My first experience with semaglutide/documenting my journey

F

fatboy1234

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2026
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Imported archive
My experience with a compounding pharmacy and semaglutide.

I was paying $300 a month. They sent a vial every 3 months. I cancelled on month 4, I was not charged for month 5 and 6. In total I spent $1138 for 25mg of semaglutide...

Weeks

1-4: 5 units (0.25mg)

5-8: 10 units (0.5mg)

9+ : 20 units (1mg)

I've gotten lean "naturally" before when I was young (back in 2017). I went from 190 pounds to 155 pounds, super lean. When I reached 155 pounds I basically could not stop binge eating. I hovered around 180 pounds until I moved to a car only state and started an office job. I eventually ballooned up to 250+ pounds. With semaglutide I went from 250 pounds to about 210 pounds in 5 months or so, so it was a success.

The first few months were enlightening. Food noise/life revolving around food was no more. If I tried to binge eat or eat for fun like usual, I would just get FULL after a few bites. It was great. I also got braces around this time so maybe that also played into me not wanting to eat so much, my jaw/teeth were completely sore. Being a chronic binge eater/someone who copes with food and using a GLP is a life changing experience.

I think at around month 4-5 things stopped being effective. I was able to return to my binge eating ways (eat a full bag of chips and multiple protein bars for lunch). In order to raise the dose, I would've had to fork out another $100 or so a month. At this point I decided to just walk away from semaglutide due to costs.

My weight slowly climbed back up and food started to dominate my life again. I'm back to 250 pounds, but I built some muscle/found consistency in the gym for almost a year. I wish these chemicals were legal and readily available to the public. This time around I'm gearing up to try reta.
 
fatboy1234 said:


I wish these chemicals were legal and readily available to the public.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Well, lawyers fight about what is “legal” all the time. That is why there are trials. But some would say they are legal, readily available, and really cheap. As I’m on my 4th flight in 4 days right now, I was thinking we should mandate GLPs for flight attendants so I don’t keep getting butt cheek slap to shoulder every damn time they walk down the aisle.
 
$1138 for 25mg of Sema is amazing. A 5mg kit (50mg) is under $50 retail… granted some of that $1138 was for doctor treatment and such.

“Building habits” is typically a nerve grating cliche for people who say they’re going to use medicine to help learn habits then quit and maintain naturally. In your case you probably need to put some thought into what causes your binging and steer away from it.

I had a cavernous capacity for food before, mostly due to decades of drinking large amounts while eating due to EoE. Learning my new portion size has been a mostly fun journey. Occasionally I’ll eat more than I should, but I actively try to avoid that most days. One example of an exception was my child taking me out to dinner for my birthday. I’d already eaten, wasn’t remotely hungry, but ate most of a regular meal. It was worth it.

I’m not a fan of restrictive diets for myself, but if it helps prevent binging, it’d be worth it.
 
fatboy1234 said:


My experience with a compounding pharmacy and semaglutide.

I was paying $300 a month. They sent a vial every 3 months. I cancelled on month 4, I was not charged for month 5 and 6. In total I spent $1138 for 25mg of semaglutide...

Weeks

1-4: 5 units (0.25mg)

5-8: 10 units (0.5mg)

9+ : 20 units (1mg)

I've gotten lean "naturally" before when I was young (back in 2017). I went from 190 pounds to 155 pounds, super lean. When I reached 155 pounds I basically could not stop binge eating. I hovered around 180 pounds until I moved to a car only state and started an office job. I eventually ballooned up to 250+ pounds. With semaglutide I went from 250 pounds to about 210 pounds in 5 months or so, so it was a success.

The first few months were enlightening. Food noise/life revolving around food was no more. If I tried to binge eat or eat for fun like usual, I would just get FULL after a few bites. It was great. I also got braces around this time so maybe that also played into me not wanting to eat so much, my jaw/teeth were completely sore. Being a chronic binge eater/someone who copes with food and using a GLP is a life changing experience.

I think at around month 4-5 things stopped being effective. I was able to return to my binge eating ways (eat a full bag of chips and multiple protein bars for lunch). In order to raise the dose, I would've had to fork out another $100 or so a month. At this point I decided to just walk away from semaglutide due to costs.

