I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t always overweight. As a teenager I was an attractive and healthy young woman, and I was proud of my relatively good body.
Ever heard of the frosh 15? You know the fifteen pounds that people often gain at their first year away from home at university. Fifteen pounds piled on as a result of too much pizza and too much beer, and too many long hours spent sitting in front of a computer. Well for me it was more like the frosh 20; and unfortunately there was also a sophomore 15 and a junior 10, by the end of my senior year my weight had ballooned up by more than 55 pounds. I tried to eat well, but I had never needed to before. As a teenager I had eaten whatever I wanted, and I never had a weight problem, but those days were obviously long gone.
I felt ashamed when I returned home on breaks and during each summer vacation. People either didn’t recognize me or gave shocked looks, and quickly looked away. I knew that I wasn’t attractive anymore, and I found that really hard to deal with.
After graduation I moved to New York and got a great job at a publishing firm. I made good money and worked with interesting people; I quickly made a lot of friends and found myself happier in my new life than I had been for a long time. Still though, I missed the attentions of men, and I was getting tired of being the one ignored whenever I went out with the girls.
I tried Pilates and yoga and spinning classes, and although they did work, the pepperoni pizza that I ate at my desk that evening tended to offset any gains that I had made. I tried dieting and could sometimes lose some weight, but it was always temporary, and the weight always came back.
I wanted a boyfriend, but although I had lots of male friends, nobody ever seemed interested in me physically. I was getting close to thirty and starting to wonder if I was destined to spend the rest of my life alone.
Then I read about a new drug that was actually able to help people with weight problems lose a lot of weight, and best yet, it seemed to be able to keep the weight off! I booked an appointment with my doctor and waited nervously in the days leading up to my scheduled visit.
I’m not a lazy person. I’m driven in both my work and personal life. I don’t back down from a challenge, and my career has grown as a result; but I just can’t seem to overcome my need for food. When I diet, I think about food every minute of the day; it drives me crazy and I always give in the end. I don’t like feeling hungry, and am not sure why I should.
The day finally came, and after a brief general examination, I brought the subject of the new drug Acomplia up. She was very encouraging, said that people had had very good results after taking the drug, and that my current body mass index score gave her definite concerns about my general health. She said that she would be happy to prescribe the drug. She prescribed something called rimnonabant, which I later learned is just the generic version of Acomplia. The same in every respect, except that it is a fraction of the cost (which is great as my health insurance plan definitely didn’t cover weight loss drugs, no matter how medically necessary they were.).
I googled the rimnonabant and spent a couple of hours educating myself as to how the drug worked.
The brain has an endogenous neurotransmitter called a cannabinoid. These cannabanoids are released into the brain in varying amounts throughout the day. One of the things that can cause an increased release of cannabanoids is either physical or psychological food cues. These cannabanoids, once released will find something called a cannabinoid receptor. These receptors are little homes for the neurotransmitter, designed so that only the cannabinoid transmitter can fit into them; when enough of these cannabanoids fit into these receptors, your brain sends a signal to you that it’s time to eat. They make you feel hungry.
Rimnonabant works by blocking these receptors up. So even though food cues can trigger an increased release of cannabanoids, there is nowhere for them to go, and as a result you don’t feel the accompanying hunger pang. It’s just a small modification of a natural process.
Well I started to take the drug. The regimen was easy, just one pill daily before breakfast, and I soon noticed a huge difference. I just wasn’t as hungry as I used to be. I had previously snacked almost constantly as I worked at my desk, but now I found myself getting engrossed in my work, and literally hours would go by without my ever thinking about food. I still ate regular meals, but I started to lose a lot of weight.
It didn’t feel like I was on a diet, because it was way too easy to eat less.
After a month, coworkers started to notice the change, after three months, I was getting daily compliments, and after 6 months, people that I hadn’t seen in a while wouldn’t even recognize me! I even started to notice guys checking me out as I walked down the street…and I can’t tell you how great that felt.
I experienced no unpleasant side effects, and have now lost almost all of the weight that I had gained since starting university. The generic version of the drug is really affordable (everyone should go for the generic) and I feel healthier than I had for a long time.
My doctor was shocked when she saw me six months later, and said that if I stuck to the drug, and kept the weight off, that I had probably added twenty five healthy years to my life. She was really happy for me, and I thanked her repeatedly for prescribing me the rimnonabant.
Now I feel good and I look great. I don’t care how long I need to stay on the drug; it’s completely transformed my life. I would recommend that anyone who has persistent weight problems discuss the possibilities if rimnonabant with your doctor. If it worked for me, it could work for you!