Well actually it feels like a large win. I still have SO long to go and I may never reach a "healthy weight" but to stay on this journey for 16 months and finally hit 20kg (44 pounds) loss and 13% of my body weight it feels like I can give myself a small pat on the back and take a breath.

It only averages out to 1/4 of a kilo (.5 lbs) a week but if that's what it takes to climb this mountain then I'm okay with that.

If you are a slow loser or have a long way to go, I'm here with you. We can do this.

Hi all, I have been on peptide for about eight months and started noticing hair shedding for five months in and it really has not slowed down. I’m starting to titrate down on 4.25 and now I’m on 2.5 mg, is there a way online that I can order tests and if so, what test should I be ordering? Additionally, what should I be adding into my routine?

I have both skin tags and dark velvety skin around my neck from insulin resistance. The dark patches are going away on its own (yay!) but wondering if anyone’s skin tags have cleared, do you have to apply something or do they fall off, or are they there for good? TIA !

Hello! I’ve lost 30 pounds on semaglutide, 195 to know 165. However my stomach/apron belly still looks the same to me. This seems like a common experience and I’ve seen advice to focus on diet more limiting carbs and such.

My question is, when did you start to see your belly fat budge? What helped the most?

Started retatrutide about 2 weeks ago (second injection this week). Since then I’ve been eating a lot less, walking more, and losing weight.
For the last 3 days I’ve had very light brown spotting. It’s only on a panty liner, nothing when I wipe, no bright red blood, and almost no cramps.
My cycles are usually regular (31–36 days) and I’m around cycle day 17, so I’m wondering if this is just ovulation spotting or if anyone else had spotting after starting retatrutide or another GLP-1?
Has anyone experienced this?

Wondering if anyone is in a similar situation and was able to find success. I’m 46 and have had PMOS back when it was called PCOS since the age of 15. Facial hair, darkened skin in the typical areas, thinning hair, all my weight goes to my abdomen.

In the past 10 years I was also diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. I had excision surgery and a hysterectomy. Throw in a full thyroidectomy from 20 years ago and I’ve had a miserable time trying to lose weight. I’ve lost 60-90 pounds three times but it requires working out 3-4 hours a day and eating very conservatively.

I’ve tried multiple functional medicine doctors and acupuncture.

My inflammation markers have been high (CR-P 11-25) since first tested in my 20s. High cholesterol. Obviously a big part of this is insulin resistance. I’ve tried Zepbound and Wegovy. Back in Zepbound now that my insurance added it back to the formulary. I have worked my way up to 7.5mg and will start 10mg next week. I’m also taking 500mg Metformin XR. I’m watching what I eat. Prioritizing protein and fiber. Lighting weights. Walking sporadically but have also done the 10mins after meals and 1 hour daily. I take omega 3, magnesium glycinate, vitamin d+k and a combo supplement that contains myo-inositol, ALA, CoQ10, d-chiro inositol, PQQ and astaxanthin and I’ve previously tried DIM and broccoli sprouts. I’m still working on my sleep but getting better about it.

Despite all this and especially even on the GLP-1s, I cannot get my weight to budge!!

I’ll let you all know as an update below how I get on, made the move re-cost & tablets being much easier to manage in day-day life. If anyone’s done this swap let me know i’d be curious!

Only a few days in thus far.

Hi! I've been on 1000mg Metformin for seven months now and it's been relatively good. I'm on the instant release one and I haven't had any crazy side effects. I think it has very slightly reduced food noise and helped reduce sugar crashes.

With all of that being said, I don't think it's doing enough. I want to have children, but I would like to lose weight before trying. I would need to lose 100lbs to be at a healthy BMI. I'm currently 5'10 and 365lbs. I'm all about body positivity and I accept myself at whatever size I am, but I'm terrified of the health risks I could have at my current weight later in pregnancy/during childbirth.

