Woman loses 104 pounds after bariatric surgery [Beuzz]

• Nika Steward lost 100 pounds after undergoing bariatric surgery, but regained weight and more.
• She started taking semaglutide, a weight-loss drug, and lost 104 pounds in nine months.
• Steward said it made him feel better than the operation ever did.

Danika (AKA Nika) Steward started taking semaglutide, a new weight-loss drug to prove to her husband that it wouldn’t work.

“I haven’t proven that point,” the 39-year-old, who lost more than 100 pounds, told Insider.

Steward, who lives in suburban Raleigh, North Carolina, has struggled with her weight all her life but lost 100 pounds after undergoing gastric bypass surgery 20 years ago. But she recovered it all in the years that followed and gained an additional 70 pounds after having her third child. Her family history of type 2 diabetes, which is closely associated with obesity, is a big part of why she wants to lose weight and keep it off.

Steward had lost and gained weight on various diets over the years and had reached the point where she wanted to get her gastric bypass surgery revised, which is designed to help people who regained weight after the initial procedure.

But she decided to try semaglutide after her husband told her about new weight-loss drugs. Semaglutide was originally designed as a diabetes drug and sold as Ozempic, but was approved for weight loss by the FDA in 2021 as Wegovy. It became so popular that there were once-a-week outlet shortages.

Steward is among the users who have shared their drug experiences with Insider.

In June 2022, Steward’s doctor prescribed her the drug, which is covered by her husband’s health insurance.

“It ended up being a smash hit and made me feel better than ever, even after having gastric bypass surgery,” Steward said. But she knows that her access can be at mercy of insurers in the future.

The “food noise” in Steward’s head is gone

Steward lost 104 pounds in the first nine months of treatment.

The dose is slowly increased until a person reaches 2.4 milligrams per week. At first, when the dose was low, the effects were slow, Steward said, and for the first few months she tracked her calories and macros.

Side effects of semaglutide can include nausea, diarrhea, and dry mouth, but Steward was hit hardest by constipation, which cropped up each time she increased her dose, as well as by mild episodes of nausea.

But the biggest change for Steward — and the one that didn’t happen with gastric bypass — was the “food noise” in his brain turning off.

“I didn’t even realize I had such eating disorders until I started this medication,” Steward said. She is no longer obsessed with what she is going to eat or feels guilty about what she ate, and instead eats intuitively.

“It changed my life,” Steward said.

After taking the drug for almost a year, it’s hard for Steward to tell if she still enjoys the food, as it always came with a side of guilt. She still looks forward to coffee every day and has occasional cravings, but overall she thinks she is enjoying eating less than she used to.

“I eat to live instead of live to eat,” Steward said.

Nika Steward’s appetite is now ‘almost non-existent’

Steward thinks she eats about 1,000 calories a day (half the recommended amount for adult women), and that’s because she’s making a conscious effort to eat, she said. She takes a protein bar in the morning because otherwise she will forget to eat, a protein drink in the middle of the day, and whatever his family eats for dinner. Extremely low calorie diets, whether a person is hungry or not, can lead to malnutrition and deficiencies Nutrition and Dietetics Academy.

Sometimes Steward decides to eat something just because it looks good, but is satisfied after a bite or two. Semaglutide has created a “kill switch” that didn’t exist before, she said.

Steward’s confidence has skyrocketed since losing weight

Steward has a lot more energy than before and is now able to walk up and down stairs and work hard for her business, she said.

Her self-confidence skyrocketed, although she said she struggled with body dysmorphia and found it hard to identify with her new body after spending most of her life overweight, he said. she declared.

Steward doesn’t want to lose too much weight and has accepted that she can be on semaglutide for life as patients resume when they stop taking the drug.

“I would rather be on medication for the rest of my life than have the struggles I’ve had and the impending health issues,” she said.