Persisting with Zepbound despite side effects is just another form of disordered eating

Zepbound can be a great weight loss tool. I want to state clearly in this opening paragraph that I am not opposed to it. In fact, I am finding it helpful myself right now. Since I started Zepbound, I’ve been persisting with tracking my food and sticking to a reduced calorie diet, and I have been losing a pound a week, which is within the recommended 0.5-1% of body weight.

I am writing this post because at least one post or comment every day on this subreddit describes severe symptoms. There are people on this Zepbound reddit who are experiencing persistent and severe side effects, to the point that they cannot live normal lives. Some describe living with horrible pain, or vomiting or diarrhea multiple times a week so that their normal daily activities and interactions are affected, or being unable to eat anything but a severely restricted diet sometimes to the point of managing only one small meal a day or subsisting on only protein shakes or electrolyte mixes.

And many of the replies to them recommend over-the-counter remedies. I am writing this post because I think it is important to question the premise that being horribly sick is the only way to lose weight.

If you think that having these symptoms is the only way Zepbound works, it is not. My side-effect-free experience so far is proof of that, as are many other posters’ experiences. These symptoms are side effects, not desired or required effects.

Zepbound can be a helpful tool for weight loss. Treat it as such, not as a religion. There are other ways to lose weight.

If Zepbound is making you sick on a regular basis and/or interfering with your living a normal life, reduce your dose. Take a dose that helps you succeed with following normal diet and exercise routines to lose weight. (You will have to work at losing weight, but Zepbound will still help you lose weight— in a pattern you can sustain healthfully.)

If it is still causing side effects at the lowest dose of 2.5 mg, then talk to your doctor about whether you should stop taking it! Speak with your doctor about alternative methods of weight loss.

Persisting with a weight loss drug in the face of severe side effects is disordered eating!!! It is not any less disordered than anorexia or bulimia… or the binge eating or compulsive eating (“food noise”) that got most of us here in the first place! ALL of these disordered eating patterns risk your health and well-being.

Continuing to take Zepbound when you are suffering and it is interfering with your daily functioning is just another form of disordered eating, without a name. Recognize it. Stop. Get help if you need to do so.🩷