SASKATOON, Sask. - GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are more accessible to Canadians than ever before with generic brands available across the country.
Two Saskatchewan women are sharing their experiences – the good, the bad and the challenging – with the medications.
Chandra McMillan-Behrenz, 58, started taking weekly injections of a generic GLP-1 drug in June. Her doctor recommended the treatment to help with her fatty liver.
“I was always tired and always sluggish just because of the way insulin was or was not working in my body,” she told CTV News.
The Saskatoon resident said she noticed a difference “immediately” in the first week of treatment. “I am not having the after-lunch slump that I was going through before,” she said.
With the new boost of energy, McMillan-Behrenz said she can go for more walks and keep up with her grandchildren’s activities. The medication also helped reduce her appetite and cravings, making it easy to give up sugar and stay away from soda.
She lost 18 pounds in the four months since starting the drug. “It really made a big difference for me,” she said.
Common side effects of the medication include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain and constipation.
But McMillan-Behrenz considers herself lucky. She only experienced very mild nausea.
“Every body is different,” she said. “What works for me, may not work for someone else.”
Roughly three million Canadians currently take GLP-1 drugs, according to an online survey conducted by Leger in February. Most respondents cited weight loss as their main reason for the treatment followed by diabetes and metabolic health.
Treatment responses vary, according to health experts, due to medication tolerance, adherence, genetics and other biological and medical factors.
Varying experiences on GLP-1 drugs
Lindsay Noble has used five different brands of GLP-1 drugs in the last three years. “I switched because I plateaued on all of these drugs,” she told CTV News.
Noble has binge eating disorder, which causes her to overeat without purging.
She tried fad diets and exercise for years. She consulted dietitians, nutritionists and therapists before trying her first GLP-1 drug in 2023.
Initially, it did the trick. She lost weight. More importantly to her, the cravings disappeared. “It wasn’t necessarily about the weight loss,” she said.
“The biggest issue that I was dealing with actually was the food noise and ensuring that I wasn’t going back to my binge eating tendencies.”
Eventually, the medication stopped working for her and the troubling food noise returned.
She switched brands after consulting her doctor. “It was a bit frustrating because I was not seeing any more success even though I was still doing everything right, (including) the diet and the exercise,” Noble said.
It is common for weight-loss to plateau while taking GLP-1 medications. A recent study published in the National Library of Medicine found optimal weight-loss happened between 24 and 30 weeks of treatment, followed by a period of plateau.
Other research suggests a very low percentage, about five to 10 per cent of people, do not lose any weight when they take the drugs.
Hitting major milestones
Looking back at her wedding photos when she was at her heaviest, Noble gets emotional. “It is nice to see these pictures, but it is also nice to see how far I have come,” she said.
She continues to take a weekly GLP-1 injection. The current brand she takes has been working for more than a year, she said. It is one of the longest streaks of success she has had with any GLP-1 medication.
Earlier this year, Noble hit a major milestone. She’s lost 100 pounds since her first injection in 2023.
This past winter, she went snowboarding for the first time in over a decade. “I actually lost the weight and my body doesn’t hurt anymore,” she said. “On top of that, my cholesterol is down, my blood sugars are better and I am just healthy.”
Noble says there still is a stigma associated with GLP-1 drugs. Some people view the drug as “cheating” to lose weight, she said. “I would really hope that everybody else understands that this is an aid that is going to help get you there. It is a tool in your toolkit. It is not a one-size-fits-all thing,” she said, adding not everyone has the same experience or results while taking the drug.
“You have to talk to the right people to go through these things and make sure that you are doing the right thing for your body.”
Health experts say the drugs are not for everyone and recommend Canadians speak to their health-care providers about possible treatment.
