My Semaglutide Journey

[loosespiderguard]

Decided to document my semaglutide journey, any questions/feedback are welcome.

About me:
Age 30, 5'8", started at about 187-190ish pounds so estimated around 22-24% bodyfat. I workout pretty consistently but my diet this past year has been terrible and I've gained a significant amount of body fat. Mostly active through training jiu-jitsu three times a week (taking a break now because of injury) and lifting a standard PPL program 3-4 times a week or so with dedicated 30 minute cardio sessions about twice weekly. Currently taking BPC-157 500mcg/daily, enclomiphene 12.5mg 3x/weekly, and aromasin 10mg/2xweek or as needed as I aromatize quite heavily. Diet plan is about 1900 calories (~200 carbs, ~165 protein, ~40 fats) as this is the lowest I can go without feeling like total shit.

Goals:
Get down to about 165-170 pounds so around the 12-15% bodyfat range within the next five months or so while maintaining as much LBM as possible.

Semaglutide Dosage:
1st week: .25mg on 12/8
2nd week: .25mg
3rd week: .5mg

Side Effects:
Most notable in the first week is that the digestion of food really slows down. For me, it didn't necessarily stave off hunger as much as I felt like I was constantly full or in the middle of digesting some food. This was good in that it made it easier to pass up food, but bad in that it was kind of uncomfortable to constantly feel like I'm just digesting food if this makes sense. Additionally, going to the bathroom was really hard for me the first week and a half or so as I was constipated every time I went. Them shits were like rocks. I'm in week three now and though the shits have gotten considerably better and easier to pass, my body still slows down the entire digestion process. So for example, I used to be able to take a shit soon as I have my morning coffee but now it'll take until noonish to do so.

Currently, the biggest side effect for me is that I feel fucking tired all the time. I feel lethargic like I just want to lay down and do nothing pretty much most of the day. This gets easier to deal with and I just kinda learned to live with it for now. I weighed myself this morning at about 183 pounds so it definitely is working. It's a lot easier to pass up the late night binges and snacking. The cravings are still there and there are times when I do overeat, but it is definitely easier to just sip on water or zero calorie powerade and stay on track with my macros than before.

Additionally, I wear a fitbit and noticed my BPM has increased noticeably. I also noticed that I get slightly lower quality of sleep and that I wake up easier in the middle of the night and have a harder time falling back asleep. So far, it does what it's advertised to do but folks should keep an eye out on their heart rate/blood pressure when on this stuff.

 

[Astro95]

Is that your heart rate while asleep? My resting heart rate is around 100bpm. Are you sure your e2 isn’t crashed from the Aromasin? I’ve seen guys using the enclomephine, Ai combo maybe Hcg and I’m clueless on what that’s supposed to do.

 

[loosespiderguard]

Is that your heart rate while asleep? My resting heart rate is around 100bpm. Are you sure your e2 isn’t crashed from the Aromasin? I’ve seen guys using the enclomephine, Ai combo maybe Hcg and I’m clueless on what that’s supposed to do.

I believe that is my resting heart rate average including sleep. My E2 shoots up to around 100 while on enclomiphene on this dosage, I only use aromasin as necessary to keep it around 40 (I've only used 20mg in the past three weeks), the biggest side effects for me when my E2 is high is cystic acne.

 

[Astro95]

I believe that is my resting heart rate average including sleep. My E2 shoots up to around 100 while on enclomiphene on this dosage, I only use aromasin as necessary to keep it around 40 (I've only used 20mg in the past three weeks), the biggest side effects for me when my E2 is high is cystic acne.

If your e2 is fine I would supplement with injectable b12. Hopefully that helps with the energy unless your semaglutide already has it.

 

[loosespiderguard]

If your e2 is fine I would supplement with injectable b12. Hopefully that helps with the energy unless your semaglutide already has it.

Thanks for the input I'll look into this. I'm getting used to the tiredness so it's not affecting me as much hopefully this trend continues.

