Disclaimer: This speaks to the writer’s personal experience with a GLP-1 drug. Everyone’s experience will vary, and it’s important to consult a medical professional before starting any new medication or treatment plan.
My name is Almas Kurd. Last year, I gained some weight because of sugar, hormones, and stress. Nothing out of the ordinary, but nothing seemed to work, either: no diet, no workouts, and no meal prepping. Then, I saw the GLP-1 hype everywhere.It seems like we can’t escape GLP-1 drugs in 2026, and I’m no exception. Everyone on my TikTok FYP is losing 30 pounds in eight weeks. Celebrities are doing it. People I know are doing it. Khloé Kardashian’s recent transformation sparked thousands of comments asking what she was taking. There are Reddit threads full of people asking where to get it. There’s talk of the nausea, the food intolerance, and the emotional crash.
Amidst all the chatter, I decided to become my own test subject and experience a GLP-1 firsthand. Two months. One drug. I tested it for 8 weeks, not for the trend, but for the truth nobody talks about. Here’s exactly how it went:
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On day 1, I held the needle for 20 minutes, and couldn’t do it.The pen cost me $341 for a four-week supply. My insurance wouldn’t cover it since I don’t have diabetes. On the first day, I sat on my bed just holding it, rereading the instructions over and over. There’s a needle. You dial your dose. You hold it for three seconds. Then it’s over. Three seconds. That’s all it would take to alter my body’s hunger response for the next eight weeks.
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At 3:15 p.m., I did it. I waited for something to occur, but nothing did. No tingle. No instant change. Just me sitting there with an empty pen, contemplating the $341 I had just spent on a product that gave me no sensation at all.By Wednesday morning, something had changed. For breakfast, I made scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee, all the things I love in the morning. I looked down at it without feeling…anything.
The familiar “yes, eat this” signal was gone, completely overridden. I swallowed, but from mouth to brain, there was some sort of automatic shut-off valve. It wasn’t that the food was bad; it was that my body did not know how to register that it wanted it anymore.
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On day 4, my first Ozempic nausea set in.Nausea set in on Thursday. Not vomiting, but more like uncomfortable knowledge that something wasn’t right. Everything smelled wrong, everything tasted wrong. Including my morning coffee, which I’ve drunk without fail for the last 15 years.
I texted a friend of mine who’d started taking a GLP-1 drug three months ago.
Me: “How long does the nausea last?”
Her: “Lol…week 3?”
That answer stuck with me. Week 3. I was only on day 4.
By the end of the first week, nausea became a daily experience for me. The worst part of all that was not physical; it was more psychological. I remember food being a pleasant thing before starting my journey. Now, even with my doctor’s reminders, I still find myself staring at my plate without any urge to eat. The weight loss came quickly — 3 pounds by day 7. But at what cost? I could already feel myself losing touch with one of the simplest joys in life.
By day 9, the nausea had settled into a background hum, but constipation took over. At that point, my body was from being sick of eating to not being able to eat. From the Internet warnings, I’ve read about nausea, appetite suppression, and digestion problems, but it was different to experience them firsthand. When you can’t eat much, and your body’s already confused about digestion, there’s nowhere for anything to go.On day 12, I joined some friends for lunch. They ordered food, but I ordered myself a juice. “Aren’t you fine?” They asked.” I just don’t feel good today,” I lied. What I didn’t say to them: “I’ve already spent $341 trying to make myself incapable of eating food, and now here I am, while you’re enjoying your meal, sitting here and thinking about how sick I am even at the thought of smelling food.”
By week 3, I’d lost 8 pounds, and the fit of my jeans had changed. Everyone would praise me, saying, “Oh, you look great!” But none of them knew that for the past three weeks I’d been nauseous. Eating food was no longer enjoyable; rather, it became an ordeal. I was scared of what this was costing me.At the end of week 3, I took stock of all of my side effects, and reflecting back, they were pretty relentless.
After 28 days, I was 12 pounds lighter. I was also doing some calculations on my own. A one-month GLP-1 supply for me: $1,200–$1,500. Eight weeks had cost me $3,000, and doing the calculation left me stung.
By week 4, I began to understand what was really going on inside my body. An endocrinologist explained it to me during an earlier visit. GLP-1s slow the rate at which food moves through your stomach. They impact satiety centers in the brain, affect the perception of hunger and satiety, and influence insulin secretion in response to glucose levels. On paper, it sounds extremely effective.
What stuck with me was the endocrinologist’s bluntness about what may come next. She shared that most of her patients gain the weight back within a year or two. And when I asked if it affects women differently, she said that there were not enough studies in that area; however, based on her observations, women were finding it difficult to resist the rebound hunger more than men. This scared me. Here I was at week 8, and I already knew that this new, smaller version of myself would have an expiration date.
While using the drug myself, I was quite aware of these possible consequences, and that awareness made everything feel temporary. Like I was borrowing a smaller version of myself that I’d eventually have to return.
When I raised the concern about my appetite loss during my doctor’s visit, she suggested I remind myself to eat, since that would force me to eat even when I didn’t want to. This made me wonder whether it’s so simple to suppress appetite cues, and what the consequences are for those trained to eat below their needs. The doctor meant well. But the advice seemed odd. Basically, “set an alarm and eat regardless of your lack of appetite.” While a loss of appetite was expected, being advised to ignore all my bodily sensations was strange.
Pretty soon, I realized it wasn’t only me. My friend Sahar, who had already been using Ozempic for a month before I started, said she had also experienced the same problem. Curious about what others thought about this subject, I began looking through Reddit discussions. While some users described only mild side effects, such as constipation or nausea that became manageable after changing their diet, others talked about weeks or even months of severe diarrhea, bloating, chest pain, heartburn, and feeling full after only a few bites. Another user mentioned multiple visits to the emergency room because of a rapid heartbeat, weakness, blurred vision, and fainting, while questioning whether the drug was responsible for these symptoms. Although their experiences differed in the details, one common trend emerged: eating just didn’t feel natural anymore.
By week 5, any euphoria had vanished completely. While the nausea had subsided somewhat, it had been replaced by a sort of detachment. Nothing seemed appealing in terms of food anymore. My body was too used to the situation — I had learned to accept the lack of appetite. By week 6, I’d lost 11 pounds. My clothing no longer fit the way it did before. Everyone had something good to say about how I looked. “Wow, you look amazing.” I would respond with gratitude, but inside I wondered: at what cost?By week 8, I’d lost 15 pounds. I looked different. I felt different. And I just wanted it to be over.
In my final reflections on taking a GLP-1, some questions kept popping up in my mind: What problem am I solving? Is this really the right tool for this purpose? Am I ready for what will happen after I’m done?Would I recommend GLP-1s? In the end, it’s a very personal decision. Would I do it again? Personally, no. Not for weight loss alone. If you’re interested in trying GLP-1s, what’s most important is that you first consult a medical professional to discuss your unique circumstances and health journey.Have you tried GLP-1s? Did you experience any side effects? What was your experience like — good, bad, or somewhere in between? Share in the comments or the anonymous form below.
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