Wegovy etc.

[Mayfly]

Hello all
I am confused. I have been put on trulicity and yes, I have lost a lot of weight. I am on the smallest dose and it has been amazing. The problem is, I don't know how it is working.
As I understand it, the drug is supposed to stop me from being hungry so I eat less. It doesn't. I have swopped to a lower calorie intake because after menopause, keto no longer worked for me (and a whole host of other things I won't go into here - suffice to say, I stopped keto, went back on it and it just didn't work). After a significant weight loss since taking Trulicity, I have started an exercise regime at home because I want to get rid of the "belly flap", and would like a taut, toned body.
Trulicity does not stop me from being hungry. I did start the lower calorie diet before going on it, and began a slight weight loss then. I thought the drug would help with the enormous hunger pangs, but I haven't noticed any difference. After taking the drug, I notice that even if I over eat, or eat things I shouldn't, I still lose weight, which is pretty disastrous for me because obviously I am constantly tempted to eat bad things and I don't get that kick up the back side anymore because I get up in the morning and I can see a continuing loss.
I am terrified that when I stop Trulicity that I will regain the weight. I don't know if I will have to stop, I'm simply hoping to reach a point in my weight loss, diabetes control journey where I wouldn't need so much medication any more, plus there is the obvious side effect of diabetic retinopathy. So, for example, if that were to suddenly get worse, the obvious solution would be to stop taking the drug. However, if my weight loss is also due to calorie control, my weight training and my other exercise routines, am I worrying about this too much? I had to stop it for 4 weeks due to lack of supply and I didn't gain weight and the doctor said he wouldn't prescribe anything else because I was having such a positive reaction to so small a dose that he didn't think I would regain the weight. The drug may have continued to work for a month after stopping, I don't know. However, all the information on the internet implies that weight gain is inevitable because people apparently regained their appetite. But I haven't lost mine.
My ultimate goal is to have a body which is more muscular, fitter and hopefully more healthy. I am hoping that I won't need this drug forever. The crunch issue is that I crave carbs non-stop. I appreciate that I buy **** and eat it, which is my fault and if I just stopped, that is much better for me. I would like to understand though what the future holds in that if I am going to stay on this drug forever, which seems to be the consensus of everyone out there, the temptation to eat what I like is going to be too much to bear.
Has anyone been on this drug and come off it?
Is there any hope I can keep my new body without it?

 

[lessci]

Hijacking your thread slightly - WHERE have you got your Trulicity from? Are you in the UK?, I've been unable to source any for at least 2 months, if it's back available you've just made me very happy. (PS I haven't gained any weight, but I've not lost any either)

 

[Rachox]

Hi @Mayfly here’s some info about Trulicity, the paragraph entitled ‘How Does Trulicity Work’ may help you:

Trulicity is the trade name of dulaglutide, a type 2 diabetes medication made by Eli Lilly. Trulicity is part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Trulicity is the trade name of dulaglutide, a type 2 diabetes medication made by Eli Lilly. Trulicity is part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists.

www.diabetes.co.uk

 

[Mayfly]

Hijacking your thread slightly - WHERE have you got your Trulicity from? Are you in the UK?, I've been unable to source any for at least 2 months, if it's back available you've just made me very happy. (PS I haven't gained any weight, but I've not lost any either)

I am in the UK, Boots managed to procure some. It's hit and miss as half the time they say, "We don't have it, we don't know when we will have it" and then I go to pick up some other item and it'll be there for me. I think it's a bit of a Lottery and what annoys me is the doctor will say "Oh, it's back in stock, you just have to check every single pharmacy in a ten mile radius and someone will have some". Well, that's great if you don't work 3 jobs and if you have a car because by the time I've located any further away than a mile, the pharmacy is shut when I get there. If yo are able to, it's would be worth checking around but it's a fruitless exercise for me.

