Chiming in a bit late, but I posted in this thread in July (original post
here) when I had been on Zepbound/tirzepatide for about a year. It's now been a little over a year and a half. I'm down 120 lbs total. About 85 of that I lost in the first year, the other 35 in the last 8 months. I'm no longer obese per BMI, for the first time since at least early childhood, and I might actually even get to a "normal" weight (currently in a bit of a plateau at 150 lbs, about 15 lbs away at from healthy BMI at 5'2").
I don't think it's (too much of) an exaggeration to say that this drug has saved my life. I can't speak to the experience of someone who is trying to just lose 30 lbs or whatever - maybe the side effects wouldn't be worth it- but I have been pretty fat to REALLY fat for most of my life. Like nearing 300 lbs at 5'2". REALLY FAT. And if you're a person like me who has struggled for your entire life with the chronic disease of obesity, this medication can straight up cure it. As detailed in my earlier post, I lost over 100 lbs before and later gained most of it back - it's not that I don't have the knowledge, willpower, or discipline to lose weight, it's that something is wonky in my endocrine system and this has fixed it. I've never been diabetic or even close to pre-diabetic, and I can't say I totally understand the science of what hormonal switches are being flipped etc, but whatever it is, it works for me, and obviously for a lot of other people, too.
I have begun to think about what tapering down/off might look like at some point. I'd like to get a DEXA scan to see what exactly my body composition is and how much fat I have left to lose. While I would like to take less medications overall, I'm not opposed to staying on some low/maintenance dose forever if I need to. It is nice to know that if I got off the meds and started gaining weight back, the medicine is always available to me. I don't think I would ever let myself gain even 20% of it back - the way my life has changed and how good I feel in my body is too precious to give up - but I also said that when I lost 110 lbs in 2018, so I'm well aware of how bad things can get if, well, things get bad.
I had to switch insurance due to work and my new insurance doesn't cover Zepbound (which is just so fucking ridiculous I could scream - if I had some other lifelong chronic condition that was cured by a medication with minimal side effects, it would be crazy to just NOT cover it, right?) so I switched back to compounded. Paying about $150/month instead of the $30 for insurance-covered brand name. Happy to share the telehealth I'm getting it from if anyone is interested, but not shilling for a random company so won't put it here.
I'm not sure if, like bariatric surgery, there is a "magic" period in the first 12-18 months with lessening effects after that. I did recently increase my dose as I felt some of the food noise returning and appetite suppression lessening, but I stayed at 10mg for almost 6 months. Generally I feel like the drug is still doing it's job.
Since my original post I started working out again in October - mostly lifting heavy in the gym, and will start training for a spring half marathon next week. It's been interesting to work out without thinking about weight loss (because the weight loss has happened anyway). Kind of dumb, but as a lifelong fatass I'd never experienced it before... working out is good even if you're not doing it to lose weight. I wish I hadn't stopped lifting (from about January-October 2025) because I'm sure I lost more muscle mass than I needed to, but glad to be back at it now, and excited to see how adding cardio in changes things up.
I've seen several posts from people just starting the medication (exciting! looking forward to hearing your progress!). A few tips: the main side effects I experienced at the beginning were heartburn and constipation. I now take famotidine and MiraLAX every day. My doc said both are fine to take daily. If I do that, I don't have heartburn and I poop good. Drinking lots of water also helps with the pooping good. Continue or start some weight training to avoid losing as much muscle (but also, as long as you don't out-eat the medication like a psycho, you'll lose weight regardless).
I keep joking that they should put my picture on the box because I've had such stellar results and because I am so effusive when talking about it. And I talk about it to whoever asks, I'm always very upfront when someone comments on my weight loss and happy to tell people about my experience. This drug is amazing and if more people could experience life without obesity (especially if they've been obese forever), I genuinely think the world would be a better place. Obesity is a disease and it fucking sucks to be sick. I'll take the title of GLP-1 evangelist with pride. Also I'm hot now so honestly they really should put me on the box I think?
