Should You Skip Your Weight-Loss Injectable to Enjoy Holiday Dinner? Here’s What an Expert Says

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Skipping your dose to over-indulge could leave you “excusing yourself from the table in a hurry,” an expert tells PEOPLE

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Stock image of a dinner table at Thanksgiving.

As GLP-1 weight-loss injectables grow in popularity, some people are wondering if they can skip the drugs — which impact satiety — to indulge in holiday meals
The medication is not a “magic bullet” — and will “will work with you, but not in spite of you,” says Dr. Armando E. Castro-Tié, System Vice Chair, Surgery, for Northwell Health
He suggested people continue the recommended dosage and eat smaller amounts to avoid unpleasant side effects

Pumpkin pie. Stuffing. And all the appetizers.

The holidays usually mean indulging in your favorite treats — but Thanksgiving may look very different if you’re on an injectable GLP-1 weight-loss medication such as Wegovy or Mounjaro which, like Ozempic, work in the brain to curb appetite.

Since the drugs make people less hungry, eating can lose its appeal. And if a person were to overeat while on the medication, they would likely experience unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects.

So if you know you’re planning to indulge, should you skip a dose or two of your medication?

“You can pretty much do anything. But the bigger question is why would you?” Dr. Armando E. Castro-Tié, System Vice Chair, Surgery, for Northwell Health, tells PEOPLE.

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Stock image of Ozempic.

“If somebody says to me, ‘Yeah, can I go off because I enjoy the holidays?’ I would say, ‘Well, ideally, you’ve been working with your physician, you’ve been working with your nutritionist and you’ve incorporated certain things into your lifestyle that would allow you to enjoy it no matter what — even if you’re eating smaller amounts.’ ”

Castro-Tié says patients are concerned they will eat too much and feel sick or even vomit.

In that case, he says, “You’re not working with the medication the way you should. Any weight management effort will work with you, but not in spite of you. That’s a big take-home that people are missing.”

And there are side effects from going off the medication, Castro-Tié tells PEOPLE.

“The increased appetite and the weight regain is probably the biggest one — but you want to make sure that there’s not going to be some kind of rebound effect to your insulin. Some patients can suddenly see a crash or a spike in their insulin.”

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Stock image of fall pies.

Plus, your body is simply not used to that level of consumption. “You can’t just assume that, ‘Oh, it’s been two weeks since I’ve had it. So I’m just gonna eat this entire plate of food,’ ” he says.

“That may not go well. You may have severe cramping. You may find yourself excusing yourself from the table in a hurry.”

And, he adds, “I’ve heard of cases where patients [who have] been on it for a while, they go off it for whatever reason and then they come back on it and all of a sudden they have side effects that they didn’t have before — horrible reflux or horrible cramping or horrible constipation, things like that.”

Ultimately, says Castro-Tié, people should be talking to their physicians about any concerns: “You can’t expect that what Doctor Google says is gonna apply to you.”

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