1 YEAR on the LOWEST DOSE of ZEPBOUND?? The return of food noise / weightloss before and after /glp1

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]one year on a GLP1. What's happened to me? Ups and downs, how I'm feeling now.

[00:00:06]And will I continue the medication? I don't know. So, let's get into it.

[00:00:13]Hello friends. My name's Kristen and for the past year, I have been using Zepbound to lose weight. Well, it's more like maintain my weight now because I'm done losing weight. I never took a compounded version. I've always just taken the brand name because I'm really like >> scared.

[00:00:28]>> Compounded versions. even though I shouldn't be. There's plenty of people that do well on them. I just am a little paranoid, you know? Not that the name brand couldn't have its problems, you know what I mean? I started this in April last year, and it's my 1-year anniversary, and quite a bit has changed since then. I lost weight. I found out who people really are around me. I found out that people's contempt can go really deep. I haven't made a monthly update in a while because I feel like I wasn't losing any more weight, so I didn't have much to update. But let's talk weight loss stats from 1 year ago to now. So in April 2025, I weighed 205 lbs. That's not the highest I've ever been. I was stuck at that weight for like 2 years. I lost 10 lbs and then I was stuck there.

[00:01:14]And I couldn't, no matter what I did, get below that. And as of today, April 2026. I know I'm releasing this in May, but it takes me a while to edit stuff. I am 153.

[00:01:27]As soon as I hit 155, I was like, I don't want to lose any more weight or I will start looking like Skeletor, you know, and like I said before, not my dream, you know, for me personally, maybe somebody else's. And I feel like I didn't heed my own advice and I lost a ton of muscle and exercise is something I'm currently working on. And uh I never ever thought that I'd be here talking to people online about it. But I'm grateful for every single one of you that have been with me the whole time or if you're just joining me. Like it's been so good to have you all to talk to because in my real life a people are sick of hearing about it. I don't care. I'm going to talk. I don't care. I'm going to talk anyway. This is Bing Bong. Everyone um our neighbors moved away and dumped her outside about 2 years ago. She lives here now. Bingy, you're on camera. When we took in this cat, she was laying on the porch like this.

[00:02:20]How could I say no to that? How could I?

[00:02:22]Bingy, what's your opinion?

[00:02:27]In April of last year, I was desperate.

[00:02:29]I was addicted to food. Full-blown binge eater for the past since I was 8 years old, so 31 years. I had no self-control.

[00:02:39]I just thought about food constantly.

[00:02:41]And in the past year, my relationship with food has changed quite a bit. But I will be honest, when I got to my maintenance weight, okay, when I got there, I started eating the way I used to. Now, not as much, but I stopped focusing on my protein. I stopped caring about my fiber. I just got really wrapped up and busy. And I know I say this all the time. I run a separate channel and I don't even have that many followers on there, but we make a huge effort to make really good content over there. Actually, I'm going on an Alaskan cruise on Friday and I'm very excited.

[00:03:11]You know what's funny? I said I wanted to see a whale. Off topic, I know. I was I was telling this guy, I work at the airport and I was telling this guy I wanted to see a whale and he's like lives in Maine and he's like, "Yeah, I've seen whales." He's like, "They're beautiful and majestic when they breach, but when they open their mouth, their breath smells like a dead body." I was like, "Oh my god, I you know what? I've never thought of whale breath ever."

[00:03:32]Have you Have you thought of a whale's breath? Have you smelled a whale's breath? Drop a whale emoji down below.

[00:03:36]So, for years we've been going on these trips is a fun channel to do. I like traveling, but I did pick up a lot of weight traveling and cruising and stuff, and that's my fault. But putting a binge eater on a freaking putting a binge eater on a cruise ship is like the worst thing because it's like like on the Disney ship, they had edible straws, right? And they tasted like chocolate or lime. Nothing strong.

[00:04:00]I would leave the the buffet and I would go ask for a chocolate three or four chocolate straws like and then I'd go straight to the ice cream machine and have unlimited self-s served ice cream and like it's the worst place for someone. And I would do this secretly. I would sneak I would my boyfriend would take a nap in the middle of the day. I would sneak out of my cabin. So the food on the cruises has been a real interruption. And we've been to Disney World a bunch of times and we've been to tiki bars. We just did a really cool tiki bar speak easy. And like every single one of these trips I'm like not working out. I'm I'm eating a lot. So like the past year I was doing really well with the food portion of it until about 7 months in. I am on the lowest dose still 2.5 milligrams. Okay, just so you know. So I've been on 2.5 this whole time. I I probably should have moved up to five when I started thinking about food again. And that's what I tell other people. But I don't have any more weight to lose. This is a maintenance dose for me. And I learned unfortunately that I can eat whatever I want pretty much, just not as much as I want and still maintain my weight. So I think that's unfortunate because I really did want to make some real health changes and health strides, especially since this year I will be turning 40 and I know that aging accelerates after 40 or your hormonal levels depends on your genetics and stuff but you know I know the acceleration um begins and like your health really really matters. So, you know, I have been consistently working out the past 2 months is what I'll say.

