15 Major Warnings to Know Before Using Ozempic for Weight Loss

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Hey, this is JJ Virgin. Thanks so much for joining me. This is Ask the Health Expert. In each episode, I put the power of health in your hands and share ways to get healthy, lose weight, heal your gut, detox, and lots more so you can look and feel better fast. If you'd rather watch the video, hey, I did put on my makeup and do my hair, so check it out on my YouTube channel.

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So if you've even glimpsed at the news over the past year, you probably heard about the new miracle drug for weight loss loss. And you may be wondering if this would make sense for you. And the answer is maybe if you're 30 or more pounds over fat. Notice I said over fat. Struggling with insulin resistance and weight loss, resistance and diet, lifestyle just aren't working. They're not budging the scale. This could be that push your metabolism needs to start healing and start dropping fat. But it is not all sunshine and butterflies. So I'm going to walk you through how this drug works, its pros and cons, and what you should know if you're considering it. So, first of all, what the heck is it? It is a GLP1 agonist drug and it's been used historically for diabetes. It's been sold under the name Ozembic Spin for diabetes. And Wegovy is for weight loss, the same thing. It's, it's called semaglutide. And there's actually a couple different GLP1 agonists. And GLP1 stands for glucagon, like peptide, which is a hormone released from the cells in the small intestine. It works on your body in different ways. It helps your body release more insulin when you're eating. So that means your blood sugar is going to stay lower and imbalance. Now, if you have type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, your body may not be responding to GLP1 properly. And a GLP1 agonist drug acts like GLP1 to do the following. First, blood sugar is up. The amount of insulin your pancreas releases after your meal is increased to bring that blood sugar low. Second, when blood sugar is high, the liver is stopped from making too much glucose, so you don't keep getting it higher and higher and higher. And third, it slows the emptying of the stomach's contents into the intestines. It also helps you brown your fat, which makes that fat more thermic and makes you burn more fat off. It also helps lower inflammation by working with the gut immune cells.

Think about this.

Right now, less than 7% of the population is considered to be metabolically healthy. And the center focus of that is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is really that big driver of metabolic health. And remember, you've got to be metabolically healthy to lose weight. So improving metabolic health could be everything. Now, again, these drugs were originally used for diabetes, except there was a side benefit that they started to Notice weight loss, because you can imagine that when you've got better blood sugar control and you're not hungry, weight loss becomes a lot easier to achieve. And think about it, when you're insulin resistant, what happens? Your blood sugar is higher than it should be, but the doors to your, your blood sugar to your cells are locked. So you can't use either stored energy from sugar or stored energy from fat. So you're hungry all the time, even when you've just eaten. So it sounds like a magic bullet. And, and there are some side effects, but there are also some definite applications. So let's talk about side effects and downsides. So here's the deal. According to one prescribing doctor, about half the people who initially use Azembec or Semaglutide, Wegovy, any of these GLP1 agonists have side effects. Nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, headaches. And then there's another one, potential muscle loss. Now that all sounds not so good. Just as I knew I was going to do this video, I had the opportunity to go sit in an advanced workshop on GLP1 agonists at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York. And this guy had been successfully prescribing this drug for years with minimal downsides. And when he shared how he got rid of these side effects and when what happened, it was like, oh, this makes so much sense. It really has to do with how you go on this drug. The drug has to be very slowly titrated up on the front end and then very slowly decreased on the back end. When you reach your goal health and weight next, you got to make sure that you're optimizing protein again. I'm going to have you do that no matter what, and adding resistance exercise that will minimize the muscle loss. Now, here's the important thing with that. If you've got a lot of weight to lose, let's say you've got 50 or more pounds of weight to lose, it's not going to be all fat. There's going to be some fat mass and some lean mass, because some of that lean mass is actually supporting the, the fat mass. Now, as far as weight regain goes, obviously if you're going to do this, you're going to be combining it with a really sound diet, exercise and lifestyle program, right? Diet, exercise and sleep and stress. If you just go on this, it cuts your appetite. You don't eat, then you go off of it and go right back to.

