I’ve been a registered nurse for greater than thirty years. I’m additionally a bariatric surgical procedure affected person and a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) person.
I assumed that mixture would put me in a very good place once I began remedy. I understood medicines and opposed results. I knew hydration, vitamin, and sustaining energy mattered, and that success couldn’t be measured solely by the size. Even so, I discovered myself working issues out as I went alongside.
That bothered me, as a result of I stored fascinated about the individual beginning the identical remedy with out a scientific background. If I used to be having to cease and consider carefully about what my physique wanted, what was taking place to individuals who had by no means been taught any of this?
The prescription advised me what remedy I used to be taking and learn how to take it. It didn’t inform me what it might truly be wish to stay with the adjustments the remedy produced.
GLP-1 medicines have gotten a part of on a regular basis well being care. In a KFF ballot revealed in November 2025, 12 % of U.S. adults (about one in eight) stated they had been at the moment taking a GLP-1 remedy for weight reduction, diabetes, or one other persistent situation.
A lot of the general public dialog nonetheless concentrates on whether or not these medicines work. For many individuals, they clearly do. I believe we additionally must ask what assist somebody wants whereas taking them.
When my very own urge for food modified, I realized that there’s a appreciable distinction between realizing clinically that lowered urge for food is an anticipated impact and really dwelling with little or no curiosity in meals. For somebody who has spent years combating starvation or persistent ideas about meals, that change can really feel extraordinary. It could actually really feel like reduction.
However the physique nonetheless wants nourishment even when the need to eat has change into quiet. There have been occasions once I needed to be way more deliberate about whether or not I had eaten sufficient, drunk sufficient, or taken in sufficient protein. I had to concentrate to constipation and different unwanted side effects quite than merely accepting them as the value of remedy. I additionally started pondering otherwise about starvation itself.
If somebody has spent years believing that starvation is the enemy, what occurs when it largely disappears? What occurs emotionally if it later returns? Does regular starvation start to really feel like proof that the remedy, or the individual, has failed? These aren’t questions each affected person will battle with, however they’re value discussing earlier than somebody encounters them alone.
Analysis is starting to point out how complicated this space is. A 2026 systematic evaluate and meta-analysis of 25 randomized managed trials involving 8,069 individuals discovered reductions in binge-eating-related behaviors, loss-of-control consuming, and emotional consuming amongst folks receiving GLP-1 receptor agonists. The findings are fascinating however shouldn’t be overstated. Most included trials had a excessive danger of bias, and few particularly recruited folks with a scientific prognosis of binge-eating dysfunction.
We additionally know that stopping remedy may be tough. Within the STEP 1 trial extension, individuals who stopped semaglutide regained, on common, about two-thirds of the burden they’d beforehand misplaced throughout the next yr. I don’t see that as proof that the remedy failed. It’s proof that weight problems is a persistent situation and that sufferers want life like conversations about what persevering with, altering, or stopping remedy could imply.
Physique composition deserves the identical care. Some scientific trials of GLP-1-based therapies have reported reductions in lean mass throughout weight reduction, though the quantity varies significantly between research. That’s another excuse to look past the size and discuss vitamin, bodily perform, and sustaining energy.
None of this implies prescribers are failing their sufferers. In lots of settings, clinicians are already attempting to cowl dosage, titration, opposed results, comorbidities, remedy interactions, monitoring, price, and follow-up in a brief session.
Then the affected person goes residence and has to stay the opposite 167 hours of that week.
That’s the a part of GLP-1 care I believe we’ve got underestimated. A affected person may be shedding pounds efficiently and nonetheless be questioning whether or not they’re consuming sufficient. They might not know whether or not persistent nausea needs to be reported or just tolerated. They might really feel weaker. Constipation could go on longer than it ought to. A plateau can really feel like proof that the remedy has stopped working. Starvation returning may be scary when no one has defined that urge for food can change over time.
More and more, sufferers flip to social media for solutions. Different folks’s experiences may be helpful, however TikTok movies, Fb teams, industrial weight-loss promoting, and feedback from strangers can not substitute for sound affected person training. Individuals must know what they’ll fairly handle themselves, what needs to be mentioned with their clinician, and what requires immediate medical consideration.
My very own expertise finally led me to create Physique Compass. I didn’t create it as a result of I consider GLP-1 medicines are unsafe or as a result of I need to persuade folks to not take them. I created it as a result of, regardless of my scientific background, I used to be struck by how a lot of the day-to-day expertise of remedy sat exterior the prescription. I stored fascinated about the individual with out that background attempting to make the identical selections alone.
As GLP-1 prescribing expands, affected person training has to develop with it. Individuals want life like steerage about vitamin and hydration, sustaining energy, bowel well being, unwanted side effects, altering urge for food, plateaus, and what could occur when remedy is lowered, modified, or stopped. Some will want a dietitian, psychological assist, or specialist medical care. Others might have good data, wise expectations, and a transparent route again to their clinician when one thing adjustments. We must always not confuse entry to a medicine with an entire mannequin of care.
GLP-1 medicines have modified what is feasible in weight problems and metabolic remedy. The subsequent job is much less dramatic however simply as necessary: ensuring folks know learn how to stay safely and realistically with the remedy they’ve been prescribed.
A prescription can start remedy. It can’t be the one plan.
Patience C. Ennis is a registered nurse, writer, Outcomes Coach, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) person, and the founding father of Body Compass, an training and navigation platform for folks dwelling with, contemplating, or shifting past GLP-1 remedy. A graduate of King’s Faculty London, she attracts on greater than three many years of scientific expertise throughout emergency, neighborhood, palliative, and aged care, bringing collectively scientific information, lived expertise, and affected person training to handle the questions that usually sit past the prescription.
By Physique Compass, she develops evidence-informed assets, books, sensible instruments, information updates, and non-clinical teaching assist designed to assist folks perceive altering urge for food, unwanted side effects, energy, meals noise, remedy adaptation, upkeep, and stopping. Her work is grounded in readability, dignity, and trustworthy interpretation of proof, with out hype, disgrace, or false certainty. Her goal is to not inform folks what to resolve, however to assist them perceive the terrain, ask higher questions, and navigate metabolic well being with better confidence in on a regular basis life and care.
She is the writer of A Body Compass Book: When GLP-1 Feels Different (2026), out there on Amazon and thru Physique Compass. She shares updates on LinkedIn, Facebook, the Body Compass Facebook page, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube.
