My wife came to the same conclusion about the time the insurance company denied it anyway (since she wasn't diabetic, "just" obese, and apparently they want to incentivize people to become diabetic.)

Weight loss doctor (where there is a huge waiting list AND it's expensive because insurance refuses to cover so much of it) put her on Phentermine-Topiramate instead, which has been pretty effective. The phentermine is the part of Phen-Phen that doesn't destroy your heart, and the other half is some random epilepsy drug that magnifies the phen. It's been effective for her, and got her past the plateau that she was at.

She's been consistently losing weight for over a year, but hit a plateau, and then had to wait 9 months on a waiting list to see an endocrinologist. She ended up with all the weight from a different shithead pill-pusher who put her on methylprednisolone without telling her, "by the way, you're going to put on 5-10 pounds a month on this shit if you aren't on a special diet."

I'm almost to the point of just going with cocaine. It's cheaper than an endocrinologist and she loves it already.

When taking Ozempic, patients lose fat and muscle unless they take action to preserve muscle mass by strength training and eating enough protein, Dr. Comite says. “There is no way to 100 percent prevent muscle loss while losing weight, but it can be mitigated,” says Dr. Comite.

This is perfectly normal for any weight-loss plan based upon running a significant calorie deficit. Whether that's Ozempic or willpower it's the same in this case.

This is why weightlifters often go through bulk/cut cycles because efficiently maintaining or adding muscle requires a calorie surplus, and it's difficult to rapidly lose weight without your body devouring your muscle. Sure, you can run a slight calorie deficit and maintain muscle mass, but that's for people who want to lose 5 lbs in a year...not 50. Ozempic users need to lose 50 because they're hamplanets.

Additionally, fatasses rarely eat enough protein to maintain muscle mass to begin with. You dont get to Ozempic levels of obesity eating tomahawk steaks, you get there by horking down carbs (usually sugar). You also rarely get to Ozempic size if you're engaged in regular strength training. That burns enough calories to head off Tess Holiday level chonk.

I once had a fat friend. He was a great guy, funny, very dependable, would always lend a hand and just wanted to see everyone happy. Then he died before he was 50. I will never have any more fat friends, it is not worth investing your time and energy into a human who chooses to end their own life early.

Some guy went on Stu Peters and explained how Ozempic is literally snake venom. Injecting snake venom into yourself.

Wait!

I see a paradox here.