Jacob Brody doesn't fret about walking through the kitchen anymore. There's no voice in the back of his head saying "eat" whenever he sees food — now it's just silence, he said.
"Put it this way: I went to an all-inclusive resort and I lost weight."
About nine months ago Brody, who has both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, started taking the diabetes drug Mounjaro.
It took the 40 year old about three and a half months to reach a healthy weight he feels comfortable maintaining. He's lost about 35 pounds on Mounjaro — or about 18% of his total body weight. That's more than his six-year-old son weighs.
It was a feat he had achieved once previously on a different drug, but it took him much longer and then he quickly regained weight.
Now in addition to weight loss, his blood sugar is also down to a level considered normal — with the help of an insulin pump.
Today, Brody, who works as a venture capitalist and once cofounded a weight-loss startup called Accomplish Health, is on a 5 milligram dose of the drug — and he says he'd like to stay on it indefinitely.
Brody has developed many new routines since he started taking Mounjaro last November. But it hasn't been easy. Along the way, Brody lost his taste for his wife's chicken cutlet, which used to be a dinnertime favorite.
"What I found most disconcerting was I would just work through dinner," he said. "These social things that I used to do over food, I had to remember to do them."
He says the experience has been net positive, but like with any major life change, it's been a challenge getting used to his new lifestyle. Drugs like Mounjaro don't come with any emotional support, so he's had to find that from other patients going through some of the same changes he is experiencing.
Here are eight of the biggest ways Brody's everyday routines have changed on Mounjaro.
1. Brody starts every day with a protein-packed smoothie
For the first six months Brody was on Mounjaro, he didn't pay much attention to his protein intake. Sometimes he would feel dizzy.
His dietitian, Stephanie Garcia, encouraged him to use breakfast as an opportunity to pack more protein into his diet, which can be a challenge for people on the new diabetes and weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, which often curb a person's appetite quite dramatically.
Brody's wife Lauren invented a morning fruit smoothie for him that is a simple combination of unflavored oat milk, plus frozen strawberries, bananas, blueberries, kale, and whey protein. He says it tastes great, apart from the texture of the kale — which his wife and Garcia both urged him to add in for more fiber.
"I've noticed I've started to build muscle again," he said. "I wasn't doing that before, and I was really tired."
2. He focuses more on body composition than weight loss
Brody's doctor at Accomplish Health meets with him about once every two weeks. She encourages him to take pictures of himself, to monitor changes in his muscle composition over time.
"Weight is no longer the right metric," he said.
Experts in the field of diabetes and weight management agree, with obesity doctors and endocrinologists beginning to more seriously consider the "quality" of a person's weight loss, meaning the percentage of fat versus muscle they're losing, in addition to the number on the scale.
"This is a new concept," Dr. Louis Aronne, a weight loss and metabolism expert, said at the American Diabetes Association conference in June.
Aronne recommends patients on drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic, and Wegovy combine a higher protein diet with more physical activity, including strength training.
3. He lost his old pal Doritos, and now enjoys fresh baked cookies or cake
Many of the foods that Brody used to enjoy are not pleasurable anymore. He said Doritos are no longer his friend, and he hates Cheez-Its, too.
"All of the artificial food, it just doesn't do it for me anymore," he said.
If he snacks, he finds sweet treats like fresh baked cookies or cakes more satisfying, but he doesn't have the urge to eat until he feels "physically ill" like he used to, and more often than not cookies will sit around the house, going stale.
4. Stretching is a daily habit
Brody remembers the searing lower pack pain he used to experience when he had more weight "just hanging" on his front side.
He stretches regularly now, in large part because it's easier without his stomach in the way.
"Now I can touch my toes really, really easily. So I stretch every day."
5. He likes to garden
In addition to more stretching, Brody is enjoying more gardening, in part "because I physically can do it."
He's been planting purple vinca ground cover, pinkish autumn sedum, and lilacs. He said he revels in getting his hands dirty, cultivating something, and "doing some landscaping myself."
6. His new chore is drinking as much water as possible
In addition to having trouble gauging his hunger, Brody rarely feels thirsty on Mounjaro.
"I can't trust myself to always know when I should be drinking water," he said. "So I just try to drink as much water as possible."
7. He's adding more flavor to his meals, like fresh cilantro
Brody has always enjoyed flavorful food, but now it's an absolute must, because subtly spiced meals tend to taste more muted and dull. If he's going to have chicken, it needs to be slathered in pico de gallo, or include a bright herb like cilantro.
"If there's not really strong flavors, it can't awaken my sense of taste," he said. "And the hunger isn't there anymore."
8. He loves pulling up a chair and writing down his thoughts
Finally, Brody is enjoying more time for writing, since his brain is less focused on food.
"I am happier because I am able to write again, in a way that I wasn't," he said. 'There's a clarity that comes with this sort of equilibrium." Plus, much like his new stretching routine, it doesn't hurt to sit in a desk chair anymore.
