{"id":37056,"date":"2025-07-04T03:45:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/37056\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T03:45:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:45:24","slug":"weight-loss-drugs-helped-me-lose-85-pounds-and-quieted-my-alcohol-cravings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/37056\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight loss drugs helped me lose 85 pounds \u2014 and quieted my alcohol cravings"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her late 20s, Johnna Byrd<\/a> was stuck. She was living in Las Vegas, but didn\u2019t have much desire to do anything other than lie in bed and scroll on her phone. Her life was mostly virtual, and when she did get out of the house, it was usually to pick up the cheapest, most convenient drive-through meal she could.<\/p>\n

Polycystic ovarian syndrome<\/a> (PCOS) and excess weight had always been problems for Byrd. She had gastric sleeve surgery in 2019, but her PCOS symptoms worsened again, and her weight eventually crept back up to more than 350 pounds.<\/p>\n

In August 2021, she gave birth to her son, who was born prematurely. Something broke inside her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot, and that\u2019s when I fell into alcoholism,\u201d Byrd tells Yahoo. Drinking became a constant, \u201cevery day, all day,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then, one day, I just kind of woke up and said, \u2018I need to be a better person and I need to be a better mom for him.\u2019 He became the motivation for the entire process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byrd got right to work. She needed to regain control over her body and habits, and with a renewed commitment to diet and exercise, lost more than 150 pounds in the span of a year. But by January of 2023, her progress had stalled. That\u2019s when she got on TikTok and saw doctors and patients talking about Ozempic and GLP-1 medications<\/a>. Byrd decided to try one of the medications.<\/p>\n

When she started taking tirzepatide,<\/a> she didn\u2019t realize that it might help with her drinking<\/a> as well as her weight. On the medication, what she calls \u201calcohol noise\u201d disappeared. \u201cIt was just complete silence,\u201d she says. \u201cI went from drinking literally every day all day to being able to say, ‘Hey, I don\u2019t want to drink.’\u201d It was the beginning of a major shift in Byrd\u2019s life, she says. \u201cFrom there, my life has done a crazy turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what that looks like, in Byrd\u2019s own words, for the latest installment of Yahoo\u2019s On My Weigh<\/strong><\/a> series.<\/p>\n

\"Eighteen<\/p>\n

Eighteen months after she started taking Zepbound, Johnna Byrd has lost 85 pounds and transitioned to a maintenance dose. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; Photo: Getty, Courtesy of Johnna Byrd)<\/p>\n

The weigh-in<\/strong><\/p>\n