My Thoughts on Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy As A Functional Medicine Expert

How these medications work

Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are all medications that belong to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. While these medications are primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes, they have also been approved for weight loss due to their effects on appetite regulation, satiety, and metabolism. The specific dosage and frequency of these medications varies slightly, but each one of these medications is administered through self-injection in your arm, abdomen, or upper thigh.

1. Regulates appetite

GLP-1 receptor agonists affect the part of your brain that controls appetite to increase feelings of fullness and satiety which ultimately leads to a reduction in food intake. Ozempic and Wegovy contain the active ingredient semaglutide, which only targets the GLP-1 hormone that your body produces after eating whereas Mounjaro’s active ingredient, tirzepatide, targets GLP-1 and another hormone, GIP. Studies have found that Mounjaro can be more effective (1) for weight loss due to the fact that it targets more than one of these appetite receptors.

2. Slows gastric emptying

These medications slow down the rate at which food moves from the stomach to the intestines. This delay in gastric emptying can also contribute to a person feeling full, thus further reducing the overall amount of food a person eats.

3. Controls calorie intake

Because these medications are causing you to feel full and eat less food, you are going to eat less calories as a result which can lead to weight loss.

4. Changes your metabolism

These medications can also have metabolic effects that influence your body's use of glucose and fat. By reducing the production of glucose by your liver and enhancing your sensitivity to insulin, you’ll likely experience improved glycemic control and weight loss.

Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro side effects

For the majority of people, the side effects of these medications can be “mild” and include symptoms like stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. But for some individuals, the side effects can be as extreme as thyroid tumors, changes in vision, hypoglycemia, gallbladder issues, pancreatitis, kidney failure, and even cancer and the long-term effects are unknown.

Why these medications don’t work long term

The problem with these medications is that they only act as a bandaid to your weight struggles. Instead of addressing the root cause behind why you are not able to lose weight, they just suppress your body’s hunger cues and the imbalances happening beneath the surface - they don’t actually fix anything.

A common argument for using these medications is that it is a game-changer for people who have tried everything to lose weight including eating healthy and exercising. But the flaw in this logic is that we understand in functional medicine that there are seemingly endless factors contributing to your inability to lose weight including chronic inflammation, hormone imbalances, metabolic problems, gut dysfunction, and more that no amount of calorie counting and exercise will fix.

So even though these medications do help you lose weight, because you aren’t actually healing the underlying metabolic imbalances fueling your weight problems, the weight will just end up coming right back as soon as you come off the medication. Combine the long list of serious side effects with the unknown long-term effects of these medications, a lifetime spent taking these in exchange for the “perfect” weight is not a risk I’m willing to take - and one I hope you don’t take either.

How to lose weight the healthy way

Ultimately, we have to get healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy. But how you go about doing this can be overwhelming when you try to do it on your own.

That’s why I made it my mission to put together a weight loss program that actually works: The Metabolic Recharge. Unlike other “quick fix” programs, The Metabolic Recharge helps you tap into your body’s own natural fat-burning pathways for vibrant energy, balanced hormones, and sustainable weight loss without the “big-pharma” side effects.

In this 90-day program, we will:

1. Identify your roadblock

The Metabolic Recharge will identify the specific metabolic imbalances holding you back from losing weight. These underlying factors are why you keep doing all the “right” things with no results.

2. Overcome your roadblock

Instead of a restrictive list of “do’s” and “don’ts”, we teach the exact things you need to do to finally heal from the metabolic imbalances fueling your weight gain.

3. Maintain the result

You’ll walk away from The Metabolic Recharge without worrying whether or not you’ll experience any rebound pounds since you’ve addressed the true cause of your weight struggles.

Instead of these medications that you have to keep taking in order to keep the weight off, The Metabolic Recharge is different because we teach you how to make weight loss an effortless lifestyle. The idea of maintaining your weight won’t even be on your mind (a benefit of why you would be tempted to choose medication in the first place) because you’ll have reset your metabolism and found food freedom.

The takeaway

The truth is, no one is sick from a medication deficiency. Your inability to lose weight isn’t due to the fact that your body doesn’t have enough Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or another medication. It all comes down to unaddressed imbalances that have been left unchecked for far too long. 

Functional medicine looks at weight loss from a completely different perspective and The Metabolic Recharge is the culmination of years of clinical experience seeing what works and what doesn’t to achieve long-term, sustainable weight loss. The Metabolic Recharge is functional medicine made affordable and accessible.

If you are finally ready to reclaim your health and achieve your weight loss goals after years of effort, sign up for The Metabolic Recharge. 

As one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics in the world, we provide webcam health consultations for people around the globe. 

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