“You know Igor, weight loss is a solved problem” - my bestie, texted me when I complained about my pants no longer fitting. Remember - Diet dominates weight, as weight is simple arithemtic -“calories in” minus “calories out”. For me, will power dominates diet, and terzepatide dominates will power when stuffing things in my mouth. I started Terzepatide in February 2024, and so far it’s been great.
What’s it like?
To quote Ammon again. “It’s kind of how I imagined normal people are - they eat, they enjoy the food, savoring it, and then they stop”. That’s exatly what it’s like.
Do I magically lose weight? No! There is no physics defying magic here. It’s still calories in minus calories out. The magic here is your body feels full, by drastically slowing your digestion and messing with some digestive plumbing.
Interesting it’s volume based, so if you wolf down calorie dense foods, you can still gain weight.
- You don’t crave food.
- You don’t feel hungry.
- You feel full fast
- Because you feel full, you’re more likely to stop and savor.
Differences from calorie restriction
I’ve done a ton of dieting - the core approach is to get my calories down, get used to an empty stomach, and frequently eat small meals like popcorn or protein shakes - which satiates me. This does not work well with terzepatide.
I think the reason is that on the above dieting strategy you get used to a mostly empty belly, and even a bit full having some calories feels satiated.
On terzepatide, you digest food more slowly. So you’re better off eating a large meal of meat, and then your digestion is slowed down so you feel full for way longer.
I’ll convert this to a graph, and all these numbers are made up:
- Fullness- How full you need to feel full
- Normal meal - How full you need to feel full on a normal meal
- Drain speed - How quickly you are digesting those calories
| Mode | Fullness | Normal Meal | Digestion/Hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Eating | 100 | 70 | 30 |
| Local Dieting | 50 | 20 | 30 |
| Terzepatide | 100 | 70 | 10 |
Side effects
It’s mostly the side effects of dieting hard (if you are)
- Light headed
- Cold
- Lower energy
- Less Sleep (when calories go low, your body assuming you need to find food, and produces some sleep reduction drugs)
Gastroinstronal
- Constipation, not terrible.
- Burps - the first few days
- Feeling full.
Muscle loss
This is a bit of a misnomer, as the same can happen when dieting hard. I think the mitigations are lots of protein, I”m probably doing 1g*lbs/day, and exercise, I”m currenlty doing 6 days/week.
FAQ
Did you get a ‘script, isn’t there a shortage? Is this some grey market $hit?
I use lifemd, they give you a Dr to help you decide and check in on side effects, and then co-ordinate with a compounding pharmacy. Ends up about 500$/month, which probably I save half of that on food.
I think there is some shenanigans with compounding pharmacies and copyright and emergency use when shortages. So I’m not getting the brand name Zepbound (get the pun on the name), I’m getting a blend of Terzepatide and something else (some places did Vitamin D). I don’t get the fancy dispenser, but need to inject myself (which Tori originally did, but decided I’m a grown up and can do it myself).
More details on how it’s done and the risks.
- Ammon Stories of weight loss
- Fake pills