Madison Burgess had struggled with her weight for most of her life.
The 25-year-old hit roadblocks on the path to her goal of losing 50lbs, including a workout regimen that didn’t seem to be helping and a persistent sweet tooth that had her reaching for desserts more than she’d like.
Ms Burgess, a Michigan native, was considering bariatric surgery – a procedure that makes the stomach smaller and reduces how much a person can eat – in 2023 when Ozempic and similar drugs exploded in popularity.
In March 2023, she signed up with Claya, an online weight loss treatment platform, and met virtually with a doctor who prescribed her Ozempic, the groundbreaking diabetes drug given off-label to help people lose weight.
The injectable medication is given once every four weeks, and dosages start at 0.25 mg, typically increasing every four weeks, to be capped at 2 mg.
Ms Burgess started at the lowest dose and saw immediate positive results. Inflammation in her body went down, her appetite was quelled, and she lost five pounds in the first week.
Three months later her doctor increased her dosage to 1.7mg, standard procedure when the patient is acclimating well and could benefit from a boost.
But Ms Burgess began experiencing debilitating side effects, including nausea and severe stomach pain. She was vomiting and had occasional diarrhea or constipation.
Ms Burgess’ goal was to lose 50 lbs with the help of Ozempic. Since starting it in 2023, she has lost 60lbs
‘I realized this is not okay. This is not how I wanted to lose weight,’ she said.
That’s when she and her doctor discussed microdosing the drug – or taking less than the 0.25 mg starter dose, which she had tolerated with no side effects.
Since then, Ms Burgess has lost 60 lbs.
It’s not clear how many people have personalized their treatment to microdose, but for Ms Burgess it was a life-changing hack.
Dosages of Ozempic and similar drugs, including Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, are meant to be increased very gradually, roughly every four weeks.
Katie Sorensen, a nurse practitioner specializing in GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, who was not involved in Burgess’ treatment, told Parade: ‘The microdosing strategy has some attractive benefits, including helping to mitigate side effects and being able to customize the dose to the minimum efficacious dose for individual patients.’
The microdosing regimen has not been approved by the FDA, in part because ‘we would not be able to say for certain that a patient is reaping the full potential benefits of GLP-1 medications that have been shown in recent clinical trials,’ according to Ms Sorensen.
If individuals experience weight loss with small doses, it could be because they are what scientists refer to as ‘super responders.’
This term describes a specific group of people who achieve significant weight loss rapidly when taking these medications.
While studies have shown most people need to remain on semaglutide or a similar drug indefinitely in order to keep the weight off, it’s not clear if those rules apply to a microdose.
But research into the drug’s long-term effects is beginning to suggest that, regardless of dosage, a person must keep taking it because, while it suppresses appetite, it doesn’t permanently alter the metabolism.
Madison did not disclose the dosage she is currently taking, but she has not experienced any adverse side effects in the two years she’s been microdosing Ozempic.
Her appetite is back, but the food noise has abated.
She said: ‘I’m a big advocate now of microdosing. Going slow and staying low is my motto nowadays and I think it’s better for long-term results.
‘It’s been absolutely great.’
Ms Burgess began microdosing Ozempic when a higher dose made her sick
A UK study found that people who used Wegovy experienced rapid weight loss, dropping 18% of their weight over 68 weeks. They regained two-thirds of that weight, or 12 percent of their original body weight in the year after dropping the weekly shots
Seeing those first five pounds melt away motivated Ms Burgess to get the most out of her medication. Determined not to let her weight loss stall after lowering her dose, she also prioritized eating more fiber and protein.
She said: ‘You can’t think you can get on a GLP-1 medication and it’s going to completely change everything.
‘It’s just a tool. You need to create sustainable healthy habits to progress in the long run, especially if you eventually get off it.’
Many who stop taking the medications do regain some or all of the weight they lost and some people end up weighing more.
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A study last autumn found a majority of people who stopped taking semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic – regained about two-thirds of the weight loss and had worsening health markers, including higher blood pressure and cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease.
Approximately 12 percent of US adults report having ever used Ozempic or another similar medication for weight loss, while six percent indicated they were currently using the therapy.
Around 85 percent of people who had recently started medications like Ozempic discontinued use within two years, and 71 percent stopped within the first year, either because they had reached their goal weight or because the drugs were too expensive – with a price tag of approximately $1,000 monthly.
The shots have also been shown to raise the risk of life-altering and even deadly effects.
Experts have raised concerns about popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic potentially leading to blindness.
Research has connected these injections to conditions that trigger inflammation and restrict blood flow to the eye, resulting in severe and sometimes irreversible vision loss.
The medicines have also been shown to cause stomach paralysis, a condition where the stomach muscles don’t function properly, leading to delayed emptying of food into the small intestine, and ischemic colitis, a condition where reduced blood flow to the colon causes inflammation and injury to the intestinal lining.
A DailyMail.com investigation last year also revealed that at least 160 people have died while taking Ozempic. None of the deaths are proven to have been directly caused by the injections, but experts say the reports indicate cases where they’re suspected to have played a role.
