Anti-Obesity Medication Stopped My Obsessive Thoughts About Food

As told to Jacquelyne Froeber

From March 4 to 8, 2024 is Obesity Care Week.

“If I don’t get food in the next two minutes, I’m going to die.”

This is how my brain works. Every day, at different times of the day, panic seeps into my thoughts and consumes me. I don’t think about anything but food. And then I obsess over what my next meal will be.

I’ve been like this since I was a little kid. I remember my grandmother telling me that if she was hungry she could eat an apple. And that made me furious. What the hell was an apple going to do? I needed food. And I needed enough to calm the worry growing in my chest.

I had never heard anyone talk like that about food either. I grew up making jokes about being hungry and my family and friends accepted that this was who I am. He did not have hypoglycemia, any thyroid disorder, or any other medical condition that could explain what he was feeling.

As the years passed, the mental cycle of panic and worry made living with obesity even more difficult. I yo-yo dieted from middle school until dropping my son off in high school. Despite training camps and gyms, nothing stuck long term. And just like that, I would find myself again with a high BMI.

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during my second pregnancy, which later turned into type 2 diabetes, and I was terrified that if I didn’t control my blood sugar I would have serious complications.

I started taking an anti-obesity medication (AOM) to help me control my blood sugar and lose some weight. It was working but very slowly. Then, in April 2022, everything changed.

My doctor prescribed a new version of the OMA that I was taking for insurance reasons. And almost immediately I knew that my life would never be the same. The day after receiving the new OMA injection, I went to work and, at the end of the afternoon, I realized: I didn’t care about dinner or what I was going to eat. I hadn’t thought about food for hours. I held my breath and waited for the familiar sense of urgency to wash over me. But nothing happened.

It was like someone had opened my head and gotten all the obsessive thoughts and panicked feelings about food out of my body and… poof! I threw them in the trash.

For the first time I felt free. I exhaled and welcomed feelings of relief and gratitude. I knew AOM was the missing piece to the puzzle of my treatment. I was ready for a life change.

First was my diet. The medicine makes you eat less, but you can’t necessarily eat the same as before. For me, fried foods cause major gastrointestinal problems (I call them sulfur burps) and are so uncomfortable that I had no problem switching from fast food to bringing chicken salad or yogurt and fruit to work. I learned that protein shakes are not as boring as I thought and I started buying more protein-rich foods to prepare meals at home for myself and my family.

Melissa and her husband Michael, 2023

While I was losing weight, I started exercising consistently. I do aerobic exercises four or five times a week. Taking an OMA can cause muscle loss, so I incorporated weight training into my routine.

Thanks to a combination of diet, exercise, and an AOM, I was able to stop taking all the medications I was taking for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. My blood sugar is good and I feel strong. When my daughter asked me why she wanted to exercise, I told her it’s important because it keeps me healthy so I can watch her grow strong and live her best life because I feel like I’m living my own.

Many people think that taking an AOM works like magic. But it also requires work. I work hard and plan my workouts and meals, and I do it out of respect and gratitude for this life change and medication that has helped me achieve a quality of life I didn’t think was possible. Sometimes I close my eyes and listen to the glorious sound of nothingness. It’s the sound of freedom to me.

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