Consideration: There is no "stopping" these meds.

[Needsalife]

Taking GLP1 meds is no more natural than gaining weight inexplicably and being unable to lose it. I want to know the secret. Why did my body betray me? Why were there no obese people in 1950 but now a huge percentage of Americans are obese? So I’m on a quest to figure that out. Will I be on GLP1s in 2 years? Yes. Will I be on GLP1s in 10 years? I hope not. Of course I was on Glucophage/Metformin for 25 years trying to solve insulin resistance (which it didn’t do) so maybe I will be on GLP1s for many years.

 

[miss-sanne]

Oh, I know I won't able to come off it. I became insulin resistant after pregnancy with gestational diabestes, i then got high lipids, and was basically 'metabolic syndrome', blod pressure also rising.

That is my body now.

Yes i got 'only' 20 kg as a gift of overweight, because of this, but I need the drugs to correct my metabolic imbalance. I was always normal weight.

People who have metabolic issues like diabetes, PCOS, IR, longterm obesity, will (most likely) not be able to get off the drugs.

They correct the issues, or at least help with it.

I can eat well and exerci

Which is why I hate the 'eat less move more' and you are home safe, what a load of sh**.

But I will try at some point to see what happens if i wean off it slowly. I'm curious.

I do have a huge stash for 5-10 years of peps in freezer now.

I do also use Metformin for IR.

 

[MsGizmo]

Taking GLP1 meds is no more natural than gaining weight inexplicably and being unable to lose it. I want to know the secret. Why did my body betray me? Why were there no obese people in 1950 but now a huge percentage of Americans are obese? So I’m on a quest to figure that out. Will I be on GLP1s in 2 years? Yes. Will I be on GLP1s in 10 years? I hope not. Of course I was on Glucophage/Metformin for 25 years trying to solve insulin resistance (which it didn’t do) so maybe I will be on GLP1s for many years.

See that's just a myth though. There were plenty of obese people in the 50s. Sure it wasn't as common but they were there. As to why there are more now .. processed food and all the extra chemicals they spray on everything is the reason in my opinion.

 

[Nailedit]

So it's my understanding that these meds, if you opt to use them, are a "forever" thing. It looks awfully well-studied that if you use sema or tirzep and prolly reta when the studies get that far, you lose a bunch a weight, hooray you're healthy, and then you stop....then you are probably going to start slowly regaining "a lot" to "all and more" of that weight back over the course of a year; and there's no indication I saw that at the end of that year, your body goes "all right buddy, I tried my best, but I see you really don't want to do this so we can stop gaining weight now." Maybe you'll be in the exceptional minority posting on reddit "I lost it all six years ago, stopped the med, and haven't gained an ounce!" But you probably won't be.

Roughly 1/3 of my office is on some kind of glp1, either sema or tirz. The ones who are very near goal weight talk about how excited they are to be done and get off the meds, or that they only have X weeks of the meds to go. And of course the insurance companies who cover these meds stop when you're not obese anymore, because "all better!"

This seems pants-on-head insane to me. Far as I know, glp1 drugs mostly make it so that you can stand to eat the amount that would put you at a healthy weight. Remove that, and you lose that ability, and regain. The studies seem to support that.

But it feels like everybody's walking around saying with a straight face that that's not true, and blinking twice at me when I say "No, I'm never coming off these drugs. This is a lifelong med." I'm starting to feel like I'M the crazy one here.

Would welcome perspectives.

I think a lot of people are kidding themselves, but isn't that the way with ALL diets in the past. People think once I get to goal I'm done! So far from the truth. That's when the hard work really begins and is why so many people regain the weight they lost. I am a lifetime chronically fat person who now has a tool that can maybe get me to goal for the first time in my life and allow me to stay there. Like with any chronic illness you may have to take meds to get and stay better.

 

[GroundBison]

I'm planning to stay on tirz long term as long as I am able to continue to access it. As someone who was overweight, obese, or morbidly obese for most of my life, I know I wouldn't have success with willpower alone. I had the Cadillac of weight loss surgeries 5 years ago, and even with that I was slowly gaining weight again. Overeating, laziness, processed foods, etc absolutely contribute to overweight/obesity, but the mental, emotional, and hormonal factors don't always go away when you lose weight. I hope chronic use of these medications becomes common and accepted because it is absolutely the most likely path to successfully maintaining weight loss for the vast majority of people.

 

[HumanusExMachina]

Why were there no obese people in 1950 but now a huge percentage of Americans are obese?

I was a child in the 50s and 60s. I was surrounded by overweight people. They were everywhere. A lot of people considered fat as being healthy and thin/skinny as unhealthy. My grandmother was one of those people and I was just lucky to have a high metabolism as a kid.

 

[hexagonal]

When access to affordable, hyper-palatable, calorie dense food becomes widespread, people get fat. We see it time and time again as countries reach higher levels of wealth and there is greater access to global markets which has this food in abundance, obesity rates start to climb.

