{"id":940698,"date":"2026-10-21T01:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940698\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T01:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:00:14","slug":"we-asked-people-taking-glp-1s-what-happened-when-their-expectations-met-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940698\/","title":{"rendered":"We asked people taking GLP-1s what happened when their expectations met reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nearly 30 million Americans use GLP-1 diabetes and weight loss drugs<\/a> to improve their health but not everyone sees the same results. <\/p>\n

While some users report transformative, positive impacts, others say nausea and gastrointestinal side effects<\/a> have forced them off the medications.<\/p>\n

The Independent asked people around New York City<\/a> if their hopes for taking a GLP-1 drug matched up with the reality of the experience.<\/p>\n

One New Yorker, Val Wallach, 66, explained she had recently started taking Wegovy to help her lose weight. She has lost 12 pounds in a couple of months on the shot but it\u2019s not working as well anymore and she is \u201cstarting to get the food noise back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m trying to figure out what the right dosing is,\u201d she told The Independent. If increasing the dosage doesn\u2019t work, she says she\u2019ll consider switching drugs to another GLP-1.<\/p>\n

\"ValVal Wallach, a 66-year-old from New York City, told The Independent she is taking Wegovy to help her lose weight. But she\u2019s starting to \u2018get the food noise back\u2019 (Zack Palomo\/The Independent)<\/p>\n

Shekinah Lewis-Hackett, 35, and her husband Lewis Hackett, 64, who were visiting the city from Atlanta, Georgia, have both been on GLP-1s for a couple of years. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I started taking the GLP-1, I knew I would have some stomach aches, but it was gonna kill a lot of the food noise that I was experiencing when it came to eating and overeating,\u201d Shekinah explained. <\/p>\n

She lost 40-50 pounds after a year and a half on Zepbound shots.<\/p>\n

Are you taking GLP-1s? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when I did start taking them, I had some nausea, at first. And then my body got used to it after the second week and I started eating less, craving less, had to remind myself to drink water because I wasn\u2019t drinking anything at all. I could go a whole day and realize, \u201cOh God, I haven\u2019t eaten or drank anything,\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She said she had to set reminders to eat and drink so she wouldn\u2019t feel nauseous. <\/p>\n

\"ShekinahShekinah Lewis-Hackett, 35, and her husband Lewis, 64, have both been on GLP-1s for a couple of years (Zack Palomo\/The Independent)<\/p>\n

Lewis Hackett, who has Type 2 diabetes, suffered from \u201cstubborn weight.\u201d He was put on Mounjaro by his doctor to help him lose it and it worked. He\u2019s lost around 30 pounds. \u201cSo all my clothes are falling off me,\u201d he told The Independent. <\/p>\n

Ria Das, a 27-year-old from New Jersey, said her father had been taking Ozempic for the past two years. There was still a lot \u201cunknown around Ozempic\u201d at the time, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he had a lot of weight loss from it. But he was originally put on it because he is diabetic,\u201d Das said. \u201c He gained a lot of weight over the last couple of years, so the Ozempic helped with that. It helped temper the diabetes and his eating to be a little more controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t experienced a lot of side effects, either. \u201cHe probably will end up sticking with it,\u201d Das said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,84,377],"class_list":["post-940698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}