Anyone else flat on semaglutide and considering a switch?

2026-10-02 6610 views 26 posts

I’m 14 weeks in, down 22 lbs, but since around week 8 I’ve lost interest in my usual hobbies — even my Sunday coffee-and-crossword ritual feels like a chore. I still walk 8k steps, appetite is quiet, labs fine per my PCP.

It’s not sadness exactly, more blah/anhedonia. I’ve read anecdotes that some people feel better on tirzepatide vs semaglutide, or vice versa, but I’m wary of anecdote-driven switches.

For those who switched because of emotional flatness: how did you track it? Did you use a mood log, PHQ-9, or just vibes? How long before you knew it was the med vs just calorie deficit/weight loss?

Not asking for dosing advice, just curious about others’ experiences and what evidence you found.

I’m mechanism-minded too, and the “wanting vs liking” split helped me. I did a 2-week note: before an activity rate anticipation 0–10, then after rate enjoyment 0–10.

Mine showed low wanting but normal liking, which made it feel more like initiation than true anhedonia. In the trials, reward-related stuff isn’t well captured, and anecdotes about switching are super confounded.

Have you noticed whether it’s the anticipation that’s gone, or the actual pleasure during? If it’s mostly anticipation, a tiny scheduled thing (5 min crossword, no pressure) might be a cleaner experiment than switching. Curious if sleep/dream recall shifted too.

cafe owner here, so food-temptation is my whole day. What helped me untangle the blah from appetite stuff was tracking interest, not mood: I rated 1–5 how much I wanted my after-close sketch or Sunday crossword, and noted if I’d been tasting pastries all day. My lowest scores clustered on prep days, not shot days.

I moved the crossword to a different table with a fancy pen and no coffee/pastry, and it felt less like a chore. Curious: did your ritual used to include a specific treat?

If so, maybe the ritual got tangled with that reward, and swapping one piece might tell you whether it’s the med or the habit. Not saying switch or don’t—just something to test.

The Sunday crossword going stale is such a specific vibe. Following this—hope you get your spark back ☕

The crossword thing hit home; my Sunday coffee ritual started feeling like a meeting I forgot to cancel. You’re not alone.

Same blah around that point; the wanting/liking framing helped me name

Same — my puzzle streak died too. The blah is real, and I’m side-eyeing a switch.

Two kids here, so my blah got tangled with the 4pm snack-drawer chaos. I started tracking one tiny non-food “anchor” a day instead of mood: 10 min of a trashy audiobook while folding laundry, fancy seltzer after bedtime, 5 min of a phone game.

Weirdly, my flat days clustered on days I skipped lunch and just ate cold nuggets off the kids’ plates. Does yours lift at all after a real sit-down meal, or is it pretty constant? That pattern was my clue.

Fellow cafe owner—my crossword feels like homework some weeks. You’re not alone in the flat.

I had a flat patch too; my crossword ritual came back once I stopped forcing it.

Not the crossword, but I lost my gym spark around month 3. For me it wasn’t mysterious: sleep got ragged and I was accidentally running too big a deficit on lifting days. I started logging mood (1–10), sleep, and top-set RPE for two weeks.

Flat days lined up almost perfectly with under 7 hrs sleep and no carbs pre-training. Adding a real pre-lift meal and protecting bedtime brought the “want to” back without changing anything else.

Not saying that’s your deal, but have your lifts actually held steady? If they’re dropping too, that’s a useful clue.

That Sunday crossword detail sticks with me. When I hit a blah stretch, I made my rituals smaller and stranger: same coffee, but on a park bench, one puzzle section only, then a 5-minute call with a friend.

Tracking “spark after” instead of “motivation before” showed me I needed people and sunlight more than another walk. Your 8k steps are awesome—are you getting any low-effort social contact before noon? And what would a 10% version of Sunday look like?

Sometimes the chore feeling means the ritual needs renovating, not abandoning. High five on 22 lbs.

I’m back after regaining most of what I lost, so the flatness would scare me too. What helped me untangle it a little was a dumb phone note: every evening I rated “looking forward to anything tomorrow?” 1–5, plus whether I’d talked to another human outside work.

After two weeks I could see my blah wasn’t constant—it spiked on the isolated days. Not saying that’s your deal, but has yours stayed flat even on days you do something social or novel, or is it more like a low hum all week?

That crossword blah is real — brains love a rut. Hope your Sunday spark sneaks back soon, preferably with better coffee.

Tbh the hobby-hollowing is real. I started a dumb little joy log: three things I’d normally look forward to,

I’m skeptical that switching is the magic fix, mostly because anecdotes mix in time, dose changes, and the novelty phase fading. One concrete thing I did: a 10-second daily note rating “interest in stuff” 0–10, plus sleep hours and whether I ate lunch away from my desk.

My interest scores dipped hardest under 6.5h sleep, not tied to any particular med day. That helped me separate “food noise gone” from real anhedonia. For those who switched: did joy/interest return before, after, or independent of appetite changes? And has anyone tracked it daily instead of just in hindsight?

Hey, the Sunday thing rings true, but mine was Tuesday nights. Once the food noise quieted, I realized my week was built around meals and coffee, so the empty spots felt like blah.

What helped was one standing commitment: I signed up to shelve books at our tiny library every Tuesday. Not joyful exactly, just somebody expecting me.

Small-town bonus: I walk the two miles there instead of driving, and our pharmacy bulletin board is on the route, so I actually see people. Have you tried adding a non-food anchor to a day that used to feel good?

Curious if the flatness lifts when you’re around folks, even if the old hobbies don’t.

Not on sema, but on a similar med, and the flatness hit when I cut the food noise and accidentally cut all my reward rituals too. What helped was one non-negotiable “no purpose” block: Wednesday night bouldering with a buddy, no tracking, no step goal.

The gym still feels normal because I chase performance, not just recomp — if my top set moves well, that’s a win independent of the scale. Sharp question: is your flatness worse on rest days, or does training still pull you out of it?

That pattern might tell you whether it’s the med or just a rut.

Road warrior here — hotels/airports 4 days a week. My blah showed up as “everything fun requires a plan.” I started a dumb trip rule: one tiny non-food field trip per city (weird mural, hotel lobby fountain, indie coffee).

No step count, no productivity. It didn’t fix the flatness, but it gave me a 10-minute spark and a photo I actually liked.

Curious: for you, is it all hobbies, or mostly the ones that need setup/transition? That distinction changed how I tracked it.

Spreadsheet brain here: I’ve got 11 months of 1–10 “looking forward to it” scores, and my flat patch tracked harder with sleep debt and low protein than with any med change. My trendline was embarrassingly clear: under 7h sleep for 5 days = enjoyment score dropped ~30%, then recovered.

Not saying that’s your deal, but do you have a pre-week-8 baseline for hobbies, or did tracking start after the blah hit? If you switch, keep the same log so it’s apples to apples.

Also: what’s one hobby metric you could quantify without turning it into a chore?