I hope everyone in the US is having a Happy Thanksgiving. I’m going with a lighter, less personal finance article this week. I didn’t want to dig into the details of all the things that I have to be thankful for and share them with a bunch of strangers. That’s kind of weird, right? Plus, if I were going to keep it to personal finance, I would simply say that I’m thankful the stock market hasn’t collapsed yet. What other economic news would you be thankful for this year?
Last year I wrote how to get cheap, generic GLP-1s. I had gone with Lavender Sky Health, which seemed to be the best price. They had a website that looked like my grandmother made it in 1994, but they partnered with top compounding pharmacies, so I didn’t mind. (They revamped the website, and it looks much more modern now.)
When I was just starting, it was around $136/mo. They now allow me to order in larger amounts, as my body has built up a resistance and isn’t just on the starter dose. My last order for generic semaglutide was for 25mg at $425. Typically, I use 1mg a week, so that works out to be $17/week ($425 divided by 25). That turns out to be around $900 a year or $75/month. It really is an amazing price. The pharmacy companies that make the name brands have lowered their prices a lot, but the cheapest seems to be $349/month.
I had expected that the generic, compounded ones would have been taken off the market by now. However, like nearly all things involving the US judicial system, the process is long and drawn-out. For once, it’s actually to my benefit, so I’ll take the win.
One Year GLP-1 Review
I’m 5’8″ tall, and I was at 191 pounds at the end of 2023. (All the numbers are using a monthly average of my Fitbit Aria scale.) A few days in there, probably after a meal and fully clothed, I was at 197 or so. That was enough for me to make the resolution to lose weight that no one keeps. Here’s how 2024 went:
I didn’t start taking the GLP-1 until November. That’s why this is a one-year review. Before that, I lost 10 pounds the traditional way of diet and exercise. However, you can see that I plateaued for five months starting in June. Then you see about a 3-pound loss in November and December. Here’s what 2025 looks like:
You can see that January was about 174 or so for another 3-pound loss. There was a big change in March when I didn’t bring the medicine with me on a two-week vacation. One week was a cruise with all-you-can-eat food. The extra weight didn’t factor in the charts until I got back and started weighing myself in April. The next two months brought me down to 171, which is where I’ve been. I have lost a little weight during the months that we aren’t on vacation, and then gain one or two pounds during the months we are on vacation. That brings us to this November. We went to Puerto Rico for a bit, and I’m sure that Thanksgiving will raise the numbers a bit again.
Final Analysis
It’s almost too perfect. I lost 10 pounds through diet and exercise, and another 10 pounds through medical innovation. I’ve purposely continued with the lower 1mg dosage because my BMI is 25.8. That’s still overweight, but I’m not in a race. I think the Average Joe would say I’m kind of crazy for taking semaglutide when it’s that close to the fit range.
The bigger change than losing weight is that I drink less. This is a common thing that people on semaglutide experience. That’s been a very good thing and probably helps my longevity more than losing the weight.
The other thing is that I feel like I finally have a modern science working for me rather than against me. It seems our lives get busier and busier. With less and less time, almost everyone is looking to take a shortcut. Unfortunately, that often means choosing ultraprocessed foods that are readily available, which have been designed to make people overeat. Maybe I’m crazy for justifying taking semaglutide that way, but I’ve been called crazy for a lot less.
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