What you were doing.

Well, you know, we all know what will happen, right? So you wouldn't want to do that. You would use this medication to help you restore that insulin sensitivity, to help you drop that body fat while adding muscle mass on, healing your metabolism and then tapering down. But here's the biggest downside that I can see. It costs a lot, like, like a thousand dollars or more a month. A lot. Now, if this is something you can use for three to six months to get you to break through that weight loss resistance plateau, hey, that's a lot less money than some of the other things that could happen, you know, that you'd be spending money on, right? And if you get it compounded like you comb with B12, turns out you can get it for a lot less money. Or maybe your medical condition is one that you can get it covered by insurance. So it really depends. That would be you exploring how you would do that. And again, this is all that exploration of is this right for you? If you follow my content, you'd probably be surprised that I'm excited about this. And I think most people, nutrition and exercise world I've been looking at, my friends are like, don't do it. And I'm like, well, I've been working in weight loss resistance for 30 plus years and obviously I'm a big proponent of diet, exercise and lifestyle. But these aren't mutually exclusive. From using this medication and in working in weight loss resistance for over three decades, I've seen the struggle out there that it takes to heal your metabolism and lose the weight and how long it can take to turn things around and how frustrating and depressing it can be. And so if there's something out there that can help you, give you that edge, help you speed that healing and help you get through this, break through that, that weight loss resistance, honestly, I'm all for it. So in my opinion, this is something to consider if you're 30 or more pounds over fat. And really if that fat is what we call visceral adipose tissue, that fat fat, because that's that very inflammatory fat if you have one or more of those metabolic markers. Remember at the beginning I said that less than 7% of the population is metabolically healthy and you have be healthy to lose fat and build muscle. So if your waist circumference is bigger, if you've got hypertension, if your blood sugar is elevated, if your triglycerides are elevated, if your HDL is low, any of those types of things that make you more insulin resistance, if you feel like you've been doing everything right. And I mean it. Come on, let's be honest. Everything right. Like you are really following a low food intolerance diet, a low sugar impact diet. You're leading protein first, you're eating by the clock, you're doing that exercise, you're getting your resistance training in, you're doing some high intensity interval training and nothing's happening. You've handled your sleep, you've handled your stress. Here's the deal. Whether you use the medication or not, the strategies I'm going to recommend next, they need to be incorporated. So they're either going to be incorporated to avoid that weight regain that 2/3 of the people have when they get off this drug, or to be able to do all of this to get where you want to be, to heal that metabolism without the drug. So whether or not you use the drug, let me walk you through what you're going to want to do. The first thing is protein first. So we're going to talk diet first. And the way I teach you to build your plate is protein first. What do we know about protein? Protein is super important for satiety. In fact, if you combine protein with fiber from plants, you are going to slow down stomach emptying. This is one of the things these GLP1 agonists do, they slow down stomach emptying. They help balance blood sugar, so that's the first thing. So they're improving satiety, right? Protein's more thermic. Protein, even if you don't work out, helps you have more lean mass, helps you have more muscle. Now we're going to work out too, but that's important. Then we take protein first. 7 to 1 gram per pound of target body weight divided throughout the day. With your bumper meals of breakfast and dinner being super important to have at least 30 grams of protein, you're going to count and track that protein first. Then I'm adding in lots of non starchy vegetables. So I feed my gut microbiome and I get the diversity that I need in my gut microbiome, not my butt microbiome. And so I'm eating at least five servings of non starchy vegetables. I'm eating two pieces of fruit a day, right? And that again, the fiber. With the protein slowing down stomach emptying. I'm using a continuous glucose monitor that I put on my arm with an app so that I can check how I'm doing and making sure that I'm eating very balanced between the protein, the fiber and fat, so that I'm keeping my blood Sugar stabilized. And again, when I'm eating my non starchy vegetables, when I'm eating