I recently decreased my dosage of Tirzepatide, and have had an insane surge in not just appetite cravings, but also psychological cravings for cannabis products. Prior to this, I have only ever used low doses of edibles 3 times in my life with multiple years in between, as well as since my last use. I am currently being treated psychiatrically and can't imagine it's from any of my other medications. I have also been abstaining from alcohol as a lifestyle choice, and while it's been slightly harder to look away from products at the store, I don't think about alcohol at all regularly. Anybody else experience this phenomenon?

Last week I gained 4.5 pounds and NOTHING changed in my diet or exercise.

This week I lost 4.5 pounds and cheated a LOT with sweets and general food intake - because of a leg injury, I didn't exercise.

Make it make sense.

So Im 10 weeks in, I tried going up to 5mg on my 5th week but had profound tiredness for a full 24 hours so went back down to 2.5 with my doctor’s encouragement. My last shot was Friday and no tiredness! Also, I was at a weekend camp and I had food noise and ate 500 calories over my target both Saturday and Sunday.
Today it was easy to hit my target without any food noise came.
I was waiting until the side effects resolved before going back to 5 mg so I guess that’s my next step, maybe split dosing with the 2.5s in my stash to ease into it. But part of me is curious now that I’m home with my familiar foods.maybe the food noise would go away again still on 2.5. It was much harder to keep my protein up while camping than I anticipated.
I’d love to hear advice or encouragement.
Thanks in advance

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice and would love to hear about others’ experiences.

I started Zepbound on February 27, 2026 on 2.5 mg and gradually worked my way up to 7.5 mg, which I’m currently taking.

The first couple of months were amazing in terms of food noise and cravings. I barely thought about food, had almost no sugar cravings and was eating healthier while prioritizing protein. My weight loss has been pretty slow, around 30–38 lbs total, but I’ve been okay with that.

I’ve been hesitant to increase my dose because I’m worried about eventually reaching 15 mg and having nowhere else to go. I’ve struggled with obesity and my relationship with food my entire life, so that fear is very real for me.

However, over the past month or two on 7.5 mg, I’ve noticed my food noise coming back, especially sugar cravings. I’ve also been gaining and losing the same 5 lbs.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that I used to take my shot Friday night and barely feel hungry Saturday or Sunday. Now I sometimes wake up Saturday morning absolutely starving, which is a huge difference from when I first started.

I’m also recovering from surgery, so my movement and exercise have been limited recently.

I’m pretty sure if I brought this up to my doctor, they would recommend increasing my dose, especially given my recent lack of weight loss and the return of cravings and food noise. But I think I’m struggling with accepting that I might actually need to move up.

I’m completely fine with slow weight loss, but I’m starting to question whether I’m being too stubborn about staying on a lower dose. Part of me wants to stay at 7.5 mg as long as possible, but another part wonders if I’m holding myself back by being so hesitant to increase. I read in another forum to avoid increasing your dose until it’s really necessary, so I’ve been trying to follow that mindset.

I’m honestly feeling discouraged, sad and confused. I want to give myself the best chance of success with this medication, especially after struggling with my weight for so long.

For those who have experienced food noise returning, did increasing your dose help? How did you know when it was time to move up? And does anyone else worry about eventually maxing out at 15 mg?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. Thank you in advance! 💜

I just started Zepbound (2.5mg) on Saturday and I have no idea what’s normal. I’m barely eating anything and everything I eat seems to feel like it’s getting stuck in my throat. Has anyone gone through this? Should I eat even less? Should I eat slower? Drink more water?

The problem is that even though I’m not getting as hungry, I’m not feeling full when I’m eating so it’s like I don’t know when to stop eating.

Also, I feel like my anxiety has been off the charts - is that normal? Would greatly appreciate any advice!

After this year's drama with Caremark, I just found out that for 2027, we are switching to Express Scripts. My company is graciously paying a 50% stipend towards the cost of your out-of-pocket meds. But we have to go through GoodRx and have a BMI which I no longer have, and follow their program with an online GoodRx provider.