[00:05:24]Have I built any muscle? No. Because I lost so much muscle. I had to start from square one. And I'm back down to like 10 lb dumbbells instead of like 20. But you got to start somewhere. I lost the weight by staying in a calorie deficit and doing refeeds. And I've discussed refeeds in another video. In a couple of my videos, I I maintained the same calories for a really long time, fluctuating when I would go on trips. I never gained any weight on the trips except for my first cruise I did put on two pounds but it came right off as soon as I got home. So it was like it was nothing. But my relationship with food now is so different. I didn't realize before and I think I've mentioned this how much I was using food to entertain myself and how much we use food to entertain ourselves. Like when you go to see a movie you're think you're looking forward to the popcorn but for someone like me it's like I will eat two buckets of popcorn before the movie even begins.

[00:06:13]You know what I mean? I've noticed myself being able to eat a lot more and getting donuts every time I'm at Trader Joe's. They have these delicious sour cream donuts. I eat about half of a donut out of the six-pack. I'm still within my calories. Is it the healthiest thing in the world? No. But, you know, it's a problem I must address. So, the pros of being on a GLP1 and the pros of this after this entire year is that I feel differently about food. I don't feel as tired, I think, because my blood sugar is being controlled. I don't feel as bad about myself. I don't feel guilty anymore for eating. And the psychological aspect is a thing people forget. I posted like a short the other day, like a before and after short said me with $3,600, me without. That's about the year's cost I've spent on probably more than that with the doctor fees and everything. But it's a little trend going around, so I thought I'd jump on.

[00:07:01]This person says, "You can go outside and exercise for free, by the way." I'm like, "Thanks, babe. I'll keep that in mind for next time." It's just the lack of like understanding, especially really young people because it's really easy for them to lose weight, understand what they're thinking, but they just don't know. If they're not addicted to food, they don't know. And who knows, they might not like themselves very much either, and then they project the disgust they feel. Maybe it was really hard for them to lose weight and they worked really hard and they did it, which is still a possible, by the way.

[00:07:28]But for someone like me who has an addiction and a real problem, obsessive problem with eating, I think that it's great. I think the JLP1's awesome. You know, I it's really changed my life for the better and improved my quality of life, you know, and I and I say it since and I've said it since the beginning.

[00:07:45]How much does someone have to suffer before they're allowed to ask for help?

[00:07:48]You know what I mean? Even someone like me where people thought I wasn't fat enough to take it even though I had high cholesterol and everything like that.

[00:07:56]So, another pro is that it did drop my cholesterol from 214 to 177. I haven't gotten my blood drawn since then and I definitely need to cuz I would like to see where that number is at now. I have been eating French fries again at work pretty consistently. Like I said, not proud of myself, but something I would like to work on in the coming year, you know. Um, some side effects I've experienced on the medication. Um, a lot of digestive issues for me over time, but to be honest, I had digestive issues before that started. I had a problem with like pretty consistent diarrhea um, for years. I have been checked out. They offered me a medication to slow it down years ago. I don't know what they were going to offer me, but I got too scared and I didn't take it. But the GLP1 does slow your digestion down and that has helped me with that tremendously. But if I eat too many greasy foods, if I eat too many sweets, things like that, which I started eating about 2 months ago, I've been pretty consistently eating.

[00:08:48]I've been the salty sweet cycle where you eat something salty and something sweet, which is something I got out of before, but now I'm back in it. I don't know how that happened. I'll get really constipated and then I'll have really painful gas pain that like is up to here to here where I have to like lay down like it's and then I'll have like an explosion. So like if I'm not careful about what I eat on the GLP1 I've noticed that will happen. So I I mostly just like I said a couple months ago the foods I normally eat um I eat a Barbell's bar every couple days. I'll have cottage cheese a lot. Um eggs, things like that. Um, I did post a video about what foods I ate and what I eat on repeat. Lately, I have not been caring as much, unfortunately. But when I get back from my cruise in Alaska, I would like to work on that. For now, I don't want to go on vacation thinking about all the ways that I could lose weight or maintain my weight. I hate that. I've spent way too many vacations like that.

[00:09:44]So, I'm not doing that anymore. Okay.

