Holiday season means meals—and plenty of it, from work occasions to social gatherings with family and friends.
“After I speak to my sufferers, as a substitute of calling it probably the most lovely time of yr, I name it probably the most difficult time of the yr,” says Dr. Andres Acosta, a doctor within the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Mayo Clinic.
For the 12% of adults within the U.S. now taking a weight-loss medicine that targets the GLP-1 and/or GIP hormones to limit urge for food or deal with diabetes—suppose Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound—the season is much more sophisticated.
“We’ve heard of individuals not skipping their injections however pushing them again,” says Michelle Cardel, chief diet officer at WeightWatchers. “So in the event that they usually inject on Wednesday, and Thanksgiving is on Thursday, they may give themselves their injection on Friday as a substitute, to allow them to have a bit extra room to benefit from the vacation meals and are much less prone to expertise undesirable unwanted effects in the event that they overeat.” Others cease the drugs for longer durations throughout the vacation months, docs say.
On the whole, docs don’t advocate altering something about your injection schedule. In contrast to most earlier anti-obesity drugs, medication like Wegovy and Zepbound work partially on the mind to dampen starvation indicators and cut back urge for food so that you don’t really feel like consuming. As a way to obtain that impact with the fewest unwanted effects, the dose of the injections that individuals give themselves as soon as every week must be ramped up progressively over 16 weeks earlier than individuals attain the utmost dose that they then keep. Typically every injection can efficiently management starvation indicators for a few week, and simply as its impact begins to wane, you give your self one other injection.
Skipping or shifting injections has a domino impact. For these shifting from a Wednesday dose to a Friday dose, for instance, their future doses will now happen on Friday. And other people skipping doses must be ready to expertise the identical unwanted effects that they felt once they first begin their doses—corresponding to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and different gastrointestinal signs—once they restart their doses.
“I counsel my sufferers towards stopping their medicine as a result of we’re managing persistent weight problems,” Acosta says, and altering a longtime dosing schedule can have extra penalties. If sufferers cease their injections for multiple week, they must return to decrease doses and work their approach again as much as the dose they achieved earlier than they stopped, which additional pushes again any weight-loss targets they may have set.
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Dr. Andre Teixeira, medical director of the Orlando Well being Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgical procedure Institute, has seen some severe examples of those spillover results amongst his sufferers. “Some individuals can’t work again as much as the dose the place they have been earlier than,” he says. As a result of these are hormone-based drugs, he likens the impact to what some ladies expertise on various kinds of contraception; sure manufacturers are related to extra excessive unwanted effects that make the capsules insupportable for some.
And naturally, any time sufferers cease taking Wegovy or Zepbound, their weight ultimately goes again up. “I inform my sufferers that we don’t need to burn all the hassle they’ve put in to drop some weight over the entire yr over the six weeks of the vacations,” says Acosta.
As an alternative of messing with their medicine, Acosta advises individuals to plan forward with dietary and health changes. On Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, for instance, don’t eat massive meals earlier within the day. “You don’t have to have an enormous breakfast or a large lunch,” Acosta says. “Go train that morning—all people advantages from a protracted stroll or a hike. We’re tremendous good at planning meals and dinners with family members; we must also plan to go for a stroll within the park with our family members. And if the climate isn’t good, then go the mall. Do one thing that requires bodily exercise so that you burn some energy.”
He additionally reminds sufferers concerning the penalties of overeating whereas on the drugs, and advises them to not overdo it, even when they may really feel strain to at a household gathering. You would possibly take into account letting family members learn about your state of affairs. Since these medication are mentioned brazenly on social media and gaining recognition, “it’s turn out to be a bit extra acceptable to share that you’re making an attempt to drop some weight and utilizing anti-obesity drugs.”
And it is not simply navigating meals—however alcohol as properly—that is likely to be a problem for individuals taking the drugs. Many expertise nausea, vomiting, and different GI points in the event that they drink whereas on the drugs. WeightWatchers carried out a examine to chronicle how anti-obesity drugs affected alcohol consumption and located that 45% to 51% of individuals taking GLP-1 and GIP medication decreased the quantity of alcohol they drank. It wasn’t clear from the examine whether or not individuals made this modification as a result of they wished to keep away from unwanted effects or if they simply determined to drink much less as a part of their total need to be more healthy. However, says Cardel, “my guess is that it’s a mix of each.”
What’s most necessary for navigating the vacations is to plan forward in order that in case you are taking considered one of these drugs, you will discover methods to maximise your enjoyment of long-standing household traditions whereas nonetheless staying on observe along with your dosing schedule.
