From the other side of the consultation, briefly.

One year anniversary on mental health — reflections:

What I wish I'd known: the side effects are temporary, the benefits compound over time, protein is more important than I thought, and the mental health aspect needs as much attention as the physical.

What surprised me: how much my relationship with food changed, the cascade of health improvements beyond weight, and how supportive this community is.

What I'd do differently: start therapy earlier, prioritize resistance training from day 1, and stop comparing my progress to others. Everyone's journey is unique.

Dr.MetabolicMD said:

One year anniversary on mental health — reflections: What I wish I'd known: the side effects are temporary, the benefits compound over time, protein…

Can confirm. Same sequence, different timescale.

Dr.MetabolicMD said:

One year anniversary on mental health — reflections: What I wish I'd known: the side effects are temporary, the benefits compound over time, protein…

Mood changes on mental health: I want to be transparent — I went through a rough patch emotionally around month 3. Not depression exactly, but a weird flatness. Food was my main coping mechanism and without that, I had to develop new ones.

Therapy has been essential. I'd strongly recommend anyone starting GLP-1 therapy also invest in mental health support. The physical transformation is only half the journey.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. The boring version of this is the one that works, and the boring version is: measure a baseline, change one variable, wait, measure again under the same conditions. Nobody wants that answer and it is still the answer.

Moderator note: a couple of off-topic posts removed. No action needed from anybody.