YES! SO IMPORTANT!

Many thanks again for copying the entire article.
MaryAnn Demasi had listed both the loss of muscle and bone density in her articles on the WL drugs https://blog.maryannedemasi.com/p/p...value-of-weight
but this shows how serious and likely permanent the loss of bone density is. A women loses bone density from lower estrogen rapidly after she enters menopause, the last thing she needs is to lose more from these drugs!

"Frailty and falls is one of the biggest killers and causes of hospital admission in elderly patients.” And wake-up call, "elderly" in clinical practice is 65 and above! I am also shocked by the number of even younger women with osteoporosis from severe calorie restriction diets, malabsorption issues, surgical menopause without HR, lack of exercise, etc.

This is a rather lengthy article from Business Insider that started out talking about all the advantages of Ozempic and Wegovy, but they did finally bring up issues like muscle loss and stomach paralysis, even including commentary from Peter Attia.

The messy rise of weight-loss drugs

From the article quoted in the first post in this thread:




The friend who is on Wegovy - Still on it - I think 5, maybe almost 6 months now.

They were increasing her dosage every month for the first 4 months, but the 4th increase in dosage made her really sick (that'll kill your appetite), so she asked not to have it increased right then.

Well, now that the holidays are over, it seems she's regained weight on the dose that had made her sick last month.

Why? Well, it seems the repetition of the same dose for another month means the effectiveness has worn off, especially since she was making lots of holiday treats. (AKA: sugar and starch bombs with plenty of fat in them) I don't know how many of those treats she was actually eating - doesn't sound like it was a lot of it, just sampling each batch she made to make sure it turned out ok before gifting it to others, because considering how foods with that much sugar or fat in it was making her so sick to her stomach a couple of months ago, I can't imagine that eating more than a tiny sample from each batch would NOT maker her sick, even without increasing her dosage.

In other words, what she was eating shouldn't have been enough to cause weight gain (at least according to the ever reliable calories in/calories out principle)


Now she's upset because the dr prescribed an additional full 4 months of the dose she was on that made her so sick, but obviously no longer makes her sick (at least not sick enough to lose weight) since she's managed to re-gain some weight on it.

If her appetite is no longer being controlled by that dosage - and it's not just a matter of not continuing to lose weight, but to the point that she managed to GAIN weight - her insurance is going to stop paying for it.


Which would be a good thing as far as I can see, because she already has enough serious health issues - she doesn't need to add the long term side effects of wegovy to those. But she's sort of panicking that she won't be able to get Wegovy any more.


She's already looked into the possibility of Tirzepatide, in the hopes that if the insurance company rejects continuation of the Wegovy, she can switch to that instead.

[My theory is that if she regained weight from a little sample from each batch, then it's either just water weight gain from the sugar/starch combo - or else her metabolism has learned to very efficiently conserve calories after being on a semi-starvation diet for the last few months, probably a combination of the two effects]

So back to the quote above - as far as I can tell, despite the way that the semaglutide users think it's creating a lifestyle change (since it theoretically changes their thought processes about food), that thought process/lifestyle change is really only happening while taking the drug - and may not even be effective while on the drug if the dosage is not high enough to leave them feeling semi-nauseous all the time.

These weight-loss drugs should be labeled as muscle-loss drugs if 40% of the weight loss is muscle. If a person loses 25 pounds of weight with the drug, they would have lost 15 pounds of fat and 10 pounds of muscle. That is a horrible result.

All of them are thrilled with the effect it has of "not thinking about food." But I also think this means actual meat and vegetables are going to be the last items on their plate.

Both of these food categories create satiety with nutrition, but that would mean it would linger LONGER. Increasing nausea and other side effects.

They aren't changing a thing about their lifestyle. They are eating the same poor diet as before, only less of it. I see them being thrilled about it online, but I have yet to see ONE who has changed the lifestyle that got them where they are.

