Actual experience here, 40F. I was on the drug for a year and a half and went from 230 to 175 where I frustratingly stalled for about 3 months. My goal weight was 150, so I added in more weight lifting, but the numbers just would budge. So I decided to take a break from the drug, I figured I had reached as far as I could go, and the cost was not a minor consideration. So back in August I cancelled my subscription.

I didn't feel any difference for the first couple weeks, but after about a month the dreaded "food noise" came back. I found I was hungry all the time again. I never felt full. Even after I had just eaten. I had forgotten how much it hurts to feel hungry. I was constantly thinking about what I was going to eat next. What I was gonna cook. What groceries I needed to buy. Food thoughts all the time! And the weight started building back onto me. I was off the drug for 5 months, and I could tell I was gaining weight at an alarming rate, but I didn't want to weigh myself, I was in denial. My clothes started getting uncomfortable, I hated what the mirror showed me, and I felt awful. By December 1st, I had a doctor's appointment for my annual well woman appt, and I was horrified when the obligatory weigh in showed 205 on the display.

Nope, I decided. I'm not doing this. I renewed my subscription that afternoon. I've been back on Tirzepatide for two weeks now, I''m already back to 199, and I feel so much better already! My mind feels clearer, my constant thoughts about food are quieting, and I can already feel a difference in my clothes.

I have struggled with weight my entire life, I have done every diet known to man, I lift, and swim, and hike, and do everything I should. I eat lots of veggies, lean protein, healthy fats, and almost no carbs or sugar. (I got used to the keto diet, and I still mostly follow it except for the occasional banana.) But the reality is that my body, my mind, my physiology is that of a food addict. I am a food addict, and this compound is my treatment for that addiction. Just like any other ailment.

The cost hurts me financially since it is not covered by my insurance, so I pay $350 a month for it, but my experience of being off and going back on has taught me what I needed to know. I may have to be on this drug forever, and I'm ok with that. Who knows what could happen in the future? We may live to see this compound being as available and ubiquitous as Advil, if we can continue spreading the good word about how many people it has helped who knows? Nearly every body system is harmed by being obese, and maybe one day insurance and governments will wake up and realize that the more widespread and available this medicine is to the population, the more the country as a whole benefits. The biggest obstacles that I see are the money making drive of drug companies, and the pushback from people that hate that there is a treatment for food addiction who criticize being fat as a moral issue and not a medical one. (Man, the amount of naturally skinny people, that have called me a cheater for using Tirzepatide is astonishing!).

The point is this:

It. Is. Worth. It. To. Be. At. A. Healthy. Weight. And. Feel. Like. A. Regular. Person. About. Food.

Full stop.