<insert massive amounts of profanities>

I just got my first month of meds now covered again by Caremark. So I have October, November, and December, at which point I would be eligible to get 3 months at a time, but now I won't be able to and won't have a safety stockpile.

I just found out that my employer is changing from United healthcare to Aetna/CVS Caremark next year. I had to fight with United for three months to get my prescription approved. Anyone with Caremark have comments on how their coverage is and I realize it would vary from company to company, but I’m trying to get a general idea.

I’m currently taking oral birth control and Zepbound. Due to certain medical conditions, my contraceptive options are somewhat limited.
I understand that Zepbound can reduce the effectiveness of oral contraceptives and that the manufacturer’s instructions recommend using backup contraception for the first four weeks after starting Zepbound and for four weeks after each dose increase. I plan to follow those recommendations.
My question is about the periods outside of those four-week windows, when I’m on a stable dose.
Has anyone continued taking oral birth control while on Zepbound without using backup contraception during those periods? Have you felt comfortable relying solely on your pill to prevent pregnancy?
I’m particularly curious whether others have followed the manufacturer’s instructions as written?
I know personal experiences can’t guarantee contraceptive effectiveness, but I’d appreciate hearing how others have navigated this!

Is this happening to anyone else? I am prepping a mere drop like I am supposed to. I went to give mysef the 4th injection and there is none left whatsoever. This is the 2nd time this has happened that I do not have 4 full doses. Last month I had only half my 4th dose. I write down the date on the box so I am exact on my dates.

I’m currently been stalled for going on 4 weeks and so frustrated. Making sure doing everything right with diet, hydration, fiber etc. I’m not interested in increasing my dose and seeking solidarity for those who had success waiting out a stall and started losing again timeframe. Thanks in advance

Hello, this is something that doesn’t technically make sense and perhaps it’s just in my head. But does anyone else feel like the even number doses are more effective than the.5 doses? This seems to be my experience but maybe I’m just thinking that 🤷🏻‍♀️

For those who have experienced significant hair loss and are at/very near goal weight what has been your experience? Mine seems to have slowed down, but could be because there’s way less to lose FROM. My hair is very long and will take a decade to catch up if it starts regrowing.

I noticed about 6 weeks ago I was losing more hair than normal and my stylist confirmed that my hair is definitely thinning. I tried some Shampoo and a scalp treatment but no noticeable improvement so decided to try Nutrafol. Has anyone else tried it? Did it work? Has anything else worked for you?

What experiences has anyone who switched from Wegovy to Zepbound experienced? I had been taking Wegovy since August. Lost 10lbs so far, but kind of stalled for the past few weeks. I didn’t love the side effects I was getting (weird rashes, increased anxiety, watery eyes), but they were manageable. I originally wanted to try Zepbound, but my insurance didn’t cover it when I started. They started covering it again on 10/1 so I asked to switch because I saw it had fewer side effects. Took my first shot Friday, and seemed fine. Just some tiredness the next day. Last night though, I woke up with an upset stomach. Today I’ve had diarrhea and serious nausea all day. I didn’t have any GI issues on Wegovy other than mild nausea 2 times. This nausea has been so bad I had to dip into my Zofran. I’ve been trying to avoid it because Zofran constipated me before GLP1 and I was worried what it would do while on them. I admit I didn’t eat the best this weekend, but I didn’t really eat anything that was too awful. Hoping it gets better, but would love to hear others experiences with switching.

excuse my bed hair lol

First, zero need for anyone to pop in on this thread with their stories of how they've been self-pay from the beginning. That's clearly a choice you made and I'm glad it's worked out for you.

I work for a large corporation and felt very lucky that we survived the cuts that many experienced for 2026. Yes, we went through the whole stupid CVS/Wegovy/Zepbound scandal, but weight loss medications were still covered. We have been informed that no weight loss medications will be covered as of January 1, even if they are prescribed under one of the other FDA approvals like sleep apnea or heart health. They will only cover GLP-1 for diabetes.

