I have been on Wegovy for 6 months and have been on the highest dose for a month now. I have not had any side effects that I can tell, but I also haven't had any effects at all. No weight loss, food noise is still there and don't notice that I get full faster or less hungry.

I asked my Dr about switching to Zepbound but my insurance won't cover it. Anybody else have this medication not do anything?

Research on GLP-1 agonists suggests that up to 15% of people are classified as "non-responders", meaning they don't experience clinically significant weight loss when taking them.

It's possible you'd respond better to Zepound/Mounjaro, but there's no guarantee. If you're diabetic, you may have more luck getting Mounjaro covered?

Wow that’s unfortunate but I know there are outliers. My friend lost all her weight really quick (too fast if you ask me) and now the maintenance dose for her is too high. She is having to go off of it because she cants STOP losing and she is getting weak because she can’t eat. I guess most people fall in between these two extremes. Hopefully before long all of these meds will be covered for everyone. They are doing so many studies and learning they work for so many things in addition to weight loss and diabetes. I think it’s just a matter of time ?

My diabetic husband tried Ozempic and didnt loose anything. This time around he is doing well with Mounjaro. I hope you can find the one for you

I had zero luck with Saxenda and Ozempic which is odd I think. I tried Wegovy when Zepbound was at the height of running out. I actually thought Wegovy helped me better but when Zepbound was more available I just went back to that. I have CVS insurance and they are making ppl speak with a dietitian every single month in order to get the script paid for. Personally I think they are holding the script hostage to make sure you participate in their weight loss program. Its ridiculous if you ask me as I am not fond of dieticians lol. However, that being said a prior coworker lost 118 lbs or more on Wegovy and he has been in maintenance mode for several months. He seems to be doing well but like another poster stated, I think the weight came off too fast for him as well on Wegovy.

This is my current situation except I’ve been on Wegovy for only 3 months. I haven’t lost any weight. The food noise is there and I don’t feel I’m eating less.

I tried to get Zepbound (my insurance will cover it) but I haven’t been able to find a doctor who will prescribe it (because of my previous VSG surgery).

I’m planning to meet with a Bariatric surgeon this week to discuss a possible revision surgery.

Great idea to speak with your bariatric doctor but discuss the Wegovy with them as well. I have not discussed Wegovy with the bariatric surgeon post surgery but I mentioned it to the PA as a possibility if I am to gain during my cancer treatment over this year if that would be an option and he say it may. I mean he could have assumed that I just meant any GLP-1 and assumed either would do but he didn’t say that Wegovy was not okay for me and I had sleeve prior to my revision to SADI and my surgeon leaves the sleeve as is and does the bypass portion to make up the modified duodenal switch surgery (SADI). Also, post sleeve but pre SADI, I discussed GLP-1 as an option for regain and he said it was a serious contender in terms of what he thought would work for me but the insurance coverage was the issue. I went with the revision and it’s been night and day In terms of the surgery being a better fit for me so I’m not trying to deter you, but maybe the redo was all I needed because I wasn’t mentally ready with the sleeve. I guess I honestly can’t say 100% for certain. Either way, don’t give up. The bariatric doctors won’t give up on you either, together you will find what works for you. Consider what your coverage is and what the cost will be long term though and whether your team will keep prescribing it as a maintenance thing or what happens when you get to goal too because there are pros and cons with both. I mean Wegovy is not surgery and that’s a pro anytime you can avoid surgery but the cost, long term side effects of the shot and regain stats are all things that I would be asking about.

On 01/14/2025 at 21:55, ShoppGirl said:

Great idea to speak with your bariatric doctor but discuss the Wegovy with them as well. I have not discussed Wegovy with the bariatric surgeon post surgery but I mentioned it to the PA as a possibility if I am to gain during my cancer treatment over this year if that would be an option and he say it may. I mean he could have assumed that I just meant any GLP-1 and assumed either would do but he didn’t say that Wegovy was not okay for me and I had sleeve prior to my revision to SADI and my surgeon leaves the sleeve as is and does the bypass portion to make up the modified duodenal switch surgery (SADI). Also, post sleeve but pre SADI, I discussed GLP-1 as an option for regain and he said it was a serious contender in terms of what he thought would work for me but the insurance coverage was the issue. I went with the revision and it’s been night and day In terms of the surgery being a better fit for me so I’m not trying to deter you, but maybe the redo was all I needed because I wasn’t mentally ready with the sleeve. I guess I honestly can’t say 100% for certain. Either way, don’t give up. The bariatric doctors won’t give up on you either, together you will find what works for you. Consider what your coverage is and what the cost will be long term though and whether your team will keep prescribing it as a maintenance thing or what happens when you get to goal too because there are pros and cons with both. I mean Wegovy is not surgery and that’s a pro anytime you can avoid surgery but the cost, long term side effects of the shot and regain stats are all things that I would be asking about.