[00:09:46]Other side effects. I've been pretty good. I mean, like, I thought I had a little bit of hair loss from losing weight so quickly. I wish that I wouldn't have lost weight so fast. Like if of course it feels awesome to lose weight, but like I wish my weight loss went a little slower. I feel like mine just went like like like like crazy. My hair is growing back. See, I got some little some little regrowth there. My younger sister, who I talk about frequently on here, she's lost 80 lbs now. I think she was she's in the one 179 and she said she hasn't seen that number since she was 20 years old. She is 33. So, you know, she's pretty happy about that. The weight is going very fast for her as well, and it's a lot, you know, but she's on the 7.5 milligram now. She's still she's very short, so she has probably another 50 lbs to lose in her opinion, but you never know until you get down to that number. I don't hide myself anymore. I don't I don't know if that's a symptom of getting older, but like I wear less makeup now.

[00:10:43]I'm not as like when I was really young and really heavy. Probably weighed like 200 lb when I was like 19. I was dating someone. And I made sure that I had my lashes on and my hair done every single day. I was like a rockabilly pinup look.

[00:10:56]And back when I had more energy to do those things, I made sure I did this every day. It probably take me two hours to get ready. I did that for work. I did that everywhere I went. I like had the little tiny bangs, you know what I mean?

[00:11:07]I thought I looked good, but in retrospect, like I was just hiding, you know? And I don't hide anymore. I don't try to hide my weight anymore. Um, that's a really good feeling. something I'll have to work on if I ever gain weight again in life. Never say never, folks. Okay, so some cons of being on the medication is how expensive it is still. Um, I still pay out of pocket. I have Kaiser insurance and they will never cover that sort of thing. So, um, yeah, still pay $300 a month. When I first started it was $3.49, but now it's they've lowered it to 300. I still say when Red True Tide comes out that they're going to lower the price. I hope they do. I was even considering maybe just taking the pill instead. Um, but I only take the shot every two weeks now, which would explain why I'm experiencing food noise because I'm letting the medication kind of wear off before I take it again. But I'm not trying to lose any more weight. And for some reason, even on this low dose, it's like I'm going to lose weight either way.

[00:12:00]I've talked about this before on new types of body dysmorphia. I did in the end lately have been developing crepey, I guess, skin, you know, and my my tatas have shrunk significantly. And, you know, that's all part of it though.

[00:12:14]anyone who's been really big or I've stretched out my skin multiple times in life, not even having children or anything, you know, and that's just the side effect of it. Uh my legs are a lot smaller than they used to be. Um I am trying I have been better about embracing what I look like now and just working out um without such a expectation for how I look. I think that as you get a little older, you don't not that you don't care how you look, but it's like the reason why you do certain things changes. You have let go of some vanity. Like I like wearing makeup. I like doing all that. I look like death without makeup where people are like, "Are you sick?" Um, you know, I I enjoy wearing makeup. I enjoy hair stuff. I like all that stuff, but, you know, I've let go of some of the things that I really cared about before, you know. Now I'm just kind of into my into my own era, you know. But when I was bigger or when I was younger, I felt like I always had to look perfect because I was so scared people thought I was like a slob or I was gross or I was dirty, you know.

[00:13:09]I used to have really messed up teeth, but I was in an accident when I was young. I knocked out my front teeth. I had they gave me replacements and they were literally green. And my family did not have the money to, you know, get them changed out. I It took me a decade and then $20,000 to get my teeth fully restored pretty much. So, like, and I was in my 20s when that happened. So, I was bullied quite a bit for not only my weight and my personality, but also my teeth. Um, and so I always felt like with my teeth looking that way, I always felt like the rest of me had to look perfect. And being fat was kind of ruining that for me, too, because I was just so scared of what everybody thought, you know? When you're young, you want to be like hot. You're a piece of art. You're the main character. But like, I don't know. I just don't I that's not what I now I just want to feel comfortable. And I do feel a lot more comfortable now that I've lost weight. The GLP1 helped me with that a ton and has changed my life. asked myself, have I really changed all that much even in the past year? Am I still using food because I'm bored? I've been eating a lot less meals lately. In the beginning, I preached about eating meals and no snacks, you know? But lately, I've just been so lazy with cooking.

[00:14:16]I've been so busy. I work 10 hours a day. I don't want to cook. I just don't.

[00:14:21]And I've said that a bunch of times, but I haven't even been eating the frozen meals I was eating before lately. I've just been eating, you know, just snacks.

[00:14:28]Like I'll have a protein bar and like a donut or like something within like my I don't count my calories anymore either cuz I was staying I'm in maintenance right now. So like I stopped counting my calories. I stopped doing everything and I kind of fell into a little bit of like a depressive episode I guess. I don't know where I didn't want to do anything.

