At 30, Günter Lugo was already aching and getting short of breath every time he had to climb stairs. He saw both his weight — nearly 300 pounds — and the pain he was in as “unacceptable,” he tells Yahoo. Lugo had asked his doctor about trying a GLP-1 weight loss medication before, but only got pushback. This time, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

Lugo took his first injection of Mounjaro in September 2023. “I could feel something change in my brain within two or three hours after taking that first shot,” he says. “It’s hard to describe, but something just clicked, and from that moment on, my brain was rewired when it comes to my perception of food.” He changed all his diet and exercise habits, learned to eat to live rather than live to eat, and finally discovered “what it’s like to have a normal metabolism.” And he became an evangelist, helping multiple members of his family get prescriptions for GLP-1s — and become healthier than they’ve been in years.

Now, Lugo is just 20 pounds away from his goal weight, and redefining his relationship with food as he learns to let himself enjoy the meals and snacks he loves, in moderation. “I feel like I’ve saved my life, and that I’m in control of my health,” he says in this installment of Yahoo’s On My Weigh series.

In the two years he’s been on a GLP-1 medication, 32-year-old Günter Lugo has lost 90 pounds. (Photo illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Yahoo News; photo: courtesy of Günter Lugo)

The weigh-in

**Name: **Günter Lugo

Age: 32

The method: Mounjaro, 15 milligrams

The goal: I wanted to lose weight, make improvements to my hypertension and other health indicators and treat the physical pain I was in. At my heaviest, I would be out of breath just going up stairs or up hills. My knees and lower back would hurt. I was 30 at the time, and it just felt unacceptable to continue that life and have it get worse as I aged.

**Progress report: **It’s going great. I’ve lost 90 pounds, and most of my health conditions have been resolved or are extremely well controlled. I’ve reduced the dosages of most of my medications and I’ve stopped taking blood pressure medication altogether. I no longer have high cholesterol, and weight loss has significantly reduced my knee and back pain.

**Food noise volume: **My food noise was at a 9 out of 10 before Mounjaro. After a meal, I would feel satisfied at first. But, of course, I was eating unhealthily. And within a couple of hours, it was like a kill switch: I would suddenly get this intense wave of food noise and a strong desire to eat. I felt like there was no in-between: Either I wasn’t hungry or I was super hungry. And those big fluctuations made me anxious, and then that caused me to eat things that weren’t very healthy. Now, my food noise volume is at like a 3. Within a couple of hours of taking my first dose of Mounjaro, I felt the noise quiet down. Now that I’ve been on a GLP-1 for two years, I have more food noise than when I was really fresh in the Mounjaro experience. My food noise levels can fluctuate up to a 5 or 6. But it feels different. It’s more like, physiologically, my body is telling me, *You’re actually hungry, *instead of the emotional food noise I experienced pre-Mounjaro. I’ve also gone through some growth and matured since then, and realized that some food noise is normal.

Day in the life

Rise and shine

I still hate mornings — I’m a night owl. But now I wake up and think, *OK, let’s do it. *When I have important things to do, I’m less scared of waking up and doing them the next day. I have more energy in general, and I’m more productive. I think of each morning as a new day to conquer my dreams.

Before Mounjaro, I was still motivated and trying hard, but I had a lot of insecurity and body shame, knowing my health was not going in the right direction. When you’re bigger, people just judge you and assume you’re not healthy. Now that I don’t have those thoughts anymore, I start the day with more optimism.

I was never a good sleeper, and my sleep has gotten much better since starting a GLP-1. I was prescribed Mounjaro before the other form of tirzepatide, Zepbound, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat sleep apnea. But I suspect that Mounjaro cured my undiagnosed sleep apnea.

First bites

Before Mounjaro, I felt like I needed breakfast. But, because I’m not a morning person, sometimes I would end up eating later. I would order DoorDash and have these explosively big or unhealthy lunches.

Now I don’t feel as strong a need for breakfast. If I’m adding a breakfast routine, I’m really adulting these days. But my whole life, I’ve loved the idea of a protein shake or smoothie in the morning that I can grab and go. That wasn’t feasible pre-Mounjaro because of my food addiction. Now I can grab a protein shake or some overnight oats, and I’m good to go in the morning.

Get ready with me

When I was so obese, I felt like I needed to put a lot more time into how I dressed myself and cleaned up because I felt a lot of insecurity about being unattractive. But now, I can just wash my face and hair and feel ready for the day because I have more confidence in myself.

Halfway through my GLP-1 journey, I bought some clothes that were too small to incentivize myself to keep going. Mostly I’ve been wearing clothes I bought a few years ago but got too big for. But now, I’ve officially graduated from all the clothes that I’ve had for the last four or five years. I still have 20 pounds to go to reach my goal weight, so I’m a little hesitant to shop for new clothes, because I want to wait to buy the things I’ll wear for the rest of my life.

