Liraglutide GI side effects hitting harder in week 2, normal?

Question

Hoping someone here has been through this. I started liraglutide about 2 weeks ago, ramping up slow like the standard schedule, and the nausea has gotten noticeably worse the past few days. I expected some queasiness honestly, but this is more like, I don't want to look at food, and when I do eat, I feel kinda punished after. Mostly afternoons and evenings are the worst. I am hydrating, eating smaller meals, avoiding greasy stuff, all the usual stuff people say. The weird thing is my appetite suppression seems to be working great, almost too well. I had to remind myself to eat dinner last night which has never been a problem in my life lol. Is this just the typical "your body is adjusting" phase, or did anyone find it got bad enough to back off? I have seen people mention splitting the dose or backing down for a bit. Curious what others actually did that helped, vs what the pamphlet tells you. Not looking for medical advice, just real experiences from people who pushed through it or didn't. Also did bloodwork change for anyone in the first month, anything I should keep an eye on? 🔬

quiet_ironman · Accepted Answer

Yeah the boring food thing is smart, I think I was still trying to eat "normal" portions and it was catching up to me in the afternoon. Gonna try keeping a little food log this week and see if anything jumps out, I never thought of actually writing it down vs just remembering. Splitting meals makes sense too, I've been doing three small ones but maybe spacing them out more would help. The "heavy and gross" feeling is exactly it, thank you for that, I thought I was being dramatic lol 🔬

greg208 · Answer

Not gonna lie the afternoons and evenings being worst is a pattern ive seen a lot of people mention with GLP1s, something about the slow gastric emptying catching up with whatever you ate earlier in the day. For me the smaller more frequent meals thing was the actual fix, not just a pamphlet line. If i ate the same calories in 5 sessions instead of 2 or 3 i felt about half as rough the next day. Bland stuff too, rice, eggs, that kind of thing until it passes. The too well appetite bit is real as well, you do have to remind yourself to eat or you end up wiped out by day 4. Id say give it another week at your current dose before you start thinking about backing off, since most people say week 3 is where it either levels out or doesnt. Worth getting bloods done around the 4 to 6 week mark just to see where things sit, especially if youre stacking anything else.

tyler_hikes · Answer

Yeah the afternoon crash thing tracks for me too, mornings were fine and evenings I just felt heavy and gross. Splitting meals up was the biggest difference by far, and I went pretty boring with food for a couple weeks. Also worth logging what you ate and how you felt after, helped me spot my triggers faster than just guessing. Hang in there.

quiet_ironman · Answer

Yeah the "remind myself to eat" thing is wild, I never thought that would be me lol. The 5 small meals idea makes sense, I have been doing like 2-3 and forcing dinner which is probably why evenings are brutal. I am gonna try spacing it out tomorrow and see if the afternoon crash eases up. How long did it take for you before the queasy feeling actually settled, like days or weeks?

Liraglutide GI side effects hitting harder in week 2, normal?

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