Saying goodbye to Zepbound
Last fall, I started taking Zepbound and wrote about the first couple weeks and touched on it after a few months. While it was a pretty life-changing at first, as I did lose 20lbs quickly, I plateaued for the next six months. During that time, I tried a higher dosage level, but unfortunately, the side effects slowly made me feel worse.
A few weeks ago, my last vial ran out and I decided to stop taking it. I might try another GLP-1 in the future—hopefully one with milder side effects—but for now I'm letting my digestive system to recover for a while.
The positives
Zepbound was remarkable about quieting the influence of hunger on my body. For the first few weeks I almost had to schedule meals in a calendar app otherwise I would forget to eat. Eventually, a more normal appetite returned but I did always have to remember to eat light, otherwise my stomach and digestive system would be in for a world of hurt later on. The one thing it really helped out with was I no longer snacked between meals and I would rarely eat after dinner no matter how late I was up.
I am impressed that a drug could control my appetite so completely, which is an impossible thing for any magic pill to do, since so many have promised this over the years but never really delivered until now.
The not-so-great parts
My digestive system slowed waaaaay down and that was a new feeling, and not a particularly good one. My old reliable schedules got out of whack as food took longer to process. When I got food poisoning twice while on Zepbound, it wrecked me for several days each time instead of being a 24hr minor inconvenience, pre-GLP-1.
After 7-8 months using Zepbound, I started getting severe intestinal gas even though I took GasX daily. I'd never had acid reflux before, but I constantly chomped on Tums to keep the heartburn at bay. Some nights, I would randomly wake up in extreme pain in the middle of the night, then belch out a 30-second burp and suddenly feel better.
I began to hate the “shot day” that you had to do once a week. Whenever I injected my shot, I would feel terrible for a day or two after. It got so bad that I started adding a few days after each week, in an attempt to avoid how bad my body would feel after each shot.
Right up until I stopped taking Zepbound, my stomach felt like the gut biome I had that kept things on an even keel had been obliterated over the past few months. I was getting an upset stomach several times a week. I was now severely lactose intolerant whenever I touched ice cream, and after spending half my life as a vegetarian, if I ate any sort of pinto or refried beans, I would feel bloated to the point I almost considered going to an ER once because I was in so much pain.
What's next
Like I said, I might someday try a different GLP-1 or a hybrid mix of them. I disliked the needles and vials of fluid I had to interact with for the first few months of Zepbound. Later, I got injection pens through my health provider and those were a million times easier to use. I would be interested in the pill forms someday, since stabbing yourself gets old after a few months.
I've learned from this experiment that my eating habits were pretty bad in the past, and far too often I ate too much after dinner and late at night. On Zepbound, I was surprised at how little I should be eating at my age and with a slower metabolism. Even while on it, I stopped losing weight for months, even though it was still causing me to eat much less than I used to. I can tell that exercising is definitely more important than I thought. I never really felt I needed to force myself to eat protein though.
After a month away from it, I've gained a couple pounds back but I feel like I know what it would take to lose a few more. I'm glad I tried Zepbound and GLP-1s out, as they're pretty remarkable drugs, but I experience strong side effects with almost any prescriptions and eventually this particular drug was just too much for my system to handle.