There's a strong correlation with this to ultra processed food - it is designed to be cheap and addictive which coincides quite heavily with being calorie dense - but you can get quite calorie dense carbs and fats from a variety of places without touching ultra-processed food.

 

[Needsalife]

I was a child in the 50s and 60s. I was surrounded by overweight people. They were everywhere. A lot of people considered fat as being healthy and thin/skinny as unhealthy. My grandmother was one of those people and I was just lucky to have a high metabolism as a kid.

Look at photos of those “fat” people. They would barely be considered overweight today.

 

[desinr-gal]

See that's just a myth though. There were plenty of obese people in the 50s. Sure it wasn't as common but they were there. As to why there are more now .. processed food and all the extra chemicals they spray on everything is the reason in my opinion.

All true.. additionally The gas/oil and auto industries worked together with politicians to create suburbs. where people would require cars to commute from. It was planned. In the fifties most people walked or took public transportation, which required walking. Jobs shifted from factories, farms, and other hands on jobs to offices, and then came the digital age where people have evolved to spending most of their time sitting, and staring, passively living their lives.

Humans used to work and play outdoors. Now we live in front of screens.

The lack of physical movement added to ultraprocessed foods full of adulterated fats and tons of sugar are the cause.

 

[HumanusExMachina]

Look at photos of those “fat” people. They would barely be considered overweight today.

My mother was 4'11" and weighed more than 250 pounds. My father's stomach hid the belt on his pants on three sides (and he was proud of his "spare tire"). I went to high school (a small rural school) with a guy that was shorter than me and weighed more than 300 pounds (the school's scale only went to 300).

You may want obesity to be a modern problem, but it isn't. It existed just as much in the 50s and 60s but people didn't think it was a problem.

 

[andreigl]

Instead of maintenance meds for blood sugar and hypertension, I would rather have GLP-1s for maintenance.

Remembering my 80-year-old mother who started taking hypertension maintenance meds since her 50s to until now.

 

[desinr-gal]

Given the studies showing all of the benefits; including delay of alzheimers, it seems like a good habit to keep.

 

[MsGizmo]

Look at photos of those “fat” people. They would barely be considered overweight today.

Also false.

 

[miss-sanne]

See that's just a myth though. There were plenty of obese people in the 50s. Sure it wasn't as common but they were there. As to why there are more now .. processed food and all the extra chemicals they spray on everything is the reason in my opinion.

I agree 100 %. The food industri and the processed food drives a lot of the obesity.

We have to acknowledge : we live in a obesity driven / promoting society.

It's not the individual.

 

[keangkong]

So it's my understanding that these meds, if you opt to use them, are a "forever" thing. It looks awfully well-studied that if you use sema or tirzep and prolly reta when the studies get that far, you lose a bunch a weight, hooray you're healthy, and then you stop....then you are probably going to start slowly regaining "a lot" to "all and more" of that weight back over the course of a year; and there's no indication I saw that at the end of that year, your body goes "all right buddy, I tried my best, but I see you really don't want to do this so we can stop gaining weight now." Maybe you'll be in the exceptional minority posting on reddit "I lost it all six years ago, stopped the med, and haven't gained an ounce!" But you probably won't be.

Roughly 1/3 of my office is on some kind of glp1, either sema or tirz. The ones who are very near goal weight talk about how excited they are to be done and get off the meds, or that they only have X weeks of the meds to go. And of course the insurance companies who cover these meds stop when you're not obese anymore, because "all better!"

This seems pants-on-head insane to me. Far as I know, glp1 drugs mostly make it so that you can stand to eat the amount that would put you at a healthy weight. Remove that, and you lose that ability, and regain. The studies seem to support that.

But it feels like everybody's walking around saying with a straight face that that's not true, and blinking twice at me when I say "No, I'm never coming off these drugs. This is a lifelong med." I'm starting to feel like I'M the crazy one here.

Would welcome perspectives.

The crazy people are often right.

 

[Foggy-Hollow]

It looks awfully well-studied that if you use sema or tirzep and prolly reta when the studies get that far, you lose a bunch a weight, hooray you're healthy, and then you stop....then you are probably going to start slowly regaining "a lot" to "all and more" of that weight back over the course of a year;

Take a look at the studies - the ones I’ve read went from study-level dose at the end to zero.

We ramp up dose: does it make sense to go from 15mg of tirz to 0 for example?

I’ve been on and off the antidepressant merry go round for 12 years. Ads are a ramp on, ramp off world. Adding and dropping chemicals in too-big of jumps makes the system unhappy - read: it can be an awful ride to go through.

I was surprised to see the sudden stop at the end of the studies, but then why would pharma be interested in patients coming off of their product successfully? “80% regain the weight” is convincing.

And earnestly: maybe some folks need to stay on. But what if that isn’t the case for ALL? I think there’s a study looking into tapering, I’ll have to dig it up. If it has started its early.