 

[Mayfly]

Hi @Mayfly here’s some info about Trulicity, the paragraph entitled ‘How Does Trulicity Work’ may help you:

Trulicity is the trade name of dulaglutide, a type 2 diabetes medication made by Eli Lilly. Trulicity is part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Trulicity is the trade name of dulaglutide, a type 2 diabetes medication made by Eli Lilly. Trulicity is part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists.

www.diabetes.co.uk

Thanks for that. The article concerns me slightly in that firstly, Trulicity may be taking my poor, battered pancreas and forcing it to produce more insulin which I am resistant to and secondly, this little snippet :

"In response to a high protein meal, glucagon levels in the blood rise.

In people with diabetes, glucagon’s presence can raise blood glucose levels too high."

Is this implying that high protein meals are bad for diabetics?

However, presumably Trulicity encourages the body to use fat stored in cells as a fuel source (which should be happening anyway in a keto diet but as something was going wrong anyway, a little bit of help might not be a bad thing) and that is why I am losing weight. Even more so with the extra exercise and the lack of calories to use as fuel. Well, I can only keep trying to make exercise part of my day, and hoping that I can create enough muscle to make my body more efficient.

 

[AloeSvea]

Hi @Mayfly. Interesting question!

My own body journey, if you like, with muscle gain and maintenance, ditto normal weight, is that it is closely linked with fueling up! ie that protein you mention, which makes sense. Eating so you have the energy to fuel the exercise is an intuitive and logical thing - yes?

So if you have the fuel, and do the muscle activity/exercise - your muscle tone should remain and be retained, regardless of medication? I would think so...

So you need to find out how the fuel and the muscle gain and maintenance works for you personally...

Weight gain and loss, and weight maintenance is probably a more complex nuanced thing? And it's 'just' a case of going for it and again, seeing how it all pans out for you personally.

I would advise keeping a food journal, so you can closely see what foods work for you with your physique maintenance, and note what happens with the meds too - very important in your case, as you are trying to figure out what role the meds have on your body journey, and what is the food and activity? Is my understanding. Don't forget to include what you are drinking. Then you work out a regimen that really works for you. (Including those meds.)

 

[Mayfly]

Hi @Mayfly. Interesting question!

My own body journey, if you like, with muscle gain and maintenance, ditto normal weight, is that it is closely linked with fueling up! ie that protein you mention, which makes sense. Eating so you have the energy to fuel the exercise is an intuitive and logical thing - yes?

So if you have the fuel, and do the muscle activity/exercise - your muscle tone should remain and be retained, regardless of medication? I would think so...

So you need to find out how the fuel and the muscle gain and maintenance works for you personally...

Weight gain and loss, and weight maintenance is probably a more complex nuanced thing? And it's 'just' a case of going for it and again, seeing how it all pans out for you personally.

I would advise keeping a food journal, so you can closely see what foods work for you with your physique maintenance, and note what happens with the meds too - very important in your case, as you are trying to figure out what role the meds have on your body journey, and what is the food and activity? Is my understanding. Don't forget to include what you are drinking. Then you work out a regimen that really works for you. (Including those meds.)

It's more that I am being told that the weight gain is inevitable. That no matter what I do, if I stop Trulicity, I will gain the weight. I'm not counting fat people who inject themselves so they can lose a few pounds and still eat what they like, These are diabetics, well informed about their condition, presumably doing the right things to take care of themselves and yet they gain the weight back. But they are also saying that they lost their appetites and therefore lost some of the weight through calorie control. I haven't experienced the same symptoms as them so perhaps I won't get the same side effects. I just don't know. It's something I am struggling with because right now, I am enjoying a new lease of life and actually taking care of myself. I am loving that I suddenly have the motivation to do more exercise which I had lost when I was eating too many carbs and basically...well, let's just say I was not taking care of myself and didn't care that I wasn't. So if I started to regain, I think I would lose that motivation.
What I am doing seems to be working though - I had my first hypo yesterday which I haven't had for months and I'm experiencing one right now (I've just had my lunch, so that'll kick in in a moment). I am really motivated to keep up this regime because hypos mean - less meds!!! Better health!!! (I would like to come off the Jardiance, which they put me on before the Trulicity. Not come off the Trulicity).
But yes, I probably need to look more closely at my diet and make sure I keep up the exercise, and hopefully I can protect myself. I think another month (and I've just had four more week's of Trulicity granted) will see a real change to my muscle tone. Perhaps I should take things sort of one month at a time?