 

[mass gain]

Any reason why you are not following the current standard for dosing where you don't go up in dosage until after a month?
If you start getting really bad sides with puking, etc. you know why. For many it takes a decent amount of time to adjust to the increased dosages.

Additionally, the majority of weight loss will be at your maintenance dose, either 1.75 or 2.40 mg. Yes, you will likely lose some weight with your protocol. I suppose if you are in a pinch for time it can work.

Following. Def want to see how this goes for you.

 

[Wiseguy]

I have two close friends that have tried this for about 6 months. Same type of side effect issues as you described and one had a hard time not throwing up. One quit due to sides being too harsh and he lost about 20 pounds. The other stopped after he reached his goal of 30 poutines and looked great. Both followed the dosage protocol. Unfortunately they are both starting to put the weight back on pretty rapidly.
Now I know everyone is different. I asked one why he was gaining the weight back and he said the only reason he wasn’t eating on cycle was digestion issues and being nausea. Since the sides are gone he is hungry all
The time. Good luck to you brother. Hope you get better results/
Personally I am not thrilled about the sides, specially not being able to go to bathroom regularly and holding on to the toxins. Also, I want more study and success rate of people keeping the weight off after cycle before starting.

 

[mass gain]

I have two close friends that have tried this for about 6 months. Same type of side effect issues as you described and one had a hard time not throwing up. One quit due to sides being too harsh and he lost about 20 pounds. The other stopped after he reached his goal of 30 poutines and looked great. Both followed the dosage protocol. Unfortunately they are both starting to put the weight back on pretty rapidly.
Now I know everyone is different. I asked one why he was gaining the weight back and he said the only reason he wasn’t eating on cycle was digestion issues and being nausea. Since the sides are gone he is hungry all
The time. Good luck to you brother. Hope you get better results/
Personally I am not thrilled about the sides, specially not being able to go to bathroom regularly and holding on to the toxins. Also, I want more study and success rate of people keeping the weight off after cycle before starting.

There always seems to be some sort of negative caveat with everything. For me its weighing (pun intented ) quality of life in how you feel vs how much weight you lose. If I am walking around feeling nauseous all the time and/or have any GI issues, that is going to wear on me eventually and its likely not worth the weight lost.

That is just me though. Others just want to see that weight go down plus there are obviously health benefits if people are obese. As you said though, are they planning on staying on this forever?

 

[Wiseguy]

There always seems to be some sort of negative caveat with everything. For me its weighing (pun intented ) quality of life in how you feel vs how much weight you lose. If I am walking around feeling nauseous all the time and/or have any GI issues, that is going to wear on me eventually and its likely not worth the weight lost.

That is just me though. Others just want to see that weight go down plus there are obviously health benefits if people are obese. As you said though, are they planning on staying on this forever?

You hit the nail on the head “Quality of life”.
Don’t want to be sick all the time. Again, the biggest thing for me is I want to see some results from people who lost the s weight and kept it off.

I will never personally use it because very lean already at 185 pounds, but love studying new stuff.

 

[loosespiderguard]

Any reason why you are not following the current standard for dosing where you don't go up in dosage until after a month?
If you start getting really bad sides with puking, etc. you know why. For many it takes a decent amount of time to adjust to the increased dosages.

Additionally, the majority of weight loss will be at your maintenance dose, either 1.75 or 2.40 mg. Yes, you will likely lose some weight with your protocol. I suppose if you are in a pinch for time it can work.

Following. Def want to see how this goes for you.

No specific reason other than I wasn't making any progress the first two weeks so decided to up the dosage. I'm finding that .5mg is just effective enough to help me stack on track with my diet so I might just keep it at that for now.

