I used to carry the same concerns many people do about GLP-1 medications.
They felt like a shortcut. A way around discipline. Something people turned to when they didn’t want to do the work.
I believed that until my own body stopped responding to the work I had been doing for years.
I was eating well. I was moving regularly. I paid attention to sleep, stress, and nutrition. And still, my weight rose slowly and steadily. Not dramatically. Just enough to feel discouraging and confusing.
If you live with immune disease, this pattern may sound familiar. You do the right things, and your body behaves as if it never received the message.
What I didn’t understand then
We all rely on gut hormones called GLP-1 and GIP to regulate hunger, blood sugar, and energy use. In a healthy system, these hormones signal when we are full, how glucose should be handled, and whether energy should be stored or released.
They are not diet hormones.
They are part of basic metabolic communication.
With chronic immune disease, prolonged stress, or the changes that come with aging, that communication can break down.
Ongoing inflammation interferes with hormonal responsiveness. The body may still produce GLP-1 and GIP, but receptors stop responding effectively. Hunger arrives earlier. Fullness arrives later. Weight becomes easier to gain and harder to lose, even when behavior hasn’t changed.
This is not about willpower.
It’s about a muted signal.
What my doctor explained
When my doctor suggested a GLP-1/GIP medication, she didn’t frame it as a weight loss drug. She explained that it could help restore responsiveness to hormones my body was no longer hearing, and that these same pathways are also involved in regulating inflammation.
That was the missing piece for me.
These medications don’t introduce something foreign. They amplify hormones the body already makes, allowing the signal to land again. For someone living with immune disease, that can mean two things happening at once:
- Metabolic signals normalize
- Inflammatory load decreases
That combination matters.
My Experience
For me, this has been all reward. I’m losing weight without struggle.
The food noise that once dominated my thoughts is gone.
And the inflammation tied to my immune condition is easing.
Nothing feels forced. Everything feels supportive.
All wins. All gratitude.
A wider view
For some of us, this isn’t about weight loss alone. It’s about restoring balance in a body shaped by illness, stress, or aging.
We don’t always see the conditions that shape another person’s choices. May my experience invite each of us to soften our judgments and meet one another with greater compassion and understanding.
Jan
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