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Comment by deadbabe | Hacker News Reader

I’ve seen more than a handful of acquaintances that I follow on social media in the past year or so who have lost incredible amounts of weight. I wonder if it can be attributed to Ozempic. Suspiciously I don’t really see any other evidence of them adopting new workout regiments or something like that. It could be that they keep that stuff private… but I doubt it.

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I'd say there is some anecdotal truth to it. Two of my close friends both had a fairly large reduction in weight and both of them admitted to using Ozempic.

One of my friends, I would consider heavily overweight if not obese (I'm not sure what the specific definition is). The other was certainly heavier but not by anything I would consider crazy. She however was working out religiously and watching her food intake and still struggled. She admitted to using it and it helped kick start her journey.

My other friend (heavier one) took it to lose weight for a wedding. Dropped a lot of weight, but didn't work out or change eating habits, stopped taking it and gained weight back.

So long story, I would say it's fairly likely that some of your acquaintances are taking/using it.

It's a good guess that if you see someone who has lost a considerable amount of weight, they are on ozempic or mounjaro. There's nothing wrong with that. American diet and lack of activity is a hard thing to turn around for a solid 6 months. Losing weight safely happens slowly with a caloric deficit, but not too big of a deficit that negatively impacts metabolism. Success stories like Ethan Suplee usually involve a consistent ongoing training program involving resistance training. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7SLwIDyYrk

I lost 50 pounds this year without actually taking anything, but I figured I’d everyone is going to lose weight on it, I might as well too. People didn’t really see me going to the gym or eating less because I didn’t advertise it and it’s not something people really pay attention to, but I did do those things.

If ozempic was $100/month or something like that, I’d probably go for it, but I was trying not to blow my high deductible health plan and that stuff is not cheap.

I assume prices will eventually fall via competition or generic which should be pretty cool for lots of people.

You can cop it on the cheap from Mexico FWIW

Not a bad idea actually - I live in South Texas so it should be pretty feasible. I’ve never gone there for any medical reasons but have known people to do that.

You need a Mexican prescription though.

Here it is for $211 per month: https://www.farmaciasguadalajara.com/ProductDisplay?urlReque... though that’s only a deal if your insurance won’t cover it in the states.

I bet it’s not in stock.

Anyone can also buy it from Nevada from a website that has the word peptide and the other word sciences in the name. A few popular youtube people have pointed out the same, although they can’t say the name but they do show the label. If one is concerned about it, compound pharmacies will provide it with a prescription from an HRT clinic.

The thing is, if I were to buy a vial of some research chemical and disregard the warnings and actually want to take them, I’d still have no idea what to do with a vial of liquid. Presumably it involves needles which I’ve never prepared. What’s in there could be totally safe to take and I might still end up with an infection or some other nonsense because I don’t know what I’m doing. I do appreciate a certain hacker spirited, DIY approach to medicine, but it could be a bridge too far for me.

There is an oral name-brand formulation of semaglutide. If the peptide people can reproduce that, it should not (need to) involve needles. The company GP is talking about only sells an injectable formulation, though.

Tbf this year we could comfortably return to the gym and burn off the covid 19.

I've lost 25lbs in the past two months without exercise, workouts, etc. Just Mounjaro. Sedentary lifestyle.

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