My weight slowly climbed back up and food started to dominate my life again. I'm back to 250 pounds, but I built some muscle/found consistency in the gym for almost a year. I wish these chemicals were legal and readily available to the public. This time around I'm gearing up to try reta.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Not interested in tirz? Good appetite suppression and cheaper than reta . . .
 
woundcarping said:


$1138 for 25mg of Sema is amazing. A 5mg kit (50mg) is under $50 retail… granted some of that $1138 was for doctor treatment and such.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Yeah I can't believe how stupid that was... The way I viewed it was going the super official route would have been $1000 a month (ozempic/wegovy).

woundcarping said:


“Building habits” is typically a nerve grating cliche for people who say they’re going to use medicine to help learn habits then quit and maintain naturally.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Once I reach a goal weight of say 170-180 from 250, I don't mind lowering my dose or quitting. Gaining weight/eating in a surplus will just allow me to build muscle/progress in the gym. My biggest problem is just all mental. I think about food all day, my day revolves around food, I eat when bored and food is my pleasure. Now that I think about it, I may as well stay on GLPs for life since food noise is my biggest enemy. My weight has rollercoastered my entire life.

AngieHolmes said:


Not interested in tirz? Good appetite suppression and cheaper than reta . . .

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
You've got me considering tirzepatide now. If I'm just targeting the cheapest, semaglutide seems insanely cheap. I did encounter problems where mid week food noise and hunger would just creep through quite a lot. By day 5/6 before injection I was basically running on pure willpower to not overeat, but that's probably solved by increasing the dose.

I'm not familiar with the dosing of tirz. It seems like you need quite a lot more mg compared to reta/sema. It would only be slightly cheaper than reta (based on my small research of dose required). I do have minor concerns about the whole glucagon stuff with reta. Sema worked just fine for me and it's probably overkill to add the glucagon activation stuff.

I have about a week to think it over.
 
fatboy1234 said:


Yeah I can't believe how stupid that was... The way I viewed it was going the super official route would have been $1000 a month (ozempic/wegovy).

Once I reach a goal weight of say 170-180 from 250, I don't mind lowering my dose or quitting. Gaining weight/eating in a surplus will just allow me to build muscle/progress in the gym. My biggest problem is just all mental. I think about food all day, my day revolves around food, I eat when bored and food is my pleasure. Now that I think about it, I may as well stay on GLPs for life since food noise is my biggest enemy. My weight has rollercoastered my entire life.

You've got me considering tirzepatide now. If I'm just targeting the cheapest, semaglutide seems insanely cheap. I did encounter problems where mid week food noise and hunger would just creep through quite a lot. By day 5/6 before injection I was basically running on pure willpower to not overeat, but that's probably solved by increasing the dose.

I'm not familiar with the dosing of tirz. It seems like you need quite a lot more mg compared to reta/sema. It would only be slightly cheaper than reta (based on my small research of dose required). I do have minor concerns about the whole glucagon stuff with reta. Sema worked just fine for me and it's probably overkill to add the glucagon activation stuff.

I have about a week to think it over.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
There's lots of good stuff here about people's experiences with tirz and with reta, and with stacking them together. If you bop around this site I think you'll come away with a pretty comprehensive sense of both meds. Anecdotally, tirz comes out on top for food noise which it sounds like is your main issue. Maybe compare using sema -- cheaper, less effective -- vs tirz -- more effective for your particular situation and possibly a faster and easier solution. Tirz handles the mental struggle better in a lot of people.

It's important that you're already contemplating staying on whichever you choose for a long time. A lot of people start out like you -- "I'll just drop 70 pounds and go off the meds" -- and I don't think most of us can make that call accurately without ever having tried them. Being open to that possibility is a positive.

I agree increasing the dose may solve your food noise; maybe try that first if tirz is unaffordable? As for willpower, the beauty of these drugs is how well they can remove that from the equation, and especially tirz. Selecting the right drug and dose should solve that for you. Best of luck! It's kinda fun to mess around and see what works best
 
Back
Top