[00:14:45]I felt a little numb. I didn't want to do anything. But I think that's just because I was feeling low cuz of other things. You know what I mean? So therefore the first thing I do when I'm feeling that way is neglect myself. And that's exactly what I've I've done. Now, some people say on the GLP1 they are inclined to eat healthier on it. Um where they say they want they crave more fruits and vegetables. It is true that junk food does not hit the same. That is definitely true. It doesn't taste the same. It's not as good. Okay. It's not making you feel like yes, it's true that you will be more inclined to eat more fruits and vegetables. If you stay on the low dose though, over time you might start to experience what I'm experiencing, which is you just want to eat again. I've been wanting to eat a lot more. I've also been hungrier because I started strength training, like I said. Okay, so my camera died, so this might look a bit different. Anyway, so yeah, I've been feeling a little bit like a failure lately, but I haven't failed. I haven't gained weight back, but I haven't changed enough to feel like I'm doing what I was what I set out to do, what I was supposed to do. But when I was talking about judgment from others, um almost all the women at my work are now on the GLP one. You know, I don't see many men on it in my own personal life.

[00:15:54]I don't see many guys taking it. If they are, they're not talking about it. Not at all. Um I feel like there's been a huge cultural shift in the past year where people are becoming less um upset about it. My co-workers have have lightened up on me a ton with it all.

[00:16:10]They stop believing all the myths about it. You know, like even when I stop talking to them about it and now if I do talk about it though, they I've been labeled annoying and I shouldn't. But I talk about things at nauseium. That's why I'm on YouTube chatting away. Okay, that's why cuz I everyone in my real life is like, you know, I don't want to hear it anymore. Shut the hell up. And you know, that's just how it is. Just offended. It's fine. You just learn that who you can and cannot talk to about certain things. Nobody's accusing me of injecting lizard venom anymore like they were in my I think I said that in my 3mon video. Or my co-workers thought I was just taking lizard venom and injecting straight into my veins. Okay.

[00:16:47]I think if I were to start over and do this all again, I don't know what I would change because real change takes time. I don't know like if I could have started anywhere. I was so desperate in the beginning and so scared and I don't know. I did everything I was supposed to do except for work out consistently. So like maybe that's what I'd change. I'd probably exercise more. But how realistic was that at the time? I was probably just busy. But you got to make time. There never is enough time. You have to make time, you know? I think that's the one thing I would change. I probably wouldn't get so down on myself.

[00:17:17]Um, you know, I don't like that I look older now a by a little bit. Like, I talk about that in my life after weight loss video, which I'll be posting soon.

[00:17:24]You know what I would do? I would drink more water. I would drink so much more water. I definitely would. I'm so bad about that. I'm so bad about drinking water. And I'd probably eat less French fries just for my own health. But my life has changed a lot. But it's not all like sunflowers and roses and butterflies. It's It's been a mix. It's been a little complicated for me. Um, and I know it probably sounds really trivial and stupid, and it is, but uh, everyone is going through their own varying degrees of pain and suffering, no matter what that is. Bing bong, she finally came. Hello, Bing Bong. She finally showed her face. Um, everyone's going through their own varying degrees of suffering. And I just want you to know that you're not alone out there. If you felt alone, you all have made me feel less alone. And I'm definitely grateful for that. I couldn't thank you enough for being so supportive and so so supportive and uh so fun. A lot of you are are so hilarious. I've loved hearing all your stories. If you want to tell me your GLP1 story, if you're thinking about starting a GLP1, drop that down in the comments below. If you made it this far into the video, post a whale anyway, even if it doesn't have to do with whale breath. Okay. Also want to thank me for, you know, loving myself enough to do this. Um it's not I did this out of love, not out of hate. In the past, I've made so many decisions because I hated myself and I was seeking something validation. You know, a lot of people talk about having high self-esteem, but they don't talk about what life is like if you don't have any self-esteem. Like, they're like, they don't know what happens to you when you don't the things that you do when you don't have any. And like I don't know, this is all just a mess, isn't it? This is all a mess, guys. That's how you end up in this. But my life has been a lot easier the past year. I can sit on a plane. I can get in the plane bathroom a lot easier. where I can wear basically whatever clothes I want. I am like because my skin's a little loose. Some younger styles, the way they're cut, I can't really get down with, you know, younger styles. Those young folks, I'm ready to go cut a rug, but I can't find a shirt that isn't a belly shirt that I actually like.

[00:19:23]I also want to say that there's like no end to this. Like, it's just a constant neverending, you know, thing. I It'll eb and flow.

[00:19:33]So, what if I didn't do everything I was supposed to do in this period of time?

[00:19:37]But it could get better as long as I keep everything in check. You know what I mean? Thank you so much, everyone. I want to do more. Let me know what you'd like to see from me, if anything. If not, I'll just surprise you. Um, and try and keep it light as I normally do. So, thank you so much. I love you guys. Drop that whale and, you know, tell me about yourself. Bye-bye. I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.