Last August, I went to the doctor because my feet had been swelling and I'd been dealing with a variety of health issues. Deep down I knew a number of these issues were exacerbated by my weight, which tended to stay below 285lbs. To my surprise (and shame), they weighed me in at 310lbs during that visit. I knew I needed to make a change, as I was far from the lean and fit me that I was a decade prior running multiple 10ks per week and lifting every other day.
The March before, my doctor had written me a prescription for Zepbound, which insurance promptly denied leaving me a $1600/mo bill if I wanted to get it through my local pharmacy. I had dismissed it after that since that was entirely unaffordable, but after that weigh-in, I decided to search for options a bit and landed on a subscription with Emerge Weight Loss (Strive w/ glycine). Then I read more on the sub, and within two months switched to Pom (BPI w/ B6).
From the start, I had decided I was going all in with investing in my health. Despite having run a lot when I was fit before, I hated every minute of it, so I decided I was just going to walk and ended up loving doing that (particularly when I learned I could play my Switch while on a treadmill without faceplanting). Buying a fitness-oriented watch was also great for NSVs like watching my average heart rate drop over time. I completely cleaned up my diet, maximizing protein and fiber intake while maintaining a calorie deficit. The weight melted off, and I just kept feeling better and better as time went on. No major side effects from the tirz, and I was lucky that I responded almost immediately. I followed the normal titration schedule, but the suppression was so strong at 5mg that I could barely eat. Thank goodness for compounding, though, because reducing to 4mg was the sweet spot for feeling normal hunger cues without food noise, and I only recently bumped it up a touch since food noise had returned a bit.
When I started this journey, I could barely walk a mile without panting and having severe hip pain. Today, I'm walking 45-50 miles per week and routinely keeping a 15:00/mile pace or less on 6-8 mile walks with zero pain. I was also super lucky and ended up with practically no loose skin despite dropping 140lbs, which was a complete shock to me.
Again, thank you to this community for all the inspirational and informative posts and contributions. I was here almost every night either to get excited for where I'd be months from now looking at people's success pictures, feel informed seeing what was happening with compounding, and trying to help people out myself on occasion.
Now, what should I eat to close the calorie deficit and stop losing weight! :-)