 

[jpscloud]

This is a really interesting thread @Mayfly! I have had Trulicity and then was put on Ozempic, then had my dose increased, all to try to keep up with my in-denial overconsumption of carbs. So I'm coming at this discussion from a very different angle to you, but interestingly I had very varied responses to Ozempic where some doses just seemed to do nothing. It would be the entire pen, too, so I began to suspect that some production is defective in some way.

I lost weight with trulicity, but not much with ozempic. I have stopped taking ozempic now (probably wouldn't be able to get it anyway!) and I'm out of denial and trying very hard to get into a sustainable low carb lifestyle. I'm having more success than my previous attempt several years ago.

I have found that reducing carbohydrates to a bare minimum has changed my appetite more than the drugs did - this may be an individual thing but most people agree that cutting out carbs changes appetite and increases satiety.

30 years ago I thought I couldn't go a day without a cigarette. Then I realised that I was paying a lot of money to make some unscrupulous people wealthy for the privilege of letting them kill me - I stopped smoking and never went back.

I recently had a similar epiphany with carbohydrates and the junk food I was addicted to - unscrupulous folks are getting rich on my misery and ill health. And I know I can't control myself around those foods. I realised I need to do what I did when I stopped smoking - identify the enemy and not let it rule me.

Temptation is everywhere and it's incredibly hard to resist but it is possible - even with the odd slip up. My go-to are you tube videos and podcasts by Jason Fung, Eric Westman and others who give you the sensible, science based truths and I find when my resolve is wobbling they really help.

I would say in my own experience weight gain is inevitable - if I continue to eat carbohydrates - I know I'm not alone in that! So it's the carbs that have to go if you want control - and as someone who might fall off the wagon tomorrow, I know that's easier said than done!!

 

[AloeSvea]

It's more that I am being told that the weight gain is inevitable. That no matter what I do, if I stop Trulicity, I will gain the weight. I'm not counting fat people who inject themselves so they can lose a few pounds and still eat what they like, These are diabetics, well informed about their condition, presumably doing the right things to take care of themselves and yet they gain the weight back. But they are also saying that they lost their appetites and therefore lost some of the weight through calorie control. I haven't experienced the same symptoms as them so perhaps I won't get the same side effects. I just don't know. It's something I am struggling with because right now, I am enjoying a new lease of life and actually taking care of myself. I am loving that I suddenly have the motivation to do more exercise which I had lost when I was eating too many carbs and basically...well, let's just say I was not taking care of myself and didn't care that I wasn't. So if I started to regain, I think I would lose that motivation.
What I am doing seems to be working though - I had my first hypo yesterday which I haven't had for months and I'm experiencing one right now (I've just had my lunch, so that'll kick in in a moment). I am really motivated to keep up this regime because hypos mean - less meds!!! Better health!!! (I would like to come off the Jardiance, which they put me on before the Trulicity. Not come off the Trulicity).
But yes, I probably need to look more closely at my diet and make sure I keep up the exercise, and hopefully I can protect myself. I think another month (and I've just had four more week's of Trulicity granted) will see a real change to my muscle tone. Perhaps I should take things sort of one month at a time?

On my own weight loss and maintenance journey post diagnosis and lowering my carbs, upping exercise (over 10 years), my weight has not been the same, but it has remained in the same general BMI zone (ie normal), and my waist height ratio, which I track the most, has varied within a safe zone, but it has still varied in various life situations and changes.

I believe that weight change is normal! As in a normal response to any change in your metabolism, and that includes meds. It doesn't mean your weight will balloon - and taking more than a look at diet should give you some kind of control over your weight? Now that you have moved into the normal range?

