glp1guide

Whether it is safe for you is not answerable by randoms on the internet, but the class of drugs (GLP1 Receptor Agonists) are VERY well researched (like other commenters have pointed out).

If the wealth of anecdotal experience isn't enough for you, read the published research and trials.

TIL, thanks for this insight -- where did you find this rule of thumb?

Ozempic face isn't real -- it'd happen for any other effective form of drastic whole-body weight loss.

There's just been nothing so effective (and relatively side-effect free and cheap, believe it or not) up until now.

Note that the wider class of drugs are called GLP1 Receptor Agonists.

> Can we talk about the elephant in the room for a second? tens of millions of people are taking this, and they'd need to keep taking this medication for the effects of the drug to remain.

This is untrue, you can stop taking the drug and the effects will persist, most people keep weight off after coming off the drugs.

I've assembled some stuff on this here:

https://glp1.guide/content/do-people-regain-all-the-weight-l...

There are anecdotal reports of astounding levels of hunger returning (more than before perhaps) but this can be solved by a more gradual wean-off (like the ramp up).

> I just don't get the lack of skepticism.

There has never been such a con-free, researched solution to weight loss (and originally these drugs were meant to treat type 2 diabetes, so it's more like we have a viagra situation on our hands).

Don't read what the media puts out, go back and read the research papers. It's not magic -- it's well researched, and while it's not clear exactly every effect, there is a growing body of evidence.

Probably another 5 years :)

It won't be Ozempic but probably one of the orally-administered forms for most people.

And the trend is likely to continue.

I don't know if the fast food industry can reinvent itself like the tobacco industry seems to have (see vapes and now zyn) but it's going to be much more difficult I think.

Super glad you found this solution and Mounjaro was helpful. These drugs are all explicitly for T2D so it's surprising it wasn't suggested to you.

Note that there are actually a BUNCH of different formulations that do the same thing (mostly) -- the class of GLP1 Receptor Agonists:

- Semaglutide - Tirzepatide - Liraglutide - Exenatide - Danuglipron

Those are just some.

And like others noted, it's not an absolute miracle (there are side effects, it's hard to get right now, somewhat contentious) but it's definitely miraculous in effects so far.

Late but that's awesome! Thanks for making the update!

Well this is fascinating:

> This year, some female users, mostly of Ozempic, began sharing tales of unexpected pregnancies, with the hashtag #OzempicBabies trending on social media. Some had previously struggled to conceive; others were on contraception at the time (as the prescribing guidelines all clearly advise). While there no firm figures on how many people are affected, Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, has opened a pregnancy registry to follow up babies in their first year of life.

It's clearly too early to figure out if this is a good or bad thing or even attributable to GLP1s but this is is quite the new side effect, if it pans out.

At the end of the day, GLP1 agonists might be some of the most plentiful available drugs (given the number of compounds that work, companies that make them, entry of various large firms[0]) -- if we can maintain these beneficial side effects without discovery of some huge harmful side effect...

Question of the effects on these drugs on fetuses is a huge one though.

[0]: https://glp1.guide/content/victoza-generic-hits-the-market

Disclaimer: I'm biased of course -- I run a site that's all about the positive and negative effects of GLP1, but I'm of the opinion that they're positive over-all in the absence of comprehensive nutrition/foodstuff regulation.

The negative side effect of gastroparesis is definitely present, but it's not quite as extreme as you're suggesting here.

A lot of the recent scholarship trying to figure out how GLP1 drugs actually work is more focused on GLP1 receptors in the brain as well. Good write up on it over at the Atlantic:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240305193736/https://www.theat...

Note that Rybelsus is a pill version of Semaglutide, developed by Novo Nordisk

Wrote a little about it here:

https://glp1.guide/content/a-glp1-ra-drug-without-a-needle-r...

This is awesome, thanks for doing it -- the data looks high quality, and the layout is fantastic!

I think it might be a bit early to accurately attribute a negative correlation between clinics and obesity rates at a state level but.

It also might have been good to spell out exactly what the research means by by "Semaglutide clinic".

I assume you mean experienced -- what did you do to recover? Sounds like it was temporary?

It's been interesting to see companies try to adapt to the wave -- If you previously produced addictive but ultimately bad-for-you products...

I wonder how you can adapt to a world where peoples' addictive desires themselves are greatly reduced.

You could probably replace "Obesity Drugs" with a lot of other things and the title could stay unchanged.

This is what you love to see -- GLP1s are going to absolutely explode in usage, I thought the first real challenges would come from India with a generic but this also works.

Yup! Ozempic is a GLP1 Receptor Agonist developed by Novo Nordisk!

> 5% weight loss at the end of the day, and no cardio metabolic improvement [0]. So basically the net change was super small and cosmetic. I understand this could still be useful for very specific cases, but it's more of a niche that we're willing to admit.

Hey 5% weight loss is pretty good! And remember, there maybe a period of time where the process repeats after getting off (no research to support this yet).

Also, I think you're under-estimating the psychological benefits. The lessened/blunted impulses to eat/do other addictive things might prove to be way more valuable in the time frame than simply the weight loss.

Also, note that the 5% is basically the worst case -- it's possible for more motivated people to keep more than that off, especially if they change their lifestyles appropriately, and importantly the drugs help people get in a headspace to do that.

> I hear you, I and I think we'll see more and more diverse drugs with different mechanisms. I'm just not sure we should be saying "this time it's different" every single time when we could take more measured approach before pushing it to the masses. Right now we're already in the YOLO phase waiting to see how it will pan out now that everyone and their dog want the miracle weight loss drug.