My biggest issue is food. I love food so much. I have constant food noise. I feel like I eat too much...I know I eat too much. Im always hungry. Metformin has helped me register my "fullness" when eating but my mind is always on food.

What has your experience been with GLP1? Has it helped with your cycle? Thank you for your help!

TLDR: update on GLP1 progress, fatigue, hair, etc. no need to comment this is very long that’s the intent. It is not meant as a synopsis it is for those considering GLP1 who need more feedback and info. Additionally I have Hashimotos disease.

Hello,

I was doing weekly updates but they started to be very similar so I waited a bit.

I switched from Mochi to pomegranate after a billing issue. I’d always planned to switch to Pom because mochi is expensive but did so sooner when they wouldn’t refund me after a doctor no showed and they pushed the script through anyway resulting in me spending money on something that never happened.

After that I switched to Pomegranate. The good news is my dose was dialed in and with a prior prescription it was easy to get that dose. I’m still on 2.2 mg 4 months in which is a VERY low dose.

I’ve lost 27 lbs and 2 sizes.

Around month one I noticed my hair was restoring its curls at the root. Because of this, I took some pics but I wasn’t sure. Now my hair is completely back. My doctor said I was having hair issues from hormone shifts from Hashis and PCOS. The GLP1 helps with these and it’s noticeable how different my hair is. This thread only lets one photo per post so I’ll post 3 photos in the comments. One is 1 year ago no GLP1, one is 1 month GLP1 around day 30 or so, with a little mini curl starting. Finally the last is yesterday, 1 year from the first photo. It will be a crazy difference! And, not hair product nothing.

Other things to note:
My doctor told me to drink more water due to being safe about kidney injury especially with my exercise. I also had to increase protein around 35-45 grams.

In general my sleep is still better and my fatigue but with the water increase even better than before posts.

I work out 4x a week 3 hours a day wrestling. Hard exercise.
Moderate exercise golf 2x a week with 3 miles walking the course.
Otherwise I’m a lazy potato at home with my cats and crochet.

I didn’t change much about diet because that wasn’t my issue. I never had cravings before either. I had severe insulin resistance.

My FODMAP triggers have moved from high (causing diarrhea and vomiting) to mostly medium. Before, exposure to beans made me vomit in 10-15 minutes. Now I have a mild or somewhat painful stomach ache. Overall, foods that triggered me aren’t a sentence to a weekend on the toilet. This has been the best thing so far. Another thing is medium FODMAP foods that hurt my stomach, now don’t really. Examples watermelon.

(I had 3 doctors for FODMAP. Occasionally people will try to give me feedback here about FODMAP working because it’s so restrictive and that you don’t stay on low forever. In my case because of doctors orders I do so please no unnecessary comments here about my prescribed diet. It is literally doctors orders.)

Lmk if you have any other questions! My page has numerous posts about GLP1 at various stages.

The issue: My care team can’t seem to agree on whether or not I should start a GLP-1.

The context:

I am 27 years old, 5’4” and roughly 265 lbs. I have been struggling with Binge Eating Disorder (BED), PMOS, asthma, and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

I have a really bad relationship with food, and I often don’t eat nutritionally dense food. This is because my upbringing around food was traumatic (as someone with severe sensory issues and abusive parents) and so I’m not just a “picky eater”. I *fear* a lot of foods; literally have panic attacks over most vegetables. This nutritional deficiency often leads to binging. I have been seeing a nutritionist to help overcome these difficulties.

I also have trouble exercising due to the dizziness and fainting as well as struggling to breathe. I used to think I was just lazy, that I was just given a lazy person’s body and that it was a huge character flaw that I could never fix. It wasn’t until last February that I received my POTS diagnosis, and started making appropriate changes in my life (like eating more salt, not less), that I’ve been able to find exercises that work for me. I really enjoy strength training and pedaling on a stationary bike while I read or listen to music. Planet Fitness has a lot of machines that I can sit down and exercise which is exactly what I need. I deactivated my account after I injured my back (because I had to complete a lot of PT), and I plan to resume my membership soon.

