{"id":796180,"date":"2026-07-12T20:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796180\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T20:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:53:11","slug":"weightloss-on-afterpay-the-cost-of-one-womans-wegovy-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796180\/","title":{"rendered":"Weightloss on afterpay: The cost of one woman’s Wegovy journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wegovy-user from Wellington says the benefits from losing 16kg far outweighed the stigma<\/a> and financial burden attached to using weight-loss medication.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Valentina Florez-Betancur, 26, was one of 35,961 GLP-1 patients in New Zealand<\/a> \u2014 according to Health NZ data from May this year. <\/p>\n

Florez-Betancur was on the drug’s highest dosage,<\/a> which she said cost around $469 for four weeks of use.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the times I do have to use afterpay to get my prescription.”<\/p>\n

She said it was upsetting the drug wasn’t funded, but \u2014 to her \u2014 the cost was worth it. <\/p>\n

“It does put a big dent in my pocket, but it has made me a healthier person.”<\/p>\n

Valentina Florez-Betancur said the benefits of losing 16kg far outweighed the stigma and financial burdens attached to using a GLP-1. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Florez-Betancur’s GLP-1 health journey first began after weight gain during a period of depression, which led her to be categorised as severely overweight<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“I went from being around 60kg to 83kg in the span of two years.”<\/p>\n

She said her weight seriously affected her future plans to conceive and live healthily,<\/p>\n

“The possibilities were probably really low of me being able to have a healthy pregnancy, I would probably develop diabetes as well.”<\/p>\n

\"Florez-Betancur<\/p>\n

Florez-Betancur started using Wegovy after her wedding. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Florez-Betancur said she began using the drug following her wedding in December 2025 and noticed its effects immediately.<\/p>\n

“First, just my face and my stomach, the swelling went down quite rapidly within the first week of starting Wegovy.”<\/p>\n

Now six months on, and 16kg down, Florez-Betancur said the difference was more than physical. <\/p>\n

“It just has made a big change and my family has noticed it. With some of my confidence of wanting to go out to dates with my husband and look nice. <\/p>\n

“‘Because before I just like, ‘no, let’s stay home and eat’.”<\/p>\n

Florez-Betancur said that while she now eats less \u2014 what she eats hasn’t actually changed,<\/p>\n

“A lot of people believe that once you go on Wegovy you become this health-freak, that you don’t touch like a McDonald’s burger or anything, but it’s really not like that.”<\/p>\n

Dietitian weighs in<\/p>\n

\"Dietitian<\/p>\n

Dietitian Kylie Russel. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Dietitian Kylie Russel said GLP-1 users who didn’t prioritise things such as protein<\/a>, vitamin D<\/a> and fibre<\/a> posed a new challenge in her field, <\/p>\n

“As a dietitian, my practice has completely changed,” she said. <\/p>\n

“Historically, working with someone to lose weight has always been about ‘how do I get this person to eat less?’ <\/p>\n

“But now my job is about ‘how do I get this person to eat enough of these key foods to ensure overall nutrition adequacy?’.”<\/p>\n

Russel said the number of those developing deficiencies was a concern, but that the issue was entirely preventable with the right support. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Florez-Betancur said despite being part of a Facebook group of around 15,000 GLP-1 users, it was hard to have discussions about using the drug. <\/p>\n

“A lot of us are anonymous because there’s still the big stigma around.”<\/p>\n

She said those considering the GLP-1 shouldn’t be put off by this, adding: “you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people, if you’re overweight, they judge you, If you go on GLP-1’s, they judge you. So just do what makes you happy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Wegovy-user from Wellington says the benefits from losing 16kg far outweighed the stigma and financial burden attached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490,7594,25904],"class_list":["post-796180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-wellbeing","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}