Hey guys!!
As the title of this post says, I've recently started taking semaglutide for weight loss. I wanted to chronical the experience on my blog, for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to kind of track what all goes on...wanted to keep up with how much, if any, the medicine works and improves my overall health. I also wanted to put the experience "out there" because I know there medicines are relatively new, for weight loss, and people probably would like to know how taking this medicine works out! So, hopefully, in a few months there will be a decent bit for you all to read.
And, finally, I wanted to keep a record of what all happened to me just in case there are negative side effects. Can't tell just the good and not any of the bad, right?
Ok.
So, where am I at in the process?
I had my first dose of semaglutide yesterday, 1/30/2024. The clinic that I'm visiting uses a "titration" method for their semaglutide doses. This means they start with a lower dose which will increase in volume and concentration, over time. The thought is, by starting with the lower dose, rather than a high one, you minimize chances of the medicines making you feel sick.
The clinic couples its semaglutide with their "lipotrophic 4-in-1" injections. The lipotrophic injections have some "lipo" ingredient that they say helps with "melting fat" (or something like that)....and the shots also include B vitamins to help with energy. According to the employee, sometimes people starting on semaglutide experience fatigue, so the "4-in-1" shots can help to offset the tiredness. Typically, they like for you to come in to the clininc for the "4-in-1" shot on the same day that you take the semaglutide.
The semaglutide is to be administered 1x a week, on the same day every week.
The clinic has a requirement for semaglutide patients to commit for 4 months of treatment. I haven't quite decided if that commitment is for the financial benefit of the clinic or if its because it takes a month (up to 2 months) for the semaglutide to start the weight loss process....either way, deciding to start the program is certainly not a cheap decision!
In fact, I'd say that the cost of the program is likely to be prohibitive! The clinic charges $389/month to participate in their semaglutide program (with a 4 month minimum commitment, remember?!).
While getting started, I attributed the high cost to the medicine simply being expensive...but now, I'm not so sure!
The medicine is some sort of generic semaglutide. Meaning, it's not ozempic or wegovy or whatever brand is being advertised. The clinic gets their medicine from a compounding pharmacy located in GA. And its actually the compounding pharmacy that I paid, not the clinic...so I'm guessing they've got some sort of paid partnership going on, because there's no way the weight loss clinic would just be the middle man and issue "4-in-1" shots for free!
So, how am I feeling?
So far, so good....I think...
The lady who I saw at the clinic, yesterday, told me that one of the most common side effects for people starting out on semaglutide is nausea. Right now, I'm hanging out at about a 1.5/10 on the nausea scale....with 10 being actively headed to the bathroom to vomit and 0 being perfectly fine.
I'm not currently hungry, which is a bit weird since I usually eat breakfast, but I'm not ready to attribute that to the medicine. I've had a lot of water this morning.
For practicality, I'll wrap up this post shortly...in the next week, I plan to write a few more posts about my thought process in deciding to start the semaglutide program, just in case anyone out there might find themselves in a similar situation!
