Holiday season means meals—and a whole lot of it, from work occasions to social gatherings with family and friends.
“Once I discuss to my sufferers, as a substitute of calling it essentially the most stunning time of 12 months, I name it essentially 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—assume 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 could give themselves their injection on Friday as a substitute, to allow them to have slightly extra room to benefit from the vacation meals and are much less more likely to expertise undesirable unwanted effects in the event that they overeat.” Others cease the medicines for longer durations through 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 medicines, medication like Wegovy and Zepbound work partly on the mind to dampen starvation indicators and cut back urge for food so that you don’t really feel like consuming. So as to obtain that impact with the fewest unwanted effects, the dose of the injections that folks give themselves as soon as every week must be ramped up steadily over 16 weeks earlier than individuals attain the utmost dose that they then keep. Typically every injection can efficiently management starvation indicators 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 effects that they felt once they first begin their doses—akin to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and different gastrointestinal signs—once they restart their doses.
“I counsel my sufferers in opposition to stopping their treatment as a result of we’re managing power weight problems,” Acosta says, and altering a longtime dosing schedule can have further penalties. If sufferers cease their injections for a couple of 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 could have set.
Learn Extra: Tips on 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 severe examples of those spillover results amongst his sufferers. “Some individuals 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 effects that make the drugs 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 wish to burn all the hassle they’ve put in to shed some pounds over the entire 12 months over the six weeks of the vacations,” says Acosta.
As an alternative of messing with their treatment, 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 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 also needs to 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 medicines, and advises them to not overdo it, even when they could really feel strain to at a household gathering. You may think about letting family members find out about your scenario. Since these medication are mentioned overtly on social media and gaining recognition, “it’s turn out to be slightly extra acceptable to share that you’re making an attempt to shed some pounds and utilizing anti-obesity medicines.”
And it is not simply navigating meals—however alcohol as properly—that could be a problem for individuals 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 individuals made this modification as a result of they needed to keep away from unwanted effects or if they only 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 every of these medicines, you will discover methods to maximise your enjoyment of long-standing household traditions whereas nonetheless staying on monitor along with your dosing schedule.