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 12 months, I name it probably the most difficult time of the 12 months,” 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 treatment 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 difficult.
“We’ve heard of individuals not skipping their injections however pushing them again,” says Michelle Cardel, chief vitamin 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 little bit extra room to benefit from the vacation meals and are much less prone to expertise undesirable unwanted side effects in the event that they overeat.” Others cease the medicines for longer intervals throughout the vacation months, medical doctors say.
Typically, medical doctors don’t advocate altering something about your injection schedule. Not like most earlier anti-obesity medicines, medication like Wegovy and Zepbound work partially on the mind to dampen starvation alerts and scale back urge for food so that you don’t really feel like consuming. As a way to obtain that impact with the fewest unwanted side effects, the dose of the injections that folks give themselves as soon as every week should be ramped up steadily over 16 weeks earlier than folks attain the utmost dose that they then preserve. Usually every injection can efficiently management starvation alerts for a couple of 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 transferring from a Wednesday dose to a Friday dose, for instance, their future doses will now happen on Friday. And other people skipping doses ought to be ready to expertise the identical unwanted side effects that they felt after they first begin their doses—akin to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and different gastrointestinal signs—after they restart their doses.
“I counsel my sufferers in opposition to stopping their treatment as a result of we’re managing continual weight problems,” Acosta says, and altering a longtime dosing schedule can have further penalties. If sufferers cease their injections for multiple week, they should return to decrease doses and work their method again as much as the dose they achieved earlier than they stopped, which additional pushes again any weight-loss objectives they may have set.
Learn Extra: Find out how to Add Extra Protein to Your Thanksgiving Recipes
Dr. Andre Teixeira, medical director of the Orlando Well being Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgical procedure Institute, has seen some critical examples of those spillover results amongst his sufferers. “Some folks can’t work again as much as the dose the place they had been earlier than,” he says. As a result of these are hormone-based medicines, he likens the impact to what some ladies expertise on several types of contraception; sure manufacturers are related to extra excessive unwanted side effects that make the capsules insupportable for some.
And naturally, any time sufferers cease taking Wegovy or Zepbound, their weight finally goes again up. “I inform my sufferers that we don’t need to burn all the trouble they’ve put in to shed pounds over the entire 12 months over the six weeks of the vacations,” says Acosta.
As a substitute of messing with their treatment, Acosta advises folks to plan forward with dietary and health changes. On Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, for instance, don’t eat giant meals earlier within the day. “You don’t must have a giant 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 in regards to the penalties of overeating whereas on the medicines, and advises them to not overdo it, even when they may really feel stress 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 overtly on social media and gaining reputation, “it’s turn into a little bit extra acceptable to share that you’re making an attempt to shed pounds and utilizing anti-obesity medicines.”
And it is not simply navigating meals—however alcohol as nicely—that could be a problem for folks taking the medicines. Many expertise nausea, vomiting, and different GI points in the event that they drink whereas on the medicines. WeightWatchers performed a examine to chronicle how anti-obesity medicines 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 folks made this variation as a result of they needed to keep away from unwanted side effects or if they simply determined to drink much less as a part of their total want to be more healthy. However, says Cardel, “my guess is that it’s a mix of each.”
What’s most vital for navigating the vacations is to plan forward in order that in case you are taking one in all these medicines, you will discover methods to maximise your enjoyment of long-standing household traditions whereas nonetheless staying on observe along with your dosing schedule.
