## Introduction I figured I'd share my own GLP-1 story, partly for my own reflection, and partly for anyone else who might be interested. This isn't advice or a medical recommendation, nor is it intended as an advertisement for Mounjaro. ## Background I'm in my mid-50s, white, male, about 5'10" and at the time of this writing, about 240-ish pounds. I was in fairly good shape through my late 30s into my mid-40s (crossfitter, weightlifter). I usually weighed right in the neighborhood of 220 during those times. When COVID hit in 2020, a couple of injuries conspired with middle-aged healing factors, work changes, life challenges, and an overall lack of motivation to ease me into a sedentary lifestyle. I started putting on pounds, slowly at first, and then with rapid acceleration. I gained something like 55 lbs. in 3 years. While this was happening, I experienced my first noticeable blood sugar issues - that horrible low blood sugar feeling that comes on without much warning while doing something like walking the dogs or mowing the lawn. I had been pre-diabetic dating back into my mid-40s (including during a time that I was in objectively good physical condition). In November 2024 at my annual physical I was diagnosed with diabetes. ## The Mounjaro storyline ### November '24: diagnosis Upon my diabetes diagnosis, I was started on metformin, and Mounjaro 2.5 mg. The difference was immediate and incredible. This is the stage that was absolutely revelatory for me. It was like a switch was flipped in my brain, and the *food noise* was just turned off. Like if you have a fan running and you turn it off and suddenly hear the silence. I've used the word "revelation" a couple of times here, and the primary revelation I received was a sudden understanding of how long I had been living with a broken relationship with food without recognizing or even noticing it. ### Food Noise "Food Noise" has become part of the vernacular since then, but you never heard anyone talk about it in the past. I never really stopped to consider what it would be like to just exist without an extra voice in my head that's constantly talking about what I should eat next, and how soon. On a normal day, it wasn't uncommon for me to be thinking about what I'd have for dinner while still eating lunch. My ability to put gas in my car without going into the gas station for junk food was impaired, at best. The addition of the GLP-1 changed all that. This is why I have to agree with the people who label it a miracle drug, full stop. ### Side Effects At the outset of this course of meds, I had very minor side effects, and none that would make me want to stop taking them. Constipation was constant, but navigable. I've always been prone to indigestion/reflux issues, but I didn't have to worry about them while on Mounjaro because I was never eating that close to bedtime in the first place. One other notable one was weird food aversions and a couple of cravings. Artificial sweeteners started tasting like nothing but chemicals in every context, especially diet soft drinks (I readjusted to that one in time). For some reason, leafy greens (and I'm someone who loves a nice salad) became really unpalatable. That part was both unexpected and weird. ### Hunger But the biggest deal here: I just wasn't hungry. At all. I didn't feel weak or have weird stomach issues or anything like that, I just didn't want to eat anything. Keep in mind that I started these meds just as the holiday season came around. During Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, etc., I could put a plate of my favorite *anything* in front of me and take a couple of bites and just walk away, simple as that. Like I said before: revelatory. As the new year rolled around, I was moved up to 5 mg Mounjaro, and the weight loss took wings. I felt great, and my clothes were all getting very loose. My lack of hunger was remarkable. I started tracking calories, not to make sure I didn't overdo it, but for the opposite reason: I felt like I should make sure I got at least 1000 calories a day. Sometimes I had to talk myself into having a little something extra to hit that mark. ![[IMG_1654.jpeg|375]] *Between November '24 and July '25, I averaged 1.3 lbs of weight loss per week.* ### Total Weight Loss As you can see in the above graph (taken from [Happy Scale](https://happyscale.com/), iOS), I enjoyed 8 months of rapid, effortless weight loss. It's important to note, I think, that I did literally nothing besides eat less and take the meds during this span - no new exercise regimen happened on my end. I dropped 2 pants sizes. Total weight loss was around 60 lbs. My target weight was 220 (which was my working weight from back in my 40s, when I was in shape), and I didn't quite make it there, but I got very close. If I had taken it a smidge more seriously and added even a small amount of exercise back in there, I'm sure I would've hit that number. ### July '25: Party's over? Alas. In June of 2025, the weight loss stopped, just like that. Again, it was a new experience and very interesting to live through. I had grown accustomed over that eight month span to seeing the scale drop a reliable half pound every time I stepped on it. I had started eating just a bit more - not a huge amount, but hunger started coming back. Over the course of June, the weight loss slowed. And then, it just stopped. By this time, I was up to 7.5 mg of Mounjaro, and still taking Metformin. And it was as if my body acclimated to the drugs, or maybe just said "ok, we're good." And for what it's worth, it *was* good. I didn't start putting weight back on for several more months, and my hunger took its sweet time in coming back to me. ### 18-ish Months Later At the time of this writing, it's May 2026. I'm a little over 20 lbs heavier than I was last July - the new clothes I bought last summer are getting tight again. Last fall when I went to see the Dr. and we noted some regained weight, and I reported to her that I was pretty much back to regular hunger, she bumped me up to 10 mg of Mounjaro. I just couldn't tolerate it. Crazy how I could be totally acclimated to 7.5 mg, but that extra 2.5 mg was a bridge too far - I was sick as a dog for 2-3 days after every injection: nausea, stomach upset, weird fatigue, the works. So I went back down to 7.5 but with a catch: during the couple of months on 10 mg I've developed some kind of Pavlovian conditioned response, and now I get a little chill of nausea every time I take a syringe out of the fridge. FML. All good things. If I seem a little unperturbed at the return of those 20lbs...I guess I am. I have at least one friend who experienced a bigger rebound weight gain than me, and other internet reports have told me to expect it. So putting weight back on isn't optimal, but it's still under control. And the story that's bigger than my weight is... ### But what about that pesky diabetes diagnosis? So here's the headline and it's good news: my diabetes is currently under control and I guess could be categorized as 'in remission' for more than a year now. My A1c after 3 months on the meds was back to a prediabetic number. After 6 months: normal, not even prediabetic. 9 months in: dropped the metformin from my regimen because my A1c was now a bit *too* low. ## Conclusion Using the GLP-1 was a no-brainer for me. With a pervasive family history of diabetes, out-of-control weight gain, and a totally unhealthy relationship with food, I'd have been an idiot not to get on the meds. They solved my immediate problems. But now that the proverbial honeymoon is over...what comes next? I know that long-term, I need to get a better exercise habit rebuilt in my life. I'm working on that. I'll stay on a GLP-1 for as long as I can. That means that I'll keep taking it as long as my diagnosis and insurance cooperate. I wouldn't mind stepping down to a lower dose at this point, but I'm not the doctor here and will continue to follow her advice. One reality of getting older that I've confronted often in the last five-or-so years is that as you get older, keeping your body in a state of equilibrium gets progressively harder. The first time you notice is when you twist your ankle and still feel it two weeks later - when younger you would've walked it off and forgotten it by the next day. So I'll keep looking for that balanced zone where I can live my life without needing some sort of monastic discipline commanding my every choice in food or activity. One of the most useful effects of being on a GLP-1 has been how much easier it's made the maintenance of that equilibrium for me. --- > [!info] > originally published 2026-05-18. Contact [email protected]