Ok let me begin by stating around March 2023 my shoulder was aching a little differently and went to see my massage therapist who suggested that my bursa was inflamed so yeah ok no worries. Then went to see my doctor who got me an ultra sound scan of my shoulder. And to add that I am not a medical practitioner and nothing in here should be considered medical advice and are only of my opinions.
After the ultra sound scan the report was as follows:
Right Shoulder Ultrasound Summary
Key findings include:
- Subacromial bursitis – fluid and swelling in the shoulder bursa, which can cause pain and restricted movement
- Calcific tendinitis – small calcium deposits within the rotator cuff tendons
- Moderate impingement – the tendons are being compressed during certain arm movements
Now after that result I just thought I had torn my rotator cuff and basically I stopped exercising as my main motivator for exercising was the push-ups, I had tried to start the exercises with different things but nothing actually got me more motivated in extending my exercise without the push ups.
The good news was because of the lifestyle changes and being conscious about eating, I was able to maintain my weight range of 102-104KG for over 2 years. Every now and then I would try to do push ups to get my exercise going again, however the pain of just doing the motion was not tolerable.
By April 2025, I had figured my shoulder pain wasn’t going away any time soon and at the time Ozempic or Semaglutide was trending as a GLP-1 agonist in maintaining weight, as well as other results like better lipid profiles such as HDL, LDL and triglycerides as well as Blood Glucose Levels.
I think by the time I wanted to use Ozempic my BGL reading was on its way up as its been over two years without active exercising and having higher BGL readings were concerning so it just made the case that Ozempic as a tool to help maintain my lifestyle and keep my blood in check was the right thing to do.
Anyways I never really got the side affects of nausea like most people did especially starting but the leaky gut, I like to call it explosive diarrhea, after the 2nd day of taking Ozempic was the main thing I had initially noticed then followed by no bowel movements for two, three days later then it was like giving birth pushing and using so much effect and exertions only to get two little plops into the toilet bowel.
Not as satisfying as you know eating like a bucket of KFC and bombing the toilet hard the next morning, you know that deep satisfaction.
So did the dosage as instructed I think it was 0.25mg per week initially for 4 weeks then was on 0.5mg for 6 weeks then increased to twice a week 0.5mg for about another 6 weeks then did 1mg for about 8 weeks
During this time, I had noticed that when eating food, your stomach will signal you to stop when your full. That’s fine if you listened to it, however, if you power through it, you can actually override the fullness signal and just continue to eat without any issues.
By this time, I had read that many stories that people were losing muscle mass while being on Ozempic and I personally attribute it to lower caloric intake, so your body would then use muscle to help maintain metabolism. Now I am not a medical professional, it just the logic that I was following. Because of this reason, I ensured that I ate at the consistent time as like previously during like during the lifestyle change phase.
By November I started doing 1mg twice a week. At this point I felt like Ozempic was not doing its job any more. The only things I had noticed now was nothing was satisfying, but also no cravings either, and my energy for life was dull.
By December I went to visit the Missus, had dodgy Chinese and yeah food poisoning wasnt part of the plan while being on the trip. At this point I had stopped Ozempic altogether, my weight was around 116KG.
Went back to Sydney for Christmas and my diarrhea just wouldnt stop, so I visited the local GP and the first thing as part of their initial checkup was to test my blood pressure, the nurse at the clinic freaked out as it was 220 over 180 and she measured it like 6 times using both arms. Told the GP about the food poisoning and he said it should pass as its just left over. Anyways he prescribed me 1000mg Metformin XR to get my BGL back down as I had stopped Ozempic and Candesartan 4mg to manage my blood pressure.
So over the course of the next 4 weeks my weight had dropped from 116KG to 112KG my blood pressure was coming down to 160-180 over 150-160s but the diarrhea still would not stop. Anyways frustrated with how my body was functioning, I just quit all medication well the full course of Candesartan was nearly done only had like 3 left and my BP wasnt really dramatically coming down anyways, stopped Metformin and started monitoring my calories, BGL and weight.
In the beginning of February 2026 and the help of ChatGPT, I started taking photos of my food and getting ChatGPT to measure the calories. I was averaging about 1400 calories a day to maintain my weight. Like eating a 200gram piece of porterhouse steak was hard to finish on its own for dinner.
Begin the research phase. So yes there has been claims that you do lose muscle while on Ozempic as well fat. I was unlucky and gained fat while losing muscle. Now even though I didnt use a DEXA scan and just used those electronic weight machines that kinda read your body fat, during my peak 3 years ago my body fat composition was about 23% and after Ozempic using the same machine, I was peaking at 34% body fat. So muscle loss and gaining body fat was undeniable.
Also during this phase, I started researching Basal Metabolic Rate and for someone like me I should be approximately 2000 calories per day just living. So when you take into consideration that while being off Ozempic and only manage to eat 1400 a day, which meant if I ate anything more than 1400 a day that would make me gain fat. So that solved why I gain fat.
By Loosing muscle mass and in aid with smaller portion meals because of Ozempic, constant calorie deficit had reduced my metabolic rate downwards and during this trend obviously the body BMR would start using muscle to help maintain my living metabolic rate. So this solved the muscle disappearing.
Based upon my research, the nutritional value that a male needs to have a minimum of 0.8-1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight to maintain muscle. If actively training this can be anywhere from 1.5-2.0 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight and well anything above that well didnt really go down that deep down the rabbit hole but I had read people can do as much as 5 grams of protein but yeah doing that much thats alot.
Now Ozempic or Semaglutide now opened the doors of Peptides because essentially Seamglutide is a peptide. This has lead me on to more research which like most peptides they are a receptor signaling thingamjig which by injecting it into your body your receptors will go oh yeah ok got the message I will start doing this to the body now.
In Ozempic’s case, Ozempic reduces the Ghrelin Hormone which makes you hungry and also reduces your Leptin which keeps you feeling full. I think I had explained these hormones in my previous posts, and is what I thought Ozempic as a tool would help with by controlling hormones. Now seeing that I started going down the deep end of peptides, the in thing now is Retatrutide which is a triple agonist or I like to say Ozempic Version 3, what happened to version 2? easy thats called Munjaro or Trizepitide. I will explain more in future post about Peptides. Anyways my conclusion with most signaling peptides, one needs to cycle through them otherwise your receptors will become desensitised.
Like 6 weeks after stopping Ozempic, I manage to feel full after eating, the signals coming from the stomach was coming loud and clear and easy to stop eating after that better than when on Ozempic. This helps with the case that using any peptides should be cycled so your receptors can once again be normalised and become less dependent on the peptides themselves.
As I had explained, this was my Ozempic journey, now that I’m more aware of what is required when using Ozempic (if I choose to use it again), I am now better position to handle it. So my advice is first and foremost do your complete blood work. Test for everything known to man if possible but at the minimum lipid profile, HBA1C, your Liver, inflammation CRP markers and kidneys.
You want to do this to test your before and after and would recommend it monthly if not quarterly when starting Ozempic or any peptides or diets or exercise. It like having a Dyno base map and you can figure out what you need to improve.