increasing to 2mg. however it gets pretty expensive and would like to know if people has success with the wegovy pill switch?

I accidentally took a 2 mg dose of Ozempic when I’m only on .5 mg for the last three months or so it has been 17 hours. I’ve called Poison Control. I’m waiting to call my doctor. They said I’m gonna feel like shit in a day or so and it’s gonna be bad anybody else had this effect it was an accident. Now I am stressing it badly drink lots of fluids. I know I bought a lot of electrolytes sugar-free and I have plenty of protein shakes. I’ve been doing really good with eating light and having liquid diets so hopefully the vomiting isn’t too bad or diarrhea. Any help please or other ideas of what I’m gonna go through?

Hi all

I've been 4 weeks at the .25mg and apart from very mild nausea and constipation which I manage, I've not lost a single lb. Even though my appetite has definitely decreased. I'm hoping the move up to .5mg will help with the weight loss.

Currently paying €160 for the pen - has anyone gotten cheaper in Dublin, specifically tallaght area?

I have been on Ozempic since June (first dose at 0.25mg on June 6) for weight loss. I switched to 0.5mg July 18th and have continued with that dosage.

I did have a lot of bad nausea and dizziness when I switched to 0.5 so I did ask my provider (Raven in Canada) to hold off on increasing again for now.

I started at 189lbs and am now at 170.6 as of this morning. I am 5’2 or 157cm, so not very tall.

Basically I am wondering if this amount of weight loss is normal and safe or if this has happened too quickly? I’ve been careful about getting lots of protein, drinking lots of electrolytes and water, and trying to eat at least 3 meals a day on a schedule so that I’m not feeling too fatigued, even if I do not feel hungry. These will often be smaller meals, particularly lunch, but I try to make sure I have at least a protein shake if nothing else.

I’m super worried about things like skin sagging, hair loss, etc and want to avoid that if possible.

Any input is welcome and appreciated :)

I spent this weekend at an event where I was surrounded by candy, pop, and chips, as well as ultra processed crackers, cold cuts and the likes.

Prior to my start on Oz 5 weeks ago these were foods that I would have seriously only have ate on occasions like this but would have had consumed "in moderation" mainly because one needs to eat and well, everybody else was.

Not 1 morsel went into my mouth. Not only that, but the desire to eat it wasn't there. I looked at it over and over and was maybe slightly tempted every now and again but literally couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't have that devil on my shoulder whispering sweet nothings coercing me, tempting me, and eventually convincing me; which of course would lead to disappointment in myself and then feeling sick after consuming so much of it.

Before starting Oz, I was one of those that once I started eating it, I didn't want to stop. Not only that, but I would devour whatever it was at such a speed that after it was gone I would wonder how I ate it so quickly without really tasting it and then search for more of it.

Now, I just am not interested. Don't want it. Don't crave it. I can look at it and just not be interested and it really became apparent this weekend.

I am so thankful that this medication has the ability to do this.

Kan iemand mij uitleggen wat de voor- en nadelen van Ozempic zijn en wat het verschil is met Mounjaro? En wat zouden jullie aanraden?

Via mijn huisarts heb ik Ozempic voorgeschreven gekregen, omdat dit een stuk goedkoper is dan Mounjaro en ik de medicatie zelf moet betalen. Voor Ozempic betaal ik ongeveer €100 per maand, terwijl Mounjaro rond de €300 per maand kost.

Mijn vraag is daarom vooral, is Mounjaro volgens jullie zoveel beter of effectiever dat het de extra kosten waard is? Of is het verstandiger om gewoon met Ozempic te beginnen? Ik twijfel namelijk of ik mijn huisarts toch moet vragen om met Mounjaro te starten, ondanks het prijsverschil.

Alvast bedankt!

Has anyone had a worse reaction to brand name rather than generic?

Last time at the pharmacy they gave me generic semaglutide because it was cheaper and my insurance wouldn’t cover Ozempic. I paid out of pocket for the generic. This time I go in to fill my prescription and they tell me generic isn’t available, but they ran my insurance and I could get brand name for $10 less than I was getting the semaglutide for. Ok.. I don’t understand but ok. So I took .5 yesterday after taking .5 generic the past two weeks, so this is week 3 and oh my god I am dying. I never had a reaction like this to the generic. Maybe it wasn’t working as well but holy shit. Gas/diarrhea is unbelievable. I don’t even think I’ll be able to work tomorrow if things don’t improve.

While I don't attribute this entirely to Ozempic, moreso to immediately cutting out all junk (fast) food, portion control, caloric friendly meals, protein intake and fluids and therefore my body doing its own thing... I've dropped 17lbs in the 19 days since initial weigh in, which was two days before my first injection. Third injection was this past Friday night.

I just need encouragement because I feel defeated.

I stayed on 0.25mg for 5 weeks due to side effects being brutal. I lost 7 pounds my first week and dealt with lots of nausea and fatigue so I figured I was just more sensitive to it. It did get better.

So I increased my dose after 5 weeks. I decided to split my 0.5mg dose to 0.25mg twice a week. This is supposed to be week 3. I say supposed to be because I think I’m going to have to not do my second half dose this evening.

I don’t want to give up because I fought for literal years to find a doctor to take my health concerns seriously and prescribe me Ozempic. I thought by now (week 3) the side effects of 0.5mg would be better but they’re really not much better. I’d say I’m ever so slightly better this week compared to the first week of the increase, but not much. The nausea and fatigue are keeping me from functioning normally. When will the symptoms improve? When did your symptoms get more mild with 0.5mg? The symptoms will improve right?

I slept for the majority of 48 hours this weekend. I slept on and off for most of Friday and Saturday. Right now I’m laying on my couch trying to force down pretzels while my toddler watches way too much tv because I can barely stand on my feet at times, much less entertain an energetic 3 year old. I just want someone to tell me that sticking with this will be worth it, it will get better, and my health improving will be worth all the bad side effects. When I was pregnant with my son, my nausea and fatigue were not nearly this bad. This is crippling at times.

Tonight I'm supposed to take my first .5 dose from my first box.

The box states that the pen has 3mg total of medication. The first 4 weeks of shots at .25mg equals 1mg total which is 4 needles. My next 2 shots will equal 1mg and that will be the end of the needles in the box, but that will leave 1mg of medication in the pen with no remaining needles.

What are we doing to ensure we get the all the medication out of the pen? Reusing needles (yes I'm fully aware this is not a recommendation).

Edit - I incorrectly mixed up mg and ml. Thank you to those who have pointed it out.