As to maintaining: 5 pounds creeping in over 4-6-12 months I would argue is normal. We humans have tendencies. Yes healthy habits you can live with forever are important. Maintenance is keeping an eye on things and nipping it in the 5-10 pound range. Or whatever you pick. I lived it for 3 years until my second pregnancy and PPD/MDD. I had to go into “weight loss mode” a few times but I wouldn’t call it failure.

Maybe a three month bump of your favorite gray is part of that “loss mode.”

For the record - I know many enjoy the anti-inflammatory properties and I am in no way judging anyone who stays on. Just looking to think through it.

 

[desinr-gal]

Take a look at the studies - the ones I’ve read went from study-level dose at the end to zero.

We ramp up dose: does it make sense to go from 15mg of tirz to 0 for example?

I’ve been on and off the antidepressant merry go round for 12 years. Ads are a ramp on, ramp off world. Adding and dropping chemicals in too-big of jumps makes the system unhappy - read: it can be an awful ride to go through.

I was surprised to see the sudden stop at the end of the studies, but then why would pharma be interested in patients coming off of their product successfully? “80% regain the weight” is convincing.

And earnestly: maybe some folks need to stay on. But what if that isn’t the case for ALL? I think there’s a study looking into tapering, I’ll have to dig it up. If it has started its early.

As to maintaining: 5 pounds creeping in over 4-6-12 months I would argue is normal. We humans have tendencies. Yes healthy habits you can live with forever are important. Maintenance is keeping an eye on things and nipping it in the 5-10 pound range. Or whatever you pick. I lived it for 3 years until my second pregnancy and PPD/MDD. I had to go into “weight loss mode” a few times but I wouldn’t call it failure.

Maybe a three month bump of your favorite gray is part of that “loss mode.”

For the record - I know many enjoy the anti-inflammatory properties and I am in no way judging anyone who stays on. Just looking to think through it.

Most people I have seen talking about maintenance titrate down to a low, still helpful dose.

The promised benefits of preventing dementia, and other inflammatory diseases is reason enough for me to think I will always stay on one of these. Whether or not I need it for weight.

 

[ostrichsak]

Most people I have seen talking about maintenance titrate down to a low, still helpful dose.

The promised benefits of preventing dementia, and other inflammatory diseases is reason enough for me to think I will always stay on one of these. Whether or not I need it for weight.

This has been a common thread that I'm seeing too. I know that with the earlier single and double agonist versions the idea was you would gain the weight back pretty quickly once no longer on them. I was trying to see what my exist strategy would be once I hit my weight loss goal but the more and more I read about it I think my personal plan is to settle on a low dose "forever" protocol for some of the reasons you've outlined. If human testing comes up with reasons not to then I will reconsider at that time. As of now though, I see no reason to cycle off of them completely given the potential for long term benefits of staying on them.

 

[keangkong]

Take a look at the studies - the ones I’ve read went from study-level dose at the end to zero.

We ramp up dose: does it make sense to go from 15mg of tirz to 0 for example?

I’ve been on and off the antidepressant merry go round for 12 years. Ads are a ramp on, ramp off world. Adding and dropping chemicals in too-big of jumps makes the system unhappy - read: it can be an awful ride to go through.

I was surprised to see the sudden stop at the end of the studies, but then why would pharma be interested in patients coming off of their product successfully? “80% regain the weight” is convincing.

And earnestly: maybe some folks need to stay on. But what if that isn’t the case for ALL? I think there’s a study looking into tapering, I’ll have to dig it up. If it has started its early.

As to maintaining: 5 pounds creeping in over 4-6-12 months I would argue is normal. We humans have tendencies. Yes healthy habits you can live with forever are important. Maintenance is keeping an eye on things and nipping it in the 5-10 pound range. Or whatever you pick. I lived it for 3 years until my second pregnancy and PPD/MDD. I had to go into “weight loss mode” a few times but I wouldn’t call it failure.

Maybe a three month bump of your favorite gray is part of that “loss mode.”

For the record - I know many enjoy the anti-inflammatory properties and I am in no way judging anyone who stays on. Just looking to think through it.

Considering my success

This has been a common thread that I'm seeing too. I know that with the earlier single and double agonist versions the idea was you would gain the weight back pretty quickly once no longer on them. I was trying to see what my exist strategy would be once I hit my weight loss goal but the more and more I read about it I think my personal plan is to settle on a low dose "forever" protocol for some of the reasons you've outlined. If human testing comes up with reasons not to then I will reconsider at that time. As of now though, I see no reason to cycle off of them completely given the potential for long term benefits of staying on them.

I also see little reason to stop. I was unable to lose much weight without these drugs and even the weight I lost I was unable to keep off.

 

[mlke6]

I played around with lowering dose. Not for me. Found myself once again after over a year randomly waking up in the middle of the night shoving junk in my face hole for no reason not being able to stop myself. In a drive through line ordering stupid stuff just because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Not getting full and constantly thinking about what to dump down my throat.

I have a problem and this medicine fixes that problem thankfully.