I've been on the fence about writing this post.
Taking a "weight loss" drug would surely turn some heads.
Make me a fraud.
Untrustworthy.
Maybe...but let me explain why I did it first. Then you can judge.
Before I do that, let me explain what the "Slim Pen" (Liraglutide, which is part of a "GLP-1 agonist" group of medications) by Ozempic actually is.
Liraglutide is a class of GLP-1 agonists that is administered once daily. Semaglutide is another GLP-1 agonist administered once a week. There are 3 other types but semaglutide and liraglutide are the most popular. They suppress appetite, give you increased levels of satiety when you're eating, and slow down stomach motility (food stays in your stomach longer).
June 2020 the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) released one of the biggest studies in obesity research showing that GLP-1 agonists had the most efficacious weight loss drug approved by the FDA to date. Here's the ARTICLE.
The medical field was excited... going absolutely nuts over this research.
I even asked my doctor if he'd heard about it.
He told me he had already been prescribing it to patients with great results.
Wow. Seems too good to be true.
Or is it?
😟Unfortunately, most participants of the research study in 2020 gained all or most of the weight back when they stopped drug intervention.
😟It also caused neausea and in some cases vomiting.
😟It's expensive AF (even with insurance around $800/month).
But I had to try it.
Why? I needed to see what all the fuss was about.
And also, I knew why people were gaining the weight back after.
GLP-1 makes you eat less food, putting you in a calorie deficit, and allowing you to lose body fat.
However, if we look at the chart here, we can see that the metabolism drops with calorie intake.
Most people "go on a diet," lose the weight, but don't build the metabolism back up after dieting, which is why they gain it all back over time.
I thought to myself, if this intervention worked, and allowed people who were over eaters (not the broken mommy metabolism clients...they typically are under eaters) to not over eat due to stress, comfort, genetically lower satiety level, or genetically larger stomachs (takes more food to feel "full"), then they could successfully adhere to a deficit AND THEN build the metabolism back up with a reverse diet.
After a successful reverse diet they could get off the weight loss drug, have a low bodyweight with a set point/homeostasis and high metabolic rate with a set point/homeostasis. The high metabolism will give them a big buffer and allow them to eat a ton of food at a lower bodyweight.
I felt if this intervention worked, people should know how to successfully do it so they don't gain the weight back. Especially since most of the participants gained it all back.
My doctor was prescribing it to clients, so I thought what the heck I need to know what this is.
My experience:
800 bucks? Eff that.
I found a turkish pharmacy offering it for 300 so I took them up on that.
I hate needles. The worst thing ever.
I've fainted once getting my blood drawn.
But I had to use 1/4 inch diabetes needles to inject the Liraglutide.
I jabbed into my thigh and started with the small dose as instructed of 0.6mg, working up each week 0.6mg until I got to 1.8mg.
I only wanted to do this for a month to see what's what.
👍No nausea.
👍No appetite.
👍I felt full all day.
🤔I found I wasn't pooping as often (I was still hitting the same protein/carb/fat calories assigned by my coach) so that was interesting.
The first 5 minutes of eating a meal I was very full and felt more psychological satisfaction (may have been placebo since I knew this was supposed to happen) and had to split up my meals so I could actually eat them.
All in all, it did what it said it was going to without any adverse side effects.
Would I recommend this to my clients?
No.
Why?
Because we already set up diet models that allow for them to adhere 100%. Eating the most amount of food possible while losing body fat, so they already feel full and satisfied.
Who would I recommend this to?
Possibly someone that has been doctor ordered to lose a significant amount of weight in a short period of time for surgery, etc.
However, I would love to see some research that incorporated a proper reverse diet and even an intuitive eating program thereafter to see if weight loss can be sustained without the drug.
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