That may very well be true for most of the people using semaglutide - but the two I know who have been using it have mostly been eating vegetables (including starchy vegetables), with some fruits, and whole grains. Beans and legumes are providing at least some protein. The one has been completely off meats of all kinds though (as far as I know this started a year or two before ever starting the drug - still using eggs and dairy though), the other would feel nauseous even thinking about meat the first few months on the drug, but was eating eggs, dairy, fish and seafood the entire time, and has lately been able to handle some chicken, turkey, and a little beef.

They may be different from most semaglutide users though, since both have done LC previously and understand the need for proteins and vegetables. If they're eating processed foods, it's not much at all - bread (primarily whole wheat) would be the most highly processed food they're eating most of the time. Most of what they're eating, they've made from scratch using unprocessed or minimally processed foods. (for instance all cheese is processed, but they're using real cheeses: mozarella, cheddar, feta, etc - not velveeta or cheese whiz)

What they really can't handle eating is actual sugar and fats, except in very small amounts.


True, they're not changing their lifestyle at all - The drug is definitely suppressing their appetite and thoughts about food, which they both love about it. And frankly I don't blame them. I get that effect from LC, but I don't get the impression that either of them ever had that effect from LC.

I've tried gently asking what happens when they lose all the weight they need to lose and go off the drug, or stop losing and their insurance cuts off coverage of their $1000+month drug. The silence is deafening. Either they don't want to think about it, or else they think that if they reach their goal weight, they'll somehow magically have the same kind of control they had with the drug.

What's it called now, "Wegovy Women?" 🤷🏼‍♀️

Muscle loss = lower weight

Probably the worst thing that could happen to anyone, particularly those over 50.

Need my muscle!! NEVER touching Wegovy nor Ozempic. Never never never!!

Apparently eating enough real meat stimulates muscle development.

BRILLIANT

Now I can't unsee it.

I've been battling through Winter holidays, people around with COVID, weird weather, and an implant which went bad and required a specialist an hour's drive away. On these roads, all two lanes with angles and curves and how much ice is how sunny it might be... stress is so bad for me!

Yet, part of my plan lately is to build myself up, even in my early sixties, because I was so sick I can use another five pounds of muscle. With the stamina that brings. Part of my oxalate program is using high thiamine (benfothiamine, a fat soluble form, because this was an emergency, but I may never give it up to rebuild mitochrondria.

After an ordeal which included huge doses of Ibuprofen which triggered a terrible reaction where my face and lips puffed up and inflamed and I already could not eat without difficulty... but finally, things are calming down. BTW, I will be cautious of NSAIDS because big doses of these are the way they work around giving people what works. It took care of the pain all right, but I suspected it gave me fearsome leaky gut along with the clear, obvious, and painful allergic reaction.

Fortunately, there are legal options I know I can get, and at least I demonstrated why I can ask for codeine with this new-to-me dental surgeon's office I'm involved in. They are really good, don't get me wrong: this was state-of-the-art treatment. Once again, I must school a medical professional about how weird I am, never a fun ride, always a dark one

In other words, much like I've been on Wegovy or the like. I know I lost five pounds because my pants tell me, as always. After about a month of this, I'm losing weight but my stamina was terrible. There's time I feel crappy and have to get grocery delivery, but this time there was enough ups and downs to dodge that. And I'm lucky to have that.

My point is, LOW energy breeds low energy. But having cleared all this away, I have a wolf's appetite lately. I found some pulled pork that isn't full of fake stuff, because it's real chunks of meat I have to shred. Aldi has a pork carnitas that is also working. I'm clumsy when I'm sick. Cooking is more dangerous than reheating when it comes to a quick lunch. But I'm better and already planning what to cook for leftovers as energy returns.

But I ran errands and shot a week's worth of TikTok videos and other cat business stuff and this morning I had good sleep and somewhat perky. I'm bouncing back from ONLY 30 days of Wegovy.

I couldn't handle any more! Besides, I was already free of thinking about food all the time.