I’m still struggling to fully accept that I’m a beautiful, capable person and forgive myself for the way I used to feel about myself. The process is not linear, but I’m working on stepping into this new level of confidence.

Let’s do lunch

I used to eat a big DoorDashed lunch, since I got up late.

For the first year and a half I was on a GLP-1, I was really strict with myself. I made sure I was always in a calorie deficit and eating low-carb meals. If a coworker brought in cupcakes, I would be like, “No, I have to learn new habits.” I was critical of myself because I had so much weight to lose. It was an important phase to take control of my metabolic health, but it was not a lifelong solution. If I had continued that way, I probably would have developed an eating disorder.

Now, I’m living a little bit and allow myself a doughnut here and there. At the end of the day, I still really do love food. But the GLP-1s have helped me cut back my carb addiction, so now I can have really delicious meals that just have fewer carbs and more protein. I’ve always loved salads, but now they’re actually enough. Lunch and dinner times are now where I find the most enjoyment in food.

Lugo credits GLP-1s with helping him save his own life and build self-confidence. (Photo illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Yahoo News; photo: courtesy of Günter Lugo)

Dose time

I like to take the shot in the evening, just because I like waking up with the most potent effect of the GLP-1 in the morning. It’s very comforting to wake up and think, Ah, I’m not hungry right now! I’m very lucky that I don’t have any side effects. Early on, I had a little constipation, so I became pretty ritualistic about taking magnesium the day before my shot, the day I took the injection and the day after, just to keep that side effect under control.

Make a move

Before Mounjaro, I would dread every opportunity to work out. It was just getting harder and harder to do as I was getting heavier and heavier. And the heavier you get, the more insecure you get at the gym around all these hot people.

For the first four months I was on Mounjaro, I wasn’t really working out. I just let the medicine do its thing, and I lost like 10 pounds each of those first months. Once you lose 30 or 40 pounds, the change becomes really noticeable. It wasn’t until then that I felt more motivated to go back to the gym.

Now, I’m in a phase where I need to go to the gym to lose the rest of the weight, get leaner and build more muscle. Before, I would go once a month or less. Now I work out two or three times a week. Truthfully, I hate working out, and I will always hate working out for the rest of my life. I still feel that way, but it’s what I’m doing and what the doctors and peer-reviewed studies tell me is necessary to be healthy.

Happy hour

I was never really a heavy drinker, but I was a *social *drinker. But something about GLP-1s made drinking not compatible with my body. So I’ve naturally started to have a lot fewer drinks. In the past two years, I’ve probably drunk alcohol six times. It’s a huge reduction in calories just from not drinking.

So much of my social life has revolved around food. At the beginning of my weight loss journey, I was opting out of a lot of those things just to have fewer distractions. I took matters into my own hands, though, by planning activities that didn’t involve food or drinks, such as playing volleyball. But I’m a true extrovert, so I realized that I’d rather be out with people and just avoid eating or eat less when we meet up for meals.

Dinner bell

DoorDash was a silent addiction before I started on Mounjaro. Something I’ve learned and really didn’t want to believe: Eating out is really unhealthy. The food has more fats and butter and sugars, so it can be more addictive, making people want it again. And it’s hard to find healthier options on DoorDash.

So, now, I mostly cook at home. Tonight, my partner and I are making hot pot with tofu and mushrooms because he is a vegetarian. I’ve cut out almost all carbs during the day. At dinner, we’ll have some carbs, but we tend to have protein-forward dinners with plant-based meats. But I just love chicken tenders, so I keep some on hand.

I’m very lucky to have a very supportive partner who has never judged me. He helped me stay accountable while I was changing my eating habits. He was still occasionally asking things like, “Are you sure you want those fries?” But I’m at a different phase of my journey now. So, I was like, “I shouldn’t feel guilty eating fries, after all the work I’ve put in.” I told him that I have full control over my diet and my body now, and he’s on board. Plus, health coaches and personal trainers are now saying that if I want to build muscle, I need to eat more! I have never had that problem in my life. (So I’m considering lowering my dose.)

Let’s get the bill

When I first started on Mounjaro, I was taking it off-label for weight loss, so it cost me about $500 a month. But since December of last year, I’ve been able to get the cost of my GLP-1s covered by insurance, with no co-pay. At first, there was about a $400 reduction in how much food I bought each month, so it kind of balanced out the out-of-pocket expense of the medication. I used to work with a trainer at the start of my GLP-1 journey, but I got a student discount through my university, so I only paid about $25 an hour. And I pay the same as ever for my gym membership, but now I actually use it.