As for exercise - the conservative % of effect on your weight, relative to diet for weight loss, is 80% diet and 20% exercise. (This can be checked out in any cursory google of the effect of diet and exercise on weight.) (Well - it was last time I did this - please correct me anyone if this has changed as these things can and do.)

One month at a time sounds very do-able, and good on you for having a close look at your diet, exericse and meds effect on your weight, and sharing with us.

 

[HairySmurf]

If you find that Trulicity's effects on 'fullness' and appetite are not what caused your weight loss then I see no reason why you would regain weight just by stopping that medication. Nothing I've read about GLP-1 agonists suggests any effect on weight other than through appetite. People are said to eat less at meals and are less likely to snack because they don't crave food between meals as much (because they still feel 'full') and so don't snack as much.

Jardiance on the other hand causes some weight loss directly by expelling glucose from the body. Could that medication in combination with your diet changes explain your past weight loss? Even if that's the cause there's no reason you won't be able to find a combination of diet and regular exercise that will keep your weight relatively stable after you hit your target weight and stop medication.

 

[Mayfly]

On my own weight loss and maintenance journey post diagnosis and lowering my carbs, upping exercise (over 10 years), my weight has not been the same, but it has remained in the same general BMI zone (ie normal), and my waist height ratio, which I track the most, has varied within a safe zone, but it has still varied in various life situations and changes.

I believe that weight change is normal! As in a normal response to any change in your metabolism, and that includes meds. It doesn't mean your weight will balloon - and taking more than a look at diet should give you some kind of control over your weight? Now that you have moved into the normal range?

I was strictly keto before COVID and my sugars were under control and I was losing a little bit of weight. I know I went off plan really badly but I am trying to get back to that. With the Trulicity though, I am losing a LOT of weight – almost every day. So that would indicate that it is the Trulicity giving a boost to the weight loss without having any effect on my appetite which is the reason other people lose weight. Therefore a loss of the Trulicity might only mean a stall on the weight loss or else means a weight gain, even if it’s just some.

As for exercise - the conservative % of effect on your weight, relative to diet for weight loss, is 80% diet and 20% exercise. (This can be checked out in any cursory google of the effect of diet and exercise on weight.) (Well - it was last time I did this - please correct me anyone if this has changed as these things can and do.)

One month at a time sounds very do-able, and good on you for having a close look at your diet, exericse and meds effect on your weight, and sharing with us.

Diet for me pretty much doesn’t have an effect (except that when I eat bad things, I put on or don’t lose). I never believed in calorie controlled diets but these days I don’t have a choice. I believe I have an issue with protein, in that too much spikes my sugar levels, and eating loads of fat seems to give me dietary problems. It may be the type of fat I am eating but as I loath avocados and most nuts seem to carry a carb count as well, it starts to become quite restrictive. I think that evolutionarly speaking there is an argument for women past the menopause to naturally need less food however, again, my appetite does not decrease so every day is a struggle. But I will slog on....

 

[Mayfly]

If you find that Trulicity's effects on 'fullness' and appetite are not what caused your weight loss then I see no reason why you would regain weight just by stopping that medication. Nothing I've read about GLP-1 agonists suggests any effect on weight other than through appetite. People are said to eat less at meals and are less likely to snack because they don't crave food between meals as much (because they still feel 'full') and so don't snack as much.

I didn’t lose weight when I was on Jardiance before. Or if I did, it was fairly negligible. So there would seem to be a direct correlation between my taking Trulicity and weight loss and I don’t understand that (unless you mean it’s a combination of Jardiance AND the Trulicity – which it may be?). I’m happy about it, but then I have read things that would suggest that being on this drug for the rest of my life is not a good idea. I hear that because I am injecting the hormone that controls appetite, my body will eventually no longer produce that hormone, and then I will be completely dependent on it. Dependency on something that can be withdrawn or go into short supply for any reason seems to be a bad idea. So I will continue with the weight exercises because muscle apparently burns fat better than non-muscle and the other exercise gives me a nice high in the evening.