 

[loosespiderguard]

I have two close friends that have tried this for about 6 months. Same type of side effect issues as you described and one had a hard time not throwing up. One quit due to sides being too harsh and he lost about 20 pounds. The other stopped after he reached his goal of 30 poutines and looked great. Both followed the dosage protocol. Unfortunately they are both starting to put the weight back on pretty rapidly.
Now I know everyone is different. I asked one why he was gaining the weight back and he said the only reason he wasn’t eating on cycle was digestion issues and being nausea. Since the sides are gone he is hungry all
The time. Good luck to you brother. Hope you get better results/
Personally I am not thrilled about the sides, specially not being able to go to bathroom regularly and holding on to the toxins. Also, I want more study and success rate of people keeping the weight off after cycle before starting.

Yes that is a very valid concern in all of this: what's the point of going through all the sides, paying the cost of medication, hassle of administering said medication, only to gain all the weight back once I'm off the medication? I suppose like any weight loss medication, it doesn't really address the root causes of poor diet/overeating.

I think I can totally see how that can play out as I still WANT to overeat and eat junk food. The cravings haven't really gone away necessarily. They're still there, just a bit easier to ignore because I'm not hungry. But the more I stay on track with my diet, the more I feel disciplined and motivated to see it through. I kind of see this as an experiment and sharing my experience and then also using semaglutide as a small tool in helping me stay on a diet. Today is also the first day that I didn't really feel any sides actually. So far so good, we'll see where this goes.

 

[Wiseguy]

Yes that is a very valid concern in all of this: what's the point of going through all the sides, paying the cost of medication, hassle of administering said medication, only to gain all the weight back once I'm off the medication? I suppose like any weight loss medication, it doesn't really address the root causes of poor diet/overeating.

I think I can totally see how that can play out as I still WANT to overeat and eat junk food. The cravings haven't really gone away necessarily. They're still there, just a bit easier to ignore because I'm not hungry. But the more I stay on track with my diet, the more I feel disciplined and motivated to see it through. I kind of see this as an experiment and sharing my experience and then also using semaglutide as a small tool in helping me stay on a diet. Today is also the first day that I didn't really feel any sides actually. So far so good, we'll see where this goes.

Best of luck friend. I hope it works for you. Keep us posted.

 

[loosespiderguard]

4th week update:
Keeping the dosage at .5mg for now.
I feel a lot less tired and the bowel movements are mostly pretty much normal. Don't really feel too many other side effects. I weighed myself at 183 yesterday so not much weight loss but so far I'm down 11 pounds total. I'm guessing most of that is water/carbs in muscle as I do look considerably flat and smaller overall. Feel slightly hungry and less energy at the gym, as expected on a cut. I decided to keep the dosage the same for now just to see what would happen and I'm in no rush to accelerate the weight loss. I might titrate up next dosage though. Really a fan of minimum effective dosage so I'll try to squeeze out as much as I can on what I have. It's fairly easier to stay on a cut once you've been able to maintain the diet for a few weeks and the semglutide does in fact help.

Should also mention that I've been using semaglutide from peptide sciences (3mg) thus far but that I also have a batch from Bio Amino Labs from PSL that I will switch too later. Not a fan of mixing up difference sources but it was considerably cheaper to get it internationally (semaglutide is cheaper than other glp1 agonists but still not necessarily cheap).

 

[Pathadden]

As a drug for super obesity I am sure it's great. Like people said I'm sure they gain most of it back when they quite.. Most obeese people have shitty diet habits to begin with so if nothing changes then nothing changes. When they get off then they resume the same bad habits and then the weight gain is back. As a bodybuilder most of us have decent eating habits and workout regularly. I think semaglutide is an excellent tool while cutting for us. It gives you that little extra to not think or crave more food when cutting calories. And most bodybuilders never really need to go over the . 25 or.. 50 dose because we got to eat regularly and that stuff will really zap the appetite. Then when you are done cutting and you want to get off you should maintain if you follow a your normal diet and of course if you are bulking you will put on weight.