All over the internet I'm seeing the same. Company after company is striking them off the formulary. This is disheartening given that the general hope was that the Medicare coverage would bleed into regular insurance. Instead it's gone the other way.

It will be interesting to see the impact of this over time. Will Lilly and Novo see a big drop-off in their numbers? Or is this wiped out by the increased use by individuals on Medicare? Will prices come down more in 2027 as a result of insurance coverage going away, or perhaps the pressure of still more medications coming down the pipeline?

Don't know, but I'll be moving over to the wonderful world of c*mpound!ng and won't look back. It really sucks to be alive in a time where modern medicine is changing the world, but nobody can get access to it.

Hi, has anyone taken their Zepbound along with antibiotics??

I'm on doxycycline hyclate 100mg, 2x/day.

Today is injection day.

The first day of antibiotics(3days post last shot), it did give me a little tummy pain. I'm wondering if it'd behoove me to wait til the med cycle is over...before spiking my system with more zep...

Anyone have experience in this area?

Hey, reddit.

I made my way to a virtual support group tonight for people with eating disorders. I was too chicken to talk during the meeting, but I did manage to share in the chat. I was quite upset when the message was instantly deleted by the moderator. I had only mentioned that I had just started a glp-1, but somehow that wasn't allowed. So I'll share here. Took my third shot Thursday. The nausea has mostly passed except on shot day. My roommate made fried chicken Saturday night, and I've had the runs ever since. It's letting up a little now. Getting plenty of water and electrolytes. Are there glp-1 specific support groups out there?

I know all the basics and as of yesterday, I’ve started to double-check everything and make sure to hit all my goals but what are some creative things you did to break a stall?

Hi guys and gals, so I’ve been on 5 mg for about three months now and I’m starting to notice a little bit of my appetite coming back. I was originally on Wegovy and I got up to a pretty high dose. I was at 1.7 mg and I was getting really bad anxiety. I decided to switch to Zepbound which I really love I originally got a little bit of nausea, but absolutely no anxiety side effects but I’ve definitely hit a plateau and I’m at 5 mg and I keep hearing that you don’t really kick that plateau until you get to 7.5 but I also hear that the anxiety gets significantly worse when people have switched from 5 mg to 7.5 mg and I was wondering what everyone’s experience was doing that and how they handled it because I really want to switch to 7.5 mg so if you have any advice or experiences with the side effects from the switch please let me know

She told me that it’s due to a mix of it being more expensive, having more long-term data on semaglutide, and recent data showing about the same level of weight loss.

I feel like it being more expensive is the reason though. I advocated for myself and asked if I can try Zepbound first instead. She answered again, assuring me that it would not be approved. Maybe I should have fought harder though. I don’t know. Anyway, just wondering if anyone on Kaiser was able to get Zepbound first, or did you have to fail Wegovy first?

Good morning ✨

I have been on 2.5 mg since August. Mg starting weight was 210 and I am now weighing in at 189.2. I am currently battling Covid. Tested positive on Saturday 10/17 and started paxlovid the same day. Today is my shot day (Tuesday) I am wondering should I not take my shot until I finish the paxlovid or if it is okay to still take it? Any advice and experience with this?

Thank you all in advance for your time and responses.

Im stalled since 4 weeks on 10mg. Should i move up?

Edit:
Start weight 240 lbs
CW 162 lbs
Height 5ft 3
Goal: 145

Initially on wegovy. Switched to 7.5 mg zepbound since June this year. Need to lose last 15-20 lbs.

I took my last dose this past week as I'm stopping before TTC.

I've built a healthy meal and workout routine but I'm still worried my cravings will get the best of me. What advise do you have?

Hello! My anthem insurance (VA) has covered my Zepbound the last year at a 25$ copay after my deductible (very lucky!) but now my company is saying they are switching the coverage to Digbi health. I have been able to just go to my PCP for my script, but I am worried about this change. Has anyone experienced a switch to this programs coverage? I am trying to decide on my benefit elections right now, and can’t find much information on how Digbi would change my coverage besides making me use their platform and doctors to prescribe the medication. Thanks!