It felt too good to be true.
After years of struggling with her weight, the pounds began to weigh on Susan Rice, 42, of Georgia.
He was prescribed compounded semaglutide, a cheaper, customized version of the active drug in Ozempic and Wegovy, in May 2022 and lost a staggering 64 pounds in six months.
But then he made a big mistake: he stopped injecting himself.
While compounded semaglutide is much cheaper ($500 compared to more than $1,000 for a month’s supply), insurance typically doesn’t cover it, so she paid out of pocket.
Rice also spent her savings on a $20,000 ‘mommy makeover’: a tummy tuck to hide sagging skin due to her rapid weight loss and breast implants.
So he reduced his dose after surgery and eventually forgot to take the appetite suppressant medication altogether.
She maintained her weight loss for a few months, but eventually started eating more and craved sugar and sweets.
While he had some semaglutide left over, the dose was too small to have any effect; his body had become accustomed to the previous dose, which he could no longer afford.
Over the next six months, Rice regained 26 pounds. Now he fears that it was all in vain.
Staci Rice, pictured above in 2022, said she could no longer stand coffee and only wanted water while taking compounded semaglutide.

Ms. Rice (pictured) lost 64 pounds with compounded semaglutide after using it for six months.
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To get back on track, Ms Rice took on a digital marketing “side job” in late 2024, on top of her regular 40-hour-a-week job to pay for the medication.
Mrs. Rice said, “I’m going to get back on track and get back to where I was.”
“But I hate that I ended up spending a good amount on a mommy makeover.”
lady rice said Business Insider Her “very stressful” jobs help her pay for the low maintenance dose of semaglutide she takes now, and she hopes to return to her ideal weight next month.
A 10-week supply costs you about $305, and you plan to take the medication long-term.
He feels guilty for causing his family such financial stress after spending $18,500 on his surgeries.
Looking back, she’s not sure she made the same decisions.
Still, she calls semaglutide a “miracle” drug and is still a fan of it, saying she will “always defend it.”
Weight regain after stopping semaglutide medications, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, originally approved to treat diabetes, is a common side effect.
The drug, for which demand has increased 300 percent since 2020, works by suppressing hormones involved in hunger, keeping you fuller longer.
About 12 percent of American adults report ever using a GLP-1 receptor agonist, while six percent indicated they were currently using the therapy.
Some experts have warned that those taking the drug must continue taking it for life or risk reaching a higher (and more harmful) weight than they started with.

A UK study found that people who used Wegovy experienced rapid weight loss, losing 18 percent of their weight in 68 weeks. They regained two-thirds of that weight, or 12 percent of their original body weight, in the year after stopping the weekly injections. Experts say the drug should be used throughout life to avoid weight loss


Artemis Bayandor, 41, of Illinois, says he now weighs about 20 pounds more than before using Wegovy. He lost 15 pounds while taking the medication for six months, but quickly gained all the weight and extra weight back.
A study last year found that most people who stopped taking semaglutide regained about two-thirds of the weight they lost and worse health markers, including higher blood pressure and cholesterol and an increased risk of heart disease.
And with the high discontinuation rate (about 85 percent of people stop using it within two years, and 71 percent stop within the first year), millions of people could be at risk of worse health and become obese.
Among these patients is 41-year-old Artemis Bayandor of Illinois, who was initially delighted to have lost 15 pounds with a six-month course of the drug in August 2021.
But just a month after quitting, he regained all the weight he’d lost and over the next few months gained another 20 pounds.
Another patient with a disappointing experience is Meredith Schorr, a nurse from Arizona who gained 50 pounds during the pandemic.
She was prescribed semaglutide and lost weight, but regained 10 pounds when she stopped taking the medication a year later.
Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, an obesity specialist and founder of a virtual health clinic specializing in these drugs, told Business Insider that weight regain is one of the biggest risks of stopping semaglutide and called for the drugs to be more affordable so that women people can take them for a long time. term.
He said: “Obesity is a chronic disease and these drugs work by helping people control their appetite and eating noise.”
‘The cost of these medications must be reduced. And if insurance doesn’t cover them, ideally the cost should be low enough that you can pay for them out of pocket. Medications are not a short-term solution. They are designed and used for the chronic disease of obesity.’