Originally Posted by
nismodrifter
Ozempic is not indicated for those looking to "lose a few pounds". I will probably have 3-4 people in my schedule today that will ask about it. Most if not all will not meet the criteria for management of obesity using Ozempic.
The bottom line is simple, if you have not done the difficult work (ie: working on your thoughts towards eating, and your relationship with food) you will regain the weight (and more) on discontinuation of the treatment. Once we sit down and talk about this, most prefer to take some time to work on lifestyle modification before pursuing medical options.
There is another subset, that has done the work, cleaned up the diet, are sleeping right, thinking right, and are doing exercise, but due to one of a hundred other factors (ie: other comorbidity), the weight is still not coming off. Ozempic works great in this kind of situation. Likely will require long term treatment with it.
Side effects are horrible, nausea, vomiting. The medication makes you not want to eat. Does not sound fun at all. Many discontinue in the first few weeks after being unable to tolerate it at even low doses.
My wife is an internist with ABOM certification and she deals with cases that fail medical treatment, and then go on to the bariatric route after meeting certain criteria. Weight loss/management is a daily discussion in our house. The biggest thing that I have learned, through her ongoing learning, is that a major mental shift must happen if weight is to be lost. This means digging deep, and really addressing what is driving your eating. It could be fatigue, lonelieness, anxiety, sadness, happiness, feeling empty, feeling content........you see where this is headed. Why are you eating? Why am I sitting here drinking coffee with milk in it right now while typing this post.