For the last two months and a week, I have been taking weekly tirzepatide shots. Tirzepatide is used in brands like Mounjaro for Type 2 diabetes, but I'm using it off-label as a weight-management aid under the direction of my doctor. I suspect I was a little insulin-resistant when I started, but I have never been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
Tirzepatide isn't Ozempic, a semaglutide, but it has similar effects on hunger. At my current dose of 7.5mg/week, I feel no hunger. I can only stomach one meal a day, which I make sure is composed of protein and complex carbs with a little bit of a sweet when I care for it (a dirty keto diet plus a 23/1 intermittent fasting schedule, if you will). The weight loss is not overly dramatic, either, which I like, because I am done with diets or schemes that cause you to lose a lot of weight very quickly, even if I sometimes feel impatient about how slowly the scale numbers fall. I don't think you can maintain that quick weight loss once you quit those diets (at least, I have never been able to) because you have put yourself into starvation mode, so not only does your metabolism slow, but the minute you eat normally or--more likely--go back to your bad habits, you gain all that weight back--plus more. Plus, you have to always be thinking about food, which sucks away your willpower. With tirzepatide, I have lost about 1-2 pounds per week for a total of just under 20 pounds at this point with practically no effort on my part (I'm a little into my third month. My starting dose was 2.5mg for the first month and 5mg for the second month. Both doses greatly curbed hunger, but my current dose is the ticket for me, I think).
I have not had any negative side effects that I have noticed, and those were one of the reasons I was initially very against these types of shots. But desperation from gaining more weight after menopause after everything I was trying to do to improve my diet drove me to ask my doctor what to do, and she told me her patients have had very good experiences with tirzepatide. If I didn't need to lose so much weight, I would have kept trying with diet alone, but things were getting out of control. I don't have any issues administering the shot to myself, which is good because tirzepatide only comes in injection form.
What is totally awesome is that I could fill the kitchen with junk food and would have no interest in it. I just don't crave junk food or sweets. My son brought home a box of donuts from work today and I haven't even thought about them. I realized that when I went into the kitchen and saw the box that had been sitting there for a few hours and noticed that my first response to the sight was revulsion. We have a few bags of chips left over from a recent family gathering, and just the thought of them makes me ill. I don't have to practice self-discipline or exert all my willpower to distract myself from hunger, and that is a very key piece of the puzzle for me. The one thing I have cravings for, strangely, is boiled eggs, though even that craving has disappeared once my dose was raised from last month. A couple boiled eggs with some lemon-pepper seasoning was my go-to main part of a meal last month. As far as cravings go, I could do a lot worse than a perfect protein like boiled eggs!
If I make a meal for my family, I will have that as my one meal. If we are having leftovers, I will often just have a tin of sardines and a boiled egg and a salad for my meal and feel very full for hours.
We'll see how it goes, but I am very happy with the results so far. It's pricey (I am paying $400 for a month's worth of injections), but I can use our health savings account to pay for it, and Husband's employer matches our contributions.
I will admit that I have felt some shame about resorting to injections for weight loss--especially for something so currently controversial, and for something about which I was originally very opposed. I made this decision after a lot of very sincere prayer, but I haven't really talked about it to many people outside of my family. I'm feeling less shame as I am seeing positive results while making sure that I eat wisely when I do eat. Not having to wear out my willpower and then feel almost daily guilt and disappointment in myself for failing to eat perfectly clean or succumbing to some junk food craving or having a second serving of something delicious I've cooked is such a huge relief. I'm also not worried about "Ozempic face" because that cadaverous look is the result of extremely fast weight loss and often corrects itself when the person gains back a little weight to look normal. I have a long way to go before I would look cadaverous.
There is one other piece added into my overall health puzzle, and that is the addition of daily progesterone pills with my once-quarterly subcutaneous testosterone/estradiol pellets. My menopausal body has quit making progesterone, which aids in getting sound sleep and feeling more positive, so the addition has been very welcome. I am now getting much more restful sleep than even before, and I have become a morning person again. I enjoy being the first one up and having the living room to myself as I enjoy some herbal tea, feed the dog and the bird, and decide what to do with my free time.