Part of the problem is also a kind of jealousy. I honestly still have carb cravings, still have hunger pangs, still want to snack and I’d like that to be a pay off, rather than a “bad luck, you just don’t get that side effect”. I’d like to think when I woke up this morning with my stomach rumbling that this means I am successfully controlling the amount I eat, rather than there’s something getting screwed up by this drug. I will keep up with the exercise and the diet and hopefully it will lead to a healthier me.

 

[Mayfly]

This is a really interesting thread @Mayfly! I have had Trulicity and then was put on Ozempic, then had my dose increased, all to try to keep up with my in-denial overconsumption of carbs. So I'm coming at this discussion from a very different angle to you, but interestingly I had very varied responses to Ozempic where some doses just seemed to do nothing. It would be the entire pen, too, so I began to suspect that some production is defective in some way.

I lost weight with trulicity, but not much with ozempic. I have stopped taking ozempic now (probably wouldn't be able to get it anyway!) and I'm out of denial and trying very hard to get into a sustainable low carb lifestyle. I'm having more success than my previous attempt several years ago.

I have found that reducing carbohydrates to a bare minimum has changed my appetite more than the drugs did - this may be an individual thing but most people agree that cutting out carbs changes appetite and increases satiety.

30 years ago I thought I couldn't go a day without a cigarette. Then I realised that I was paying a lot of money to make some unscrupulous people wealthy for the privilege of letting them kill me - I stopped smoking and never went back.

I recently had a similar epiphany with carbohydrates and the junk food I was addicted to - unscrupulous folks are getting rich on my misery and ill health. And I know I can't control myself around those foods. I realised I need to do what I did when I stopped smoking - identify the enemy and not let it rule me.

Temptation is everywhere and it's incredibly hard to resist but it is possible - even with the odd slip up. My go-to are you tube videos and podcasts by Jason Fung, Eric Westman and others who give you the sensible, science based truths and I find when my resolve is wobbling they really help.

I would say in my own experience weight gain is inevitable - if I continue to eat carbohydrates - I know I'm not alone in that! So it's the carbs that have to go if you want control - and as someone who might fall off the wagon tomorrow, I know that's easier said than done!!

Yeah, I can relate to all of this! I do think it's terrible that people have been led to believe that they can eat what they like and inject themselves and everything will be all right. Clearly it isn't. I understand Jeremy Clarkson has been on this and to be honest, he looks as rotund as ever (James May on the other hand seems to have lost a ton of weight). I need to start again, the other issue is that I am an emotional eater and as soon as life gets a bit awful, well, here's a nice chocolate cake with my name on, I can always start the diet tomorrow.

Congratulations on stopping smoking, don't you feel better for it? I very rarely get tempted by cigarettes these days. One of my Facebook people keeps saying that if we just keep at it, we should at least make some sort of healthier choice that's better than yesterday's choices. I try to keep that in mind.

 

[jpscloud]

Yeah, I can relate to all of this! I do think it's terrible that people have been led to believe that they can eat what they like and inject themselves and everything will be all right. Clearly it isn't. I understand Jeremy Clarkson has been on this and to be honest, he looks as rotund as ever (James May on the other hand seems to have lost a ton of weight). I need to start again, the other issue is that I am an emotional eater and as soon as life gets a bit awful, well, here's a nice chocolate cake with my name on, I can always start the diet tomorrow.

Congratulations on stopping smoking, don't you feel better for it? I very rarely get tempted by cigarettes these days. One of my Facebook people keeps saying that if we just keep at it, we should at least make some sort of healthier choice that's better than yesterday's choices. I try to keep that in mind.

I stopped 30 years ago, and honestly didn't feel much better for a year or so - by which time I had replaced the nicotine addiction with a carb addiction, but didn't realise it! Now I do see the carb addiction for what it is, I am committed to dealing with it for the sake of my health. There isn't a magic medication way out of it, as you say, but the magic is in the food we eat that can restore health.