Yeah but I'd say this time it is different -- we've literally never had any weight loss drug that was this effective with so few side effects, and is well studied and essentially has an arms race between the largest pharma companies in the world to produce.

I agree with you though -- it's not a miracle drug, but it's the closest we've seen so far, so that's worth celebrating.

Personally I don't think anyone has to push this drug -- the masses are demanding it -- it's just that only rich people/lucky people with good health plans can afford it so far.

Well I'm more looking for GLP1 generics developed whole-cloth in India.

India is quite good at pharmaceuticals -- their generics basically serve the rest of the world that are priced out of US-made products IIRC.

Ex. their generic version of Paxlovid:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

Basically, with the expiring patents coming up on a bunch of these drugs:

https://www.biospace.com/article/9-drugs-losing-patents-or-e...

We're going to be in interesting waters soon.

> I mean come up with a pill that changes your eating habits and doesn't just repress them. Don't think anyone's got close to that yet.

So GLP1 gene therapy (if it ever gets here) might be the most reasonable way to achieve this, and might be the safest we've ever seen so far outside of maybe brain control.

> In the meantime overweight people are going to take what they can get.

100%. And AFAIK GLP1s are some of the safest we've seen so far, and much more effective than "eat less and move more" (as true as that may be).

> Isn't the worry that Ozempic is only "effective and save" as far as all the other weight loss drugs being utter predatory bullshit ?

Yes, but note that there are other more legitimate alternatives like gastric bypass, etc!

> Last time I looked into it the "loss" is only happening while taking the medication and you get back to normal once you stop, regardless of how long you’ve been taking it. So if stabilizing at a thinner state is your goal, the drug would be mostly useless or you should be ready to take the rest of your life.

This is untrue -- most people do not bounce all the way back to their original weight once they stop, and simply having the space from what seems to anecdotally be quite annoying symptoms ("food noise") might be well worth it.

https://glp1.guide/content/do-people-regain-all-the-weight-l...

> Going only a tad too far, it feels like recomming meth for its energizing and diet effects, that's not something we want at wide scale.

It's absolutely not this -- there are studies and trials on how GLP1 RAs work, their effects, and at this point they are a go-to effective treatment for type 2 diabetes, and the FDA has just approved them for heart disease.

The way they work is not completely known (for example the mental effects seem to be underweighted), but the mechanism of action is completely different a drug like meth.

Well quality of the compounder/pharmacy is the real issue here -- of course it's not that the process itself is flawed, more that it's basically impossible for a layman consumer to inspect/assess quality/safety.

> I've heard from random podcasts (do your own research) you need to make sure you exercise, and perhaps eat high protein, while on drugs like this, otherwise you lose a ton of muscle mass. Could be deadly for seniors, where falls are a leading cause of death.

This isn't true in the sense that it's because of GLP1 RAs in particular -- it's just that GLP1 RAs are effective at rapid weight loss, and that's what happens when you undergo rapid weight loss REGARDLESS of method.

It's a trade-off -- do you want to manage muscle loss and bone density issues (with an easily modifiable dosage/etc) or manage type 2 diabetes or heart disease for the same patient?

Note that seniors are actually some of the biggest cohorts using the new GLP1 Receptor Agonists:

https://glp1.guide/content/senior-citizens-and-glp1-receptor...

Also as some other people have noted, those costs seem high now, but they're certain to go down over time (due to competition and other companies entering the market along with other countries), and almost certainly worth the cost -- type 2 diabetes can be very expensive, along with all the other effects from complications of obesity.

For example, Wegovy has actually been FDA approved for reducing heart disease risk:

https://glp1.guide/content/news-fda-approves-wegovy-for-redu...

People like Scott Galloway have been saying this for a while, and he's completely right. The research isn't all there quite yet for stopping addiction, but the research definitely points to GLP1's effectiveness at reducing food cravings, appetite (and anecdotally "food noise") for people taking it.

If you're looking for a quick primer on what the term "GLP1 Agonist" even means: https://glp1.guide/content/what-are-glp1-agonists/

This will absolutely have a huge effect on companies that sell ingestable... "luxuries"/addictive substances -- the only thing holding back the deluge of change is the accessibility/pricing of the drugs.

It also seems like the next phase of this is gene therapy:

https://glp1.guide/content/a-glimpse-of-the-future-glp1-gene...

These are some interesting side effects -- I'm not sure I've seen low libido very commonly -- have you noticed any other reports/disclosures of that sort of side effect?

Note that GLP1 RAs do decrease hunger, and their effects are very much also psychological. It's not simply a digestion slowing pharmacological effect.

There are dangers/risks to buying pharmacy compounded semaglutide -- not really a great thing to recommend widely. It's hard to depend on whatever pharmacy people might be able to find locally or through some hopefully trustworthy portal.

That said, with China and more notably India entering the GLP1 RA race, there will be much cheaper options very soon, hopefully!

Hey don't worry, your fears are mostly unfounded -- GLP1 Receptor Agonists have been an effective treatment method for type 2 diabetes for a very long time. They're well studied, researched and trialed, at this point, and many side effects are known.

I'm a bit biased of course (I do a lot of trying to keep up with the research and effects of GLP1 drugs), but I honestly don't think the weight loss scene has seen something so effective and safe for a very long time.

Wow this should really be getting more press! Awesome result, yet another benefit of GLP-1 drugs