I am on the Ascend Plus trial, which is a study involving Rybelsus, the tablet form of semaglutide. I am on the run-in period, so have taken one 3mg tablet daily for 28 days, and now I am half way through 56 days on 7mg daily. Once this period has finished I will either get 14mg Rybelsus or a placebo for 5 years.
For background I am Type 2 (diagnosed 2018) and have fatty liver too. I have an appointment in a couple of weeks with a clinician at my doctor's surgery, so I will be requesting a HbA1c test plus full bloods to see what has changed.
I noticed a really significant drop in BG fairly quickly - but note I am also on a very low carb (VLC) diet as well, and only eating when hungry. I also took the decision to eat when my CGM was at my target BG to push the BG lower. The reduction in hunger and food noise has been really helpful for this.
I am using a Dexcom One Plus continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and before the trial started (also before the VLC diet) was seeing regular BG between 18 mmol/L up to off the charts way over 22 mmol/L. As of today, 5 weeks in, I am seeing BG readings of 6mmol/L at the lowest around 6-8am and between 8mmol/L and 11mmol/L most of the day and evening, with most readings under 10mmol/L. I am eating two meals per day plus 1-2 small snacks if I feel I need something to eat, and allowing myself to be guided by feeling that I need to eat. I am not feeling hungry most of the time.
I definitely think some of the drop in BG is the Rybelsus, although most now is probably due to the VLC diet. At the start of the trial the BG numbers were between 15mmol/L and 19mmol/L even before the VLC diet started properly.
The main thing I have noticed is no food noise at all - so I am no longer staring into the fridge at night wondering what to eat, and the emotional eating has stopped altogether. It has been far easier to stick to low carb eating than I found it before.
I have lost around 7lb, mainly since the 7mg dose started. I am not measuring or logging calories from food, but eat fairly small portions of food anyway as over the years my portion size has decreased dramatically, firstly from using a smaller plate, and then just getting comfortable with stopping eating before feeling full and putting the cutlery down between bites to slow eating down.
My diet is mainly chicken or fish, salad, broccolli, cauliflower, courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms etc. Full fat Greek yoghurt, cheese, nuts, dark chocolate in small quantities, pork scratchings also in small quantities fairly infrequently, almond flour based keto bread I make myself - 90 second mug bread - I am looking at trying some more keto recipes. Decaff coffee with cream, or water to drink. No complex carbs, no ultra high processed food.
Side effects have been minimal, so far everything has been very positive, and I am hoping to get the real stuff rather than the placebo, as the Rybelsus has been a game changer so far in terms of helping to support the lifestyle changes.