Saxenda, Etc

My Experience With Injectable Weight Loss Meds

Hello!

I mentioned Saxenda before and I imagine most of you know what it is, but just in the interest of discussion, I want to share my experience using the drug.

I originally asked my health care provider about Wegovy, which is a derative of the drug Ozempic. My son’s doctor put him on Ozempic for blood sugar issues, but my A1C is straight up the middle of normal, so that was not necessary. He mentioned how disinterested he was in food and got my attention.

At the time, my health care provider worked for a different medical group that does not prescribe weight loss injectables or did not back then. When she moved to a different medical group, she sent me a message and told me that some of her colleagues were having good luck with injectables and wondered if I was still interested.

I was.

I switched over to her new medical group and got in to see her in February 2023. Saxenda is the brand name for the drug liraglutide and is a daily injection. It comes in a pen, similar to an EpiPen. The dial that you see in the photo tells you how many mg of medication are loaded into the pen. The end of the pen turns to change the dosage. It uses an ultrafine needle that is almost indiscernible. I have rarely felt it.

The dosage starts at .6 mg and titrates up .6 mg at a time until you reach 3.0 mg. You can up your dosage after a week at the current dose. The idea is that you do not up your dosage until the medication loses its effectiveness. I eventually got up to 3.0, but it took months.

On the first day, I felt a significant reduction of appetite. In fact, the idea of eating was rather off putting. By the second day, I had zero interest in sugary foods. Taking this medication was the first time in my life that I felt like I ate for fuel rather than pleasure. I had to remind myself to eat.

Some people have nausea, headaches, intestinal upheaval, and other symptoms. I has very mild nausea, nothing I could not tolerate, and a mild headache for the first week. The symptoms would briefly return whenever I titrated up on the dosage.

I lost 17 pounds in the first month and my health care provider was concerned that I was losing too quickly and asked me to drop back down to the lower dose, which I did.

Saxenda works by repairing adrenal fatigue and insulin resistance. By the third day I was on it, I could only eat maybe half of the serving size of food I could eat before.

At approximately 3 months in, I was up to 3.0 mg a day and all weight loss had stopped. I still did not have strong cravings or intense appetite, but my body did what it always does and adapted into the new normal. Every thing tabled out.

I still take Saxenda, but I am on a tiny dose of 1.2 mg per day due to the Saxenda shortage. My pharmacy has no idea when they will get more in and tomorrow, I start my last pen. It should last me a bit over two weeks. Some days, if I do not feel especially hungry, I skip a dose to try and make it last longer.

I do think it continues to help me with some appetite control and the insulin resitance. I am so very grateful for the 20 pounds I lost in the last year or so. I look forward to losing more. Saxenda prescription does not require preauthorization from my insurance company and other meds do. Since I am not symptomatic for diabetes and my blood pressure is normal, there really are no qualifying symptoms to justify weight loss medication to an insurance company.

This medication is a close second to PhenFen as far as effectiveness. I am grateful I did not suffer the cardiac damage some had from PhenFen and understand why it was taken off the market, but I definitely had some good weight loss with it. Like Saxenda, my side effects were minimal. I had dry mouth, but that just encouraged me to drink more water.

I hear people disparaging those who go to bariatric surgery or medication to assist with weight loss and that’s too bad. We’re all walking our own path. For me at 62, I have to admit that I apparently do not have the constitution to do it on my own or I would have done it by now. I have certainly tried multiple times.

For now, I am still carefully tracking my food with Weight Watchers and staying compliant. I eat so much salad and air popped popcorn and chick stirfry. I miss desert, but I’m not giving up an entire day of points to have some.

I do not feel like I have lost more weight yet, but I can feel my body adjusting in that “What’s this? What’s this?” kind of way. It’s like a kid who went to sleep in one place and woke up in another, trying to calculate what’s going on.

My energy is lower without my usual sugar buzz, but I am sleeping a bit better now. For the moment, I am just racking up days of compliance and hoping my body catches up with the plan eventually. For now, let’s just say that my jeans fit the same as they did a week ago.

Thanks for being there,