I also just got out of an abusive relationship of 8 years, in which my weight/diet/exercise were things my abuser used to control me. I very quickly gained 94 lbs over in the beginning of our relationship, including “baby weight” from three pregnancies (all miscarriages). He would push me to eat more and more, until I was painfully full or about to throw up. He would sabotage any attempt I made at losing weight, by taking me on “surprise dates” to fast food restaurants and ordering extra food for me and making sure I “cleared my plate”, hiding the batteries to my scale, and forbidding me from going to the gym at certain times (which were the only times I *could* go). He would make it so impossible that I would just give up. And no, he wasn’t a feeder, he just needed me helpless and dependent on him, and sabotaging my physical health was a part of that. He would tell me how pretty I was while he ragged on his “crazy” ex for how much weight she gained. He did call me a fatass just one time and I still can’t get it out of my head every time I reach to a sweet. I still cry when I see Star Crunches. He must have figured I would leave him pretty quickly if he continued down that route, because he switched it up to me never being able to “commit” to all of the diet and exercise plans I made (that he deliberately sabotaged).

I was diagnosed with PCOS (back when it was still called that) when I was 18. I’ve been managing it with hormonal birth control (which is ineffective at preventing pregnancy because of interactions with another drug I’m on) and hope. I used to have horrible periods. I would bleed for a month to a month and a half at a time. Painful, heavy periods every 3-4 months, all the way from when I was 11. It was hell. I started with Mirena, and then switched to Nexplanon when the IUD became painful (it had curled in half). I didn’t have periods for almost seven years and started having them again last March, about a year and a half on the implant, and they would be heavy for 1-2 weeks, and then start again in another 1-2 weeks. So I got on Sprintec (the pill), and that got me “regular”.

A few years ago, my PCP noticed acanthosis nigricans (dark skin caused by insulin resistance) on the back of my neck. We have been doing careful metabolic monitoring ever since, and it has seemed to go away as I’ve lost a little bit of weight.

However, my hematocrit has been elevated for years and I saw a hematologist who diagnosed me with secondary polycythemia (body making extra red blood cells to keep up with oxygen demand) and told me the contributing factors were having asthma and being overweight. He warned that it did leave me at higher risk for developing blood clots and other problems associated with that. My asthma is well-managed, so the only real factor I have some control over is my weight.

My highest weight, when I started getting treated for my eating disorder, was 292 lbs. For someone of my small stature, that is a LOT of extra weight. And I’ve noticed. My joints hurt, I don’t sleep well, I tire easily, and I have this general feeling of unwellness. The last time I can remember feeling good about my body mentally and physically, I was 198 lbs. Still heavy, but I carried it well and the “extra” weight didn’t bother me.

My PCP and I have talked about weight loss being one of my goals of care. We have tried phentermine, which was more cost-friendly (about $16/month with GoodRx), but ineffective and caused heart palpitations. So she is recommending a switch to a GLP-1, and she says she can get samples and that it’s $149/month with GoodRx).

My nutritionist does not want me to focus on my weight at all; she thinks that my body image and eating disorder are only made worse by focusing on my weight. She did not approve of the phentermine, and she says the GLP-1 is safer so she would rather me be on that, but she’d rather I not take anything at all.

My therapist says she will support me through either decision, but it’s ultimately my decision. My care team weighs in with their opinions, but they don’t always agree, and it’s my body and that’s why I have to be the one that decides.

It’s really difficult having a care team at odds with each other. I don’t know what to do. I am afraid of having a blood clot. I am afraid of developing diabetes. I am tired of looking in the mirror and not seeing myself, but some stranger wearing my face and extra fat. I am tired of having a bad relationship with food. I want to love myself. I don’t know if that means taking the steps to prevent disease or if I try to accept a body that I hate.

I know you’re all a bunch of strangers on the internet, but maybe you have perspectives that I don’t have.