It’s the holidays, so you’ve probably got your eyes dead set on the smorgasbord of rich and fatty foods you’ll devour between now and the new year. But you’re taking Ozempic or Wegovy or Mounjaro — one of the GLP-1 weight loss drugs that kill your appetite. Should you drop it for a little bit so you could stuff your face and pick it up later or should you tough it out and stick to the small, street-urchin-in-a-Dickens-novel portions these miracle drugs make you eat?
CNN asked a whole slew of medical professionals that exact question. The consensus seems to be that skipping doses to give yourself a window of time to gorge yourself like a hedonistic Roman Emperor is fairly common. There are risks involved, but they mostly relate to the reason you’re taking these miracle weight loss drugs in the first place.
If you’re doing it strictly for weight loss, then the worst that’ll happen is you’ll gain some pounds over the holidays. If you are taking the drugs to manage type II diabetes, missing some doses will mean your blood sugar levels will elevate. If your blood sugar is well under control with insulin injections, doctors say your glucose levels won’t rise significantly.
If you’re hell-bent on eating like you hope it kills you, just make sure you don’t miss too many doses, the doctors say. Missing too many over an extended period could lead to an increase in adverse effects when you eventually pick up the medication again. There’s going to be a lot of nausea and a lot of, let’s call it, gastrointestinal distress. I can get more graphic with that description but I think you get it.
A lot of the doctors CNN spoke to suggested not skipping doses of your weight loss drugs at all and eating the stuff you want to eat — just without overeating.
A smaller portion size will leave you just as satisfied, if not more so than a huge one because it’ll take less food to get just as full as you would have before you were on the meds. Try not to overindulge on foods that are high in fat and carbs. Heavy greasy foods will make you feel much worse than if you gorged on a platter of carrots at an office Christmas party.
The post What Happens If You Skip Your Weight Loss Drugs for Holiday Feasts? appeared first on VICE.
