Comment by gib444
21 hours ago
It totally solved my food addiction. It flipped it like a switch - I knew what most people are like, where food isn't a thought every 15 minutes. What a glorious time. So much free head space
It is now firmly back, after ~6 months off the drug (due to cost) :/
I've managed to keep off the lost weight, through a lot of willpower, but winter will be a struggle I can tell.
I just started Ozempic about 4 weeks ago.
It wasn't until this week that I started feeling the effect, and so far, it's like...yeah. I don't feel this damn near constant urge to eat anymore.
It's so frustrating to deal with people who naturally eat sensibly and look down on overweight people and accuse them of not having self-control. They have a complete lack of empathy and assume that everyone else has the same properly-calibrated sense of hunger that they do. Guess what: not everyone does.
They have no idea what it's actually like. They'll eat a six-inch sub sandwich and feel full all the way to dinner. Maybe they'll eat a handful of nuts in the afternoon if they get snackish. Then they assume that's what life is like for me.
No. If I ate just the six-inch sandwich, my stomach wouldn't even tell me I'm satiated, let alone full. I'd have to eat the footlong. And I'd still be hungry two hours later. Yeah, I'd eat a handful of nuts. And then another. And another. Until eventually I've eaten 700+ calories from nuts and I'd still be fucking hungry.
And don't tell me "drink more water!". If anything, I was overhydrating. My urine was nearly clear and I'm pissing every hour.
Ozempic has flipped the switch, though admittedly I'm in a transition period for sure. I went out for dinner the other day, had a bowl of soup and only about 1/3rd of my main course. My stomach was feeling full, but something was still telling me to keep eating. Luckily the discomfort of fullness won out and I took the rest home. The next day, for lunch, I ate the leftovers, and I felt full afterwards, and didn't feel the urge to snack at all before dinner.
It's such a breath of fresh air. Is this what normal or "naturally thin" people experience? Hunger that reflects actual caloric needs, rather than some unnecessary urge to constantly keep adding things to the stomach?
EDIT: "It is now firmly back, after ~6 months off the drug (due to cost) :/"
That sucks. With my insurance, it's only $50 for a 4-week supply, but on the prescription form from Costco, it lists the "U/C" as $2,207, which my understanding means it would be $2,207 if I didn't have insurance.
The price of this drug is damn near criminal.
> It's so frustrating to deal with people who naturally eat sensibly and look down on overweight people and accuse them of not having self-control.
The looking down on people is the huge problem. It is at least in part a self control problem, and also who cares? Everyone has things they try to deal with, faults they don't even notice, etc.
In my opinion, saying it is often a self-control problem is calling a spade a spade. It isn't always that, there are other reasons people may struggle with obesity. But for those finding help in GLP-1 blockers it does seem to boil down to just eating less. And again, who cares? Demonizing and shaming people for lacking self-control in certain areas is just a pretty shitty way to treat people.
> Yeah, I'd eat a handful of nuts. And then another. And another. Until eventually I've eaten 700+ calories from nuts and I'd still be fucking hungry.
You don't get the full calories from nuts because we're can not chew them so thoroughly that they're 100% bio-available. There were studies that confirmed it. Now, eating them as butter, that's another thing.
700+ calories of nuts is about 100g-150g?... it would be better if you ate them in one sitting, the satiety suppression would be stronger. And don't be afraid to eat them, as much as you want, as long as they're whole, with no coatings. Just don't washed them with Coke, juice, etc.
>It's so frustrating to deal with people who naturally eat sensibly and look down on overweight people and accuse them of not having self-control.
I've come to realize that some of this difference actually comes from low-effort activity like walking.
At 1796 kcal BMR your weight is 76 kg.
At 1896 kcal BMR your weight is 86 kg.
At 1996 kcal BMR your weight is 96 kg.
It is easier to just eat 100 kcal less, but it's also not unreasonable for people to walk more. 100 kcal gets burned in something like 30-60 minutes of walking.
And that 100 kcal is a 10 kg difference in weight in the long-term (22 lbs). The key is that people usually don't go for those walks to lose weight, they just happen naturally during their day due to other reasons.
Not to argue with you—but walking has been a part of my regimen for a decade now (twice a day—after breakfast and dinner, FWIW) and there has been no obvious weight loss (I record it twice a week in Apple's Health app—have been for 8 years now).
Now, who knows, without the walking I might have been 10 pounds heavier, but it sure didn't bring my weight down.
The only thing that did (in my eight years of recording) was eating less.
I had to prepare for surgery some 7 or so years ago and started eating the smallest of meals out of fear that I might die before the operation could take place (I had a constriction in my intestinal tract that, if blocked, could cause my intestines to burst).
In that two months of fear and small portions I lost like 20 pounds.
In the 7 years since though, I have been unable to stay at the small portions. (Until Zepbound.)
> The price of this drug is damn near criminal.
Good news: they let the patent on Semaglutide lapse in Canada, and it’s already expired naturally in India and a bunch of South American countries. There are going to be accessible generics at some point.
In the U.S. — it might be 6 or 7 years away (I was told by a pharmacist).
This may or may not have worked for you but I’ve found a lot of people just don’t give their bodies enough time to adjust to caloric deficit, it takes a couple weeks.
If you ever tried water fasting first couple of days are gruelling but day 3 and 4 are significantly easier. Another natural hunger suppressant is cardio which reduces hunger.
Ive never found cardio to suppress hunger. If anything I end up eating more after a large workload (fuel the afterburn i suspect). That said there are certainly lots of stabilizers from cardio…. Maybe if i was in a study id see a reduction in snacking or something..
I did keto for 9 months and was also doing cardio and resistance training.
The hunger never went away.
I'm sure it works for some folks, but for those of us with "the little fat dude in our head", the hunger never goes away. The drugs work wonders, though. Cardio definitely always just made me more hungry even after 1-2 months of race training.
> Another natural hunger suppressant is cardio which reduces hunger
It can also increase it! Both effects are scientifically plausible
I'm curious if you've tried any methods to increase your endogenous GLP-1 activity?
These include things like loading your body earlier in the day with heavy protein and fermented foods, eating proteins and vegetables before carbs (make less room for carbs), and of course there is still the lower stress, improve sleep and exercise.
I'm not suggesting these are replacements, but potentially like a micro-dose response.
Natural GLP 1 is an extremely different molecule to these drugs. Natural GLP 1 gets used in minutes. It's like a house key. It fits in the lock, and it's easy to remove.
These GLP 1 drugs are huge molecules with a GLP 1 shaped key on them. It's like a house key attached to a school bus. Once it's in your lock, that key is going to be a pain to remove.
Stimulating natural GLP 1 helps for a few minutes. Using these drugs can help for a week.
I'm not the GP, but I can answer this.
I did try keto before. Heavy protein, low carbs. Everyone promised a high protein/fat/fiber diet with low starch/sugar was the secret to feeling full sooner and for longer.
Nope. Didn't change a damn thing. I was still hungry all the time.
My experience mirrors the GP. Ozempic really flipped the switch. See my other comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50399564) for more.
GP here, yup, was about to write something like that.
I don't really like fermented foods and I avoid dairy. Only have heavy carbs a few times a month. Mostly it's meat, vegetables, fruit. I've done various diets as a result of trying to fix other issues but none move the needle on the food noise
I've also had no stress for like, a year now due to my circumstances
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I'm going to say something brave and controversial (/s), and I'll accept the downvotes and flagging: I don't believe you. I don't believe keto (or keto-ish) didn't lead to lower hunger cravings. Maybe you're missing some things from your story? maybe you're misremembering some things?