Thank you so much for your response. It’s perfect timing that I saw this as I just left the Bariatric surgeon’s office.

My experience with GLP-1s was quite discouraging. I was just about ready to give up trying to lose the weight I regained.

However, my appointment with the Bariatric surgeon was quite encouraging.

He agrees that I qualify for a revision surgery. He laid out the revision surgery options: Bypass, SADI-S or SIPS.

Apparently the final revision surgery method will be determined during the surgery when he is able to assess my intestine length for the bypass/malabsorption effect.

So for now, I’m going to focus on completing the program steps (Barium swallow, Psych appointment, Nutrition appt, support group, etc) so they can submit the PA for revision surgery.

So I’m going to focus on completing the insurance requirements

5 hours ago, audaciousmarie said:

Thank you so much for your response. It’s perfect timing that I saw this as I just left the Bariatric surgeon’s office.

My experience with GLP-1s was quite discouraging. I was just about ready to give up trying to lose the weight I regained.

However, my appointment with the Bariatric surgeon was quite encouraging.

He agrees that I qualify for a revision surgery. He laid out the revision surgery options: Bypass, SADI-S or SIPS.

Apparently the final revision surgery method will be determined during the surgery when he is able to assess my intestine length for the bypass/malabsorption effect.

So for now, I’m going to focus on completing the program steps (Barium swallow, Psych appointment, Nutrition appt, support group, etc) so they can submit the PA for revision surgery.

So I’m going to focus on completing the insurance requirements

That’s awesome. I have been very pleased with my revision to SADI. My surgeon didn’t mention the intestine length thing but he did have me do the barium swallow, an endoscopy and a gastric emptying study before saying that the SADI would be an option as well as the bypass and it was up to me which I wanted to do. There are pros and cons to the SADI revision. statistically (which by definition means there are outliers that are more or less) but the majority of people lose faster and the loss is more durable which got my attention but the possibility of bathroom issues is significant (fortunately I didn’t have this at all until I recently started chemo but I don’t think it has anything to do with the surgery). One con though of SADI is that many doctors have never heard of it. From my family Dr, to the urgent care, ER physicians, gyno, radiologies, breast surgeon, etc. Even the gastro dr who will be doing an endoscopy and colonoscopy on me Monday has never heard of the SADI but my bariatric doctor said he will explain my anatomy to her and it will be fine. I always tell them it’s a modified version of the Duodenal Switch with one anastomosis instead of two and if they still look confused I tell them it’s not exactly but kinda like a bypass and a sleeve combined. But obviously I need the person putting a camera in there to understand better than that. I think you will be very pleased with your results from either one but another thing to consider is if you have a complication or need revision to the SADI how many doctors are able to operate on you. My surgeon told me that if I had a complication he would stabilize me but he would send me to a nearby hospital if I needed any type of revision. I appreciated that he was willing to admit his limits and I was okay with that but I guess it is a risk you may want to ask about. Your surgeon may very well have done lots of these but mine had not. Also, not a lot of doctors will do a revision to the SADI just because of regain. You would be more likely to find someone to revise a bypass. Not that we are hoping to need a third surgery but obesity is complex and a lifelong struggle so it’s something to think about. I wish you the best of luck. And hope to hear about your surgery date soon.

Also, from my understanding the SADI and SIPS are the same procedure. Just different names and the S after SADI is for sleeve as in when it’s done as a virgin surgery and they do the sleeve at the same time. People seem to use the names interchangeably so it was very confusing to me in my research but hopefully I got it right and hopefully that helps you when you are doing your due diligence. ❤️

Yes that does help. Thanks for clarifying!

It is genuinely common for one GLP-1 to do little while another works well for the same person - the 'Ozempic did nothing but Mounjaro worked' pattern comes up a lot, and it is not in your head. Part of it is mechanism: Wegovy and Ozempic are semaglutide (GLP-1 only), while Mounjaro and Zepbound are tirzepatide, which adds the GIP receptor and tends to produce larger average responses in trials such as SURPASS-2.

Dose and how long you have been at a given dose matter too, since these are stepped up slowly. That said, 'works on average in a trial' and 'works for me' are not the same thing, and any switching or dose decision is really for your prescriber, especially with insurance in the mix.

If you want to understand how the different options compare before that conversation, Peptides.io has a plain-English guide to the type 2 medications.

Disclosure: I work with Peptides.io.