my two pieces of fruit, when I'm eating some of the slow low carbs I talk about in the sugar impact diet, I'm getting the fiber in there that helps slow down stomach emptying, helps lower the blood sugar response like GLP1 Agnes do. And it also feeds the gut microbiome that is so critical for helping you lose weight and absorb nutrients. Now, a little hack that I could put in there that works really well is to use apple cider vinegar. Try adding two tablespoons a day into some green tea. It's amazing both for your gut microbiome and for insulin sensitivity. And again, part of what these things are doing is help helping restore insulin sensitivity. And I'm going to lower my sugar impact and I'm going to address leaky gut. So that's the virgin diet. So those are all things that you're going to do no matter what, whether you're on the program or not. And then I'm going to look at supplements that can also help with GLP1 Agnes again, help with insulin sensitiv, help with blood sugar control, help restore insulin sensitivity. Fish oil is a great one. Two grams of fish oil a day and eating more fish. I'm making a conscious effort to get in 4 servings at least of fish every single week. But I also take fish oil. Berberine is another one that I love. Berberine and then chromium, vanadium, zinc and magnesium all help with insulin sensitivity with better glucose control. And then vitamin D3 with K1 and 2 also is super important for restoring insulin sensitivity. The other thing, when we look at exercise, I want you to really focus on resistance training first and getting in at least each body part. Upper body pushing, upper body pulling, hinging from your hips and thighs at least three times a week. And these are, I've talked about this extensively in my videos, so look for my exercise videos to go through this. But you want to make sure that you are putting on muscle muscles, your metabolic Spanx, it holds everything in tighter. But it's also an endocrine that acts as a sponge to soak up the sugar and have a place for your amino acids to go. So you've got, you've got a reservoir for energy. The other thing that you want to be thinking about as I'm recording this, I am standing up. That is non exercise activity thermogenesis. So we tend to think of, okay, I need to exercise. Well, that might count for 5 to 10% of your calorie spend your metabolism during the day. Why I like to put on muscle list because that going to take more energy all throughout the day to keep it on to go through muscle protein synthesis. But neat can accom can be as much as 10 to 15% of your metabolism. And so that is using a standing desk, taking the stairs, parking farther away, getting a dog who looks at you with those eyes and makes you go walk them. You know all those things to keep you moving more. One of the things that I've been doing lately is we bought a cold plunge and I do cold plunging a couple times a week because it helps brown your fat. So one of the things that these GLP1 agonists do is they help brown your fat. We have white fat and we have brown fat and we have beige fat too. So we can take that white fat, beige it on over to brown. When we're doing that we're making it very thermic so we're actually enhancing your metabolism. It's easy fat to burn and cold plunging does that too. So cold shower makes a big difference. I just have to shout out on sleep and stress because if you're not sleeping well, that is the fastest way you become insulin resistant. If you're not sleeping well you will have struggles with your weight. And of course stress plays right into that often messes up your sleep too. Makes you crave more sugar, breaks down muscle and makes leaky gut. I think that you're always get a lot more help if you're in a community. In fact they did a study where they showed that weight loss was contagious. You caught it from your friends. I'm saying find a supportive fitter community to hang out with and ideally hire a coach so that you really have someone to keep you accountable and you have a group to keep you accountable. So here's the basic action plan, right? But remember underneath it all, your hunger and fullness hormones are made in your gut. And that GLP1 release to balance your blood sugar comes from your gut. So you gotta make sure that your gut health is in optimal shape so you can create these long term sustainable weight changes. So I've got something great for you next. You're going to want to watch this next video on how to speed heal your gut for fast lasting weight loss. For more info on this and other health topics I cover or to rate and review, find me on Instagram, Facebook and my website jjvirgin.com and don't forget to subscribe to my show so you won't miss a single episode. Go to subscribetoj.com thanks again for being with me this week.

Foreigners. This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading Next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.