u/LowDramaFit

We can answer questions like:

-How much protein should I actually be eating on a GLP-1?

-Is it true that 20–40% of weight lost on GLP-1s is muscle?

-Why is my hair shedding 4 months in, and will it stop?

-Am I really losing bone density on this medication?

-Why does food noise come back the second I stop the medication?

-Is maintenance harder than the losing phase?

-What should I be eating differently in maintenance vs. weight loss?

Drop your question in the AMA thread (pinned at the top of r/Ozempic). Short or long, doesn't matter. We're here for 3 hours. AMA

Was on sema first, didn't really take for my body. Switched to tirz, dropped 44 lbs over about 6 months. Felt unstoppable. Then around month 3 I started losing serious muscle. Bone too, I found out later. Nobody had warned me about either.

I figured I'd done the hard part, so I stopped the med. Six months off, thinking I'd keep what I'd built. Gained all 44 back. It broke me. Watching it come back like that with no off switch in my brain. Done the thing, then undone the thing.

Back on now at a maintenance dose. Second time around I had to actually learn the nutrition piece. Eating my protein daily, lifting, actually sleeping. The medication does its job. Everything else was on me to figure out. I'm 45 and I feel better than I did at 30.

Quick PS, hope this is okay to post here. Today there's an AMA with Ashley Koff RD (super well known RD) running on Ozempic sub from 11am to 2pm PT, on the nutrition side of all this (maintenance, muscle, bone, hair, food noise, the stopping question). If you have anything you've been wondering about, drop it in there.

Anyone else here gone through a regain after stopping?

Hi r/Ozempic,

Ashley here.

Hi I'm Ashley Koff RD and I've been seeing patients for 25 years to help them optimize their weight health. I also train practitioners on this approach too. I first started exploring GLP-1 in bariatric patients in 2004 and then working with GLP-1 medications for people with diabetes a few years later. In 2019, I founded The Better Nutrition Program to bring this approach to more people nationwide, and my book Your Best Shot came out in January (national bestseller now, which still feels surreal to say).

So much of this comes down to digestion, real labs, and personalization. The kind of nutrition work that gets specific to you, not the same generic advice everyone gets handed. I'll be here Wednesday May 20, 11am to 2pm PT to actually talk through it.

Steven here.

First time was sema, didn't really take for my body. Switched to tirz and ended up dropping 44 lbs. Then around month 3 I started losing serious muscle and found out later I'd been losing bone too. Nobody warned me about either. Stopped the med thinking I'd be fine and would just keep what I'd built. Gained all 44 back. Honestly that broke me a little, watching it come back like that.

Second time around I came back at it with a real plan because I HAD to figure out the nutrition piece. Protein every day. Lifting consistently to hold onto muscle and bone. Actually sleeping. The medication was doing its job the whole time, the rest was just on me. I'm 45 now and honestly feel better than I did at 30. That whole mess is part of why my brother Dean and I started Maeva, and why Ashley came on. She's the one who taught me how much of this comes down to digestion and real labs, not just generic targets.

Happy to talk about what worked, what didn't, and what I'd tell my past self.

Wednesday May 20, 11am to 2pm PT, both of us live here for 3 hours. Then we'll keep checking the thread for the next 24-48 hours for late questions.

Drop your question whenever you want. Right now is fine, live on Wednesday is fine. Ashley will take the clinical stuff. I'll handle the lived stuff. Every reply gets signed so you know who's talking.

Things we'll probably cover (plus whatever else you throw at us):

Protein, digestion, food noise, muscle and bone, hair, GI, energy, the dosing-down conversation, what to actually buy at the grocery store, what bloodwork to ask for, what happens when you stop.

A small thank-you for letting us do this: a giveaway! Seven winners total.

-One person walks away with a personalized weight health plan from Ashley, including a 1:1 with her.

-One different person walks away with a 1-month Maeva Starter Kit.

-Five more get a 50% off discount code for the kit.

How to enter: just leave a comment with the one question you'd most want Ashley or me to answer. Doesn't matter if you drop it today or live on Wednesday. We pull winners on video Thursday.

Verification photos: https://imgur.com/a/gq5HhnL

https://preview.redd.it/v1xziqajq62h1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=beb83f650872932a159483d59576a2c43e32a7c7

Disclaimer from Ashley: I'm a dietitian. I'm not your dietitian. Everything I share is general info based on current research, not personal medical advice. Talk to your prescribing doctor for anything dose, med, or condition related.

Disclosure from Steven: I co-founded Maeva. Ashley is our RD partner on the Maeva nutrition formulations. r/Ozempic mods approved the AMA and the giveaway.

Ask away. See you Wednesday.

Steven + Ashley

Farms grow more than people need. Retailers stock more than they'll sell. Restaurants plate more than anyone can finish. About 30-40% of food gets thrown away (USDA). The waste is the margin the whole industry runs on.

In the last six weeks, the FDA approved an oral version of appetite suppressant, the Indian patent expired, and prices crashed to around 8 dollars per month. China folded obesity treatment into its national health plan, with screening aimed at over a billion people by 2030.

So if hundreds of millions of people end up on something that meaningfully suppresses appetite, are we looking at a different future entirely?

Do we look back at the era of supersize me, vending machines in schools, and 64oz sodas the way we now look back at smoking sections on planes, a strange thing humans used to do before we had tools to stop?

Or does the food economy not actually shrink, just reroute, engineered to slip past whatever's getting suppressed, the way social media routed around our attention after TV stopped working?