The Weight

Not about The Band just about me. 

A year and a half ago right before my back surgery I went on an eating splurge in case things went south with the back surgery. That didn’t happen but I did weigh in at 210 the morning of my surgery. I’ve been pretty steady at 190 for the last ten years sneaking up to 200 around the holidays but always able to get back to 190. Not a weight I was happy with but also a weight I thought I was stuck at since every attempt to go below that was a failure. I’m overall healthy and average a little under 4 miles a day walking. I just made the calculation that in order go below 190 was not a life sacrifice I was willing to make. It also didn’t help that 23 and Me genetic testing told me I had the overweight gene and that I had below average weight for my cohort. 

About six months ago I was at 195 and decided to try Zepbound which is like Ozempic and the other semigludes in that it targets the same areas but does it a little differently. It is rated the best for weight loss with the least side effects, but it depends on the person. I’m at 170 now fitting into t-shirts that I had saved with an eye toward framing them never thinking I would fit into them again except for that one from the 2001 rafting trip in Nepal where I must have been down to my high school weight of 150.

It's been a mind-blowing experience almost as profound as psychedelics. Just a complete shut off from the feeling of hunger to the point you have to remind yourself to eat, and then the smallest portion meal makes you feel like you ate a burrito with churro after. To all the sudden not have a feeling you have just learned to live with your whole life is just weird but mostly makes it really easy to lose weight. I also cut my alcohol consumption down to about 3 drinks a week from what was probably around 14 a week before.  

It is not side effect free. The full feeling comes from the fact that it slows down your stomach moving food into your intestine which can lead to some unpleasant burps. It also  means an edible can take 3+ hours to kick in which in some instances means going to bed sober and then waking up in the middle of the night high. That said the drug also kills the munchies so no worry there. I did have one week of diarrhea after going off it for a week and going out to lunch with friends followed by a cook out at my house – lots of drinking and a Hagendaz ice cream bar. I’ve since learned that it is pretty normal for your system to make you pay if you try to go full hog on the eating while on it. 

I’ve been off it for about three months now and still surprisingly at 170. The hunger is back. I’ve got a two-month supply saved up in case I start heading up in weight again. It has also stopped my sleep apnea which is one of the things it can be prescribed for if you are trying to get it covered by insurance and is the reason I will be using with my primary if I run out. 

I think this drug is as game changing as antibiotics.