Last month, I injected myself with a GLP-1 drug and became my own lab rat for three weeks.
As a fitness coach with my weight well under control, I didn’t need this. And yet, I took it. Why?
I work with people to treat their metabolic disease — obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, PMOS, metabolic syndrome. GLP-1 medicines, including semaglutide (the drug in Ozempic) and tirzepatide (the drug in Mounjaro), are among the tools we use. My job is to guide users to a healthy lifestyle (the right kind of activity, better food, improved sleep), while my medical team monitors their health markers. Our goal is to get them off the drug, with their health intact.
For the last 15 years, I’ve coached thousands of people on their strength and health. The single biggest pattern, which shows in their urgency and commitment to the cause, is the trigger moment. A doctor check-up, a wedding, or even a small event like finding themselves unable to bend down and tie their shoelaces helps them prioritise their health and wellness. As they get stronger and start building good lifestyle habits, good things happen.
But for a large percentage, the struggle with weight is real. And it never really ends. While people who lose weight see improvement in their quality of life across the board, maintaining that weight is an uphill struggle, especially when the reality and demands of life hit. As work mounts and stress amplifies, many of these habits crack, especially given the tremendous strain on our time and mental health and the way the environment is structured around us. You may have the best intentions, but you may still end up skimping on sleep or reaching for junk food.
Which is where GLP-1 drugs come in: this new tool in a weight loss toolbox, which I recently tried firsthand – something I always do, even when it comes to designing training plans. I always test-drive anything I recommend for my clients to coach well; I don’t know any other way.
How it went
I’ll start with a caveat: do not do this yourself. While I had no prescription and did not medically need the drug, I did this systematically. I tracked my vitals daily and weekly and reported my subjective and objective experience nearly every day to my doctor and my dietitian.
The drug I opted for was Mounjaro, the most advanced GLP-1 drug on the market today, opting for a starter dose of around 2.5 mg/ week, after consulting with my doctor. Honestly, I did not expect much, since my baseline lifestyle is good. I eat well 85% of the time; I’m active five or six days a week; my sleep hygiene is decent (even if my sleep, lately, hasn’t been). But the experience surprised me more than I expected.
Food noise — the constant background hum of thinking about food — simply disappeared. I wanted simple, sattvic food, finding anything greasy immediately unappetising. Over-eating was not possible, whether it was my favourite dessert or the potato chips with my rice. The ease with which I could move through a world of hyper-palatable food, whether I was eating out, ordering in, or eating home-cooked meals, was mind-blowing.
That is the beauty of these drugs: they allow for mindful eating, making that admittedly woo-woo term accessible to all. I wasn’t constantly thinking about food or tempted by the package of cupcakes being passed around at work, and I made sensible, adult decisions about food quite naturally, indulging in my favourite snacks without overeating.
In fact, I naturally wanted to eat more nutritious meals because they make me feel good. And I paid attention to my body and how it responded. Also, because I simply could not overeat, my energy levels started to improve, making it a truly liberating time.
Add a doctor, diet and activity
Arvind Ashok
| Photo Credit:
Rahul Sadagopan
Dr Arun Raghavan, diabetologist and co-founder of Chennai’s Revivo Clinic, which focusses on metabolic care for obesity and diabetes, explains that GLP-1s in India are for adults with a BMI of 30 or higher who have at least one weight-related condition, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or Type 2 diabetes. “They work alongside diet and activity. They are not a stand-alone fix,” he cautions.
And yes, some people should not touch them at all, he adds: anyone with a personal or family history of certain thyroid cancers or a rare inherited hormone disorder, and those with a history of pancreatitis or gallbladder disease. “Most bad reactions come down to the wrong patient, no baseline work-up, or no monitoring.”
The side effects are mostly gastrointestinal and are worse when starting or increasing the dose. His real warning is about stopping. “Come off the drug without having built the lifestyle, and the hunger returns. People lose muscle and regain the weight, often as fat.”
Battling the side effects
It was not all rosy. For the entire three weeks I was on the medication, I had a mild headache and low-grade nausea. It eased after the first week, but it never fully left. My resting heart rate climbed 15%. My heart rate variability — a marker of recovery, where higher is better — dropped 15%. I had frequent palpitations and a mild brain fog, all symptoms that I discussed with Dr Arun Raghavan.
While there is nothing particularly abnormal about these patterns, these were indeed high costs for someone who did not need the drug. For someone who does, going unmonitored is a gamble.
So, did it work?
The results of all this weren’t insignificant: my muscle mass increased by 1.2 kg (a lot!), and fat decreased by 3.2 kg. I was active six days a week, following a hybrid (strength plus conditioning) protocol I developed, which translated to about four 4-hour sessions a week. (Disclaimer: These measurements were taken with a high-end body composition machine, and while the data is reasonably accurate, what we can look at are trends only)
The downside, however, was that my sleep was affected a fair bit, especially at first. Practising some pranayama helped, and it did get better once my body got used to the drug, but the first few days were a struggle.
So, will I recommend this to my clients? It depends.
For people who struggle with weight loss, the first step is to understand the underlying reason for their struggle, whether it be environment, lifestyle, psychological, or an underlying health condition. Only then can an action plan be structured, and GLP-1 could be a valid tool for some people. While you are on the drug, you need to do physical activity, get enough sleep and manage nutrition.
Sure, the last may become easier than before, but it still requires discipline – adding adequate protein, avoiding junk food, increasing your vegetable intake and drinking enough water. And during this window (we see this as a six- to 24-month window, depending on the person), shift your lifestyle to one that is sustainable and significantly better.
Shedding that old lifestyle and identity is a relevant part of this metamorphosis. It is not possible to undergo a simplistic change, i.e. take the drug, lose weight, be happy forever and ever. That isn’t going to happen, because there is a very high chance you will put it back on.
Is using Mounjaro a short cut?
I see a lot of moral dilemmas around taking this drug. Do I want to use a crutch? Do I want others to know that I use a crutch? How will this affect my social life? And of course, the wariness in taking a drug in a world where trust in Big Pharma is rightfully eroding.
I understand and empathise with most of these dilemmas. After all, would I trust a drug to only do positive things for me? I don’t think so. But if it serves the purpose and there’s no long-term cause for concern, then I would use the tool for the job. Because every day with subpar health is affecting you: that’s my simplistic thinking.
I also see people taking the drug and not seeing results because they refuse to take responsibility for their actions and lifestyle. These are people that no drug or coaching can help, until they choose to help themselves.
Most of us eat too much. We think about food too much. We have too many options. Year on year, our weight-loss resolutions don’t change. And neither does our weight. We don’t struggle with knowing what to do. The people I’ve coached over 15 years struggle with food noise. With an environment that makes it hard to be healthy. And life getting in the way — work, stress, kids, the usual.
The drug silences that noise, and that’s why it feels like magic. It’s also why selling only the drug is dangerous: the day you stop, the struggle comes back. The injection is the simple part, but life isn’t always that way. Even Johann Hari, a journalist who took these drugs, lost 20 kilos, and wrote a book about them, refuses to call it a miracle. He calls himself one of the “guinea pigs” in a “mass experiment.”
It is a tool.
I profit from saying this, but I’m saying it anyway: the people selling you only the needle are selling a return ticket and calling it a journey. It buys you a window. What you build in that window is everything.
Disclaimer: This is a first-person account of a three-week self-experiment. It is not medical advice or a recommendation to use GLP-1 medicines without a prescription or medical supervision.
Arvind Ashok has coached strength and fitness for over 15 years. He is co-founder of The Quad and of Revivo Clinic, a metabolic-health practice that pairs medical care with lifestyle change.