u/just_cats_please

I've been on Zepbound for almost four months mostly for IWL and after a lifetime of yo-yo dieting it's been a pretty slow start but it is definitely working and I'm just feeling a lot of anger toward diet culture in general. I'm eating so, SO much less than before (spot tracking to make sure I'm still getting a healthy floor of calories), when I was already eating what felt like the absolute minimum amount I needed to not be starving all the time, and I'm still losing less than .5% of my starting weight per week. Which is all fine, it's just thinking about the idea that diet culture was expecting me to eat this little without medication is making me so mad. The idea that I was eating more than this because I couldn't control myself or I didn't realize how much I was eating and not because I was FUCKING HUNGRY. I've even realized that "feeling hungry" does not mean the same thing for everyone and that is also making me mad. My partner only knows he has to eat when he feels tired and dizzy and realizes it's been a day since his last meal, he had no idea what I was talking about when I described what has been my experience of hunger my whole life until Zepbound (gnawing, aching, growling stomach pains every few hours that cannot be ignored). The idea that I was supposed to count up to my daily calorie allowance and then just feel like that and do nothing about it and live my life like that. The idea that there are other people on this very medication who think I should be able to stop the med and keep eating this way because I'll have "learned good habits".

Sorry this is a straight up barely coherent rant but yeah, just feeling a lot of anger.

Prefacing this with the requisite I know hunger is good and normal but DAMN it is just all over the place lately! I'm in the process of titrating up at half speed on tirzepatide (going up 1.25mg every 4 weeks instead of the normal 2.5mg) and I took my third shot of 6.25mg on Friday. Last week I was struggling to get enough food and this week I am STARVING, like eating consistently throughout the day then waking up at 6am in pain from how hungry I am. This morning I fed my cats early and made myself a bagel sandwich because I couldn't wait until my normal breakfast time of 8am and was getting a headache from how hungry I was... got halfway through it and can't have another bite. I was really enjoying the peace of my body just gently telling me it needed food and me gently nourishing it that I had going for a couple weeks there so this is kind of messing with my head a little. I'm just hoping things even out soon 😭

Hi all, I've been here a little while but this is actually an alt account because my partner is also on Reddit. I've been on Zepbound for about 8 weeks and I'm absolutely loving it, very few if any side effects, huge reduction in food noise, foods that had been 100% reliable binge triggers have completely lost their power over me without losing their appeal, I'm not really adding in exercise yet but it already feels so much easier even deciding to get off the couch to walk down the street.

I (34NB) haven't really brought it up much with my partner (36M) because when I do he sort of goes quiet and doesn't really engage. I thought maybe it was because he wasn't super jazzed about me losing weight, he loves my body and consistently shows interest in other bodies that look like mine or are bigger (we're poly). But recently he brought up one of the horror stories of vision loss and I realized I don't think he's disapproving as much as scared.

A lot of the advice I've seen around dealing with loved ones bringing up risks and side effects boils down to telling people to mind their own business but that feels more appropriate for when it is disapproval masquerading as concern. I feel like my partner is just genuinely worried.

I've told him that GLP-1s have been around for decades, that a lot of the media attention is people remembering the disaster of fen-phen or fat-phobic fear mongering, but I would really appreciate any advice on helping to put his mind at ease or feel better about the risk/benefit ratio. I know it's not my job to make him ok with this and if ultimately it's just something we don't talk about that's fine, but he's my partner and I don't want him to be scared if I can help it.