 

[flyingmoose]

You should switch to Tirzepatide. Better results without the sides. My wife switched and hasn't had any of the nausea and lethargy. You can also split the doseage into 2x per week. Her online pharmacy had shipped her semaglutide by mistake or the wrong concentration so we have a couple of vials in the fridge so I was like "WTH, I'll try it." I'm a slow gainer/slow loser so it's pretty nice cutting calories without being hungry and thinking about when you're going to eat next. Your strength will likely take a hit while you're in deficit. There's also a lot of evidence that GLP-1 agonists do a lot of good things to gut health and inflamation.

 

[Skinnyguy180]

Is that your heart rate while asleep? My resting heart rate is around 100bpm. Are you sure your e2 isn’t crashed from the Aromasin? I’ve seen guys using the enclomephine, Ai combo maybe Hcg and I’m clueless on what that’s supposed to do.

Your resting heart rate should not be that high man.

 

[loosespiderguard]

You should switch to Tirzepatide. Better results without the sides. My wife switched and hasn't had any of the nausea and lethargy. You can also split the doseage into 2x per week. Her online pharmacy had shipped her semaglutide by mistake or the wrong concentration so we have a couple of vials in the fridge so I was like "WTH, I'll try it." I'm a slow gainer/slow loser so it's pretty nice cutting calories without being hungry and thinking about when you're going to eat next. Your strength will likely take a hit while you're in deficit. There's also a lot of evidence that GLP-1 agonists do a lot of good things to gut health and inflamation.

I might check it out although isn't Tirzepatide more expensive? Most of the side effects are mostly gone by now btw.

 

[loosespiderguard]

5th week update: Keeping it at .5mg this week, I may bump it up starting next week depending on how this week goes. No weight change since last update, which I consider a positive. I've been out of town traveling. Basically been eating whatever I want but the semaglutide still keeps me somewhat in check from binging out too crazy. For example, I'll have a slice of pizza or two and then have a little bag of chips whereas before I'd easy crush half a pie and an ungodly amount of chips plus extras. The portion control is easier even though I still ate whatever I wanted this past week. Still required some disciplined though. Semaglutide at this dosage isn't magic, just helps to curb the overeating a bit. Maintaining this weight loss is still something I'd consider a win. So far, I pretty much don't have any side effects. My stools are somewhat not as good as they used to be but they're mostly the same as before. Like I'm not constipated anymore or anything like I was in the first two weeks but it used to pass easier, if that makes any sense. Heart rate seems mostly the same.

 

[lefty556]

Nice man. Yeah stay at a dose as long as you can ride it out before upping it. Body does get uses to it after a while but many can still see small enough results at low dose to make a dent in things.

 

[loosespiderguard]

6th-9th week update: Weighed myself today at 179 pounds. So far down 15 pounds total with minimal muscle loss as far as I can tell. Keeping the dosage at .5mg/week as it seems to be working well for me with minimal side effects. One side effect I've noticed is that because it slows down digestion, I have to be careful about eating big meals before I go to sleep as it messes with my sleep quality. Also need to include more vegetables in my diet to help prevent constipation. Other than that, no side effects. Heart rate seems to be steady with no change.

The rate of weight loss has slowed down considerably, but not too interested in upping the dosage as long as I am steadily losing weight. I also think the steadier the weight loss, the less likely of a rebound effect of weight gain. Probably keep at .5mg/week as long as possible. Will probably up the dosage once it's been a few weeks or perhaps even more without any weight loss even when I'm just maintaining, but long as I stay on track with the macros I don't see that being an issue.

I've also jumped on a trt dosage of 150mg/week. Total test was about ~300ish range so hoping this will put me in the upper part of the reference range and will titrate accordingly. Feeling pretty good so far with some acne. The goal was to cut down to <15%BF range before jumping on TRT but the cut has seriously affected my training quality (recovery, energy, intensity, etc) so hoping this mitigates some of that.

 

[hermgreen03]

I just started 4 weeks ago. Im 5'7 and was 196 and Im currently weighing in at 187. I feel you about being tired all the time. It's gotten worse for me over the past week. As well as heartburn pretty bad. It's definitely working, but the side effects really suck. Mainly the heartburn and lethargy. I really have to drag myself in the gym some days.