Why I Started Tirzepatide at 220 Pounds
Written by Dan Cripe, RN, BSN
I was about 220 pounds when I started tirzepatide. That number by itself doesn't really explain why I started.
I had been heavier for years. I wasn't suddenly shocked one morning to discover I had gained weight. It happened gradually, and I knew it was happening. What had changed was everything around it.
By the spring of 2024, I was drinking too much, working nights, eating badly, not exercising consistently, and generally not living the way I wanted to live. The weight was part of the problem, but it wasn't the whole problem.
I Was Always Self-Conscious About My Weight
I remember being the “husky” kid. They actually had clothes labeled that way when I was growing up, and I remember having to wear them. I didn't like it. It made me uncomfortable and aware of my size pretty early.
Things got better when I started playing sports in high school. I became more athletic and wasn't as heavy, but even then, I was never comfortable taking my shirt off. That stayed with me.
As I got older, my weight gradually started going back up. I don't remember one particular period when everything changed. It was just years of slowly gaining.
The highest weight I remember seeing was around 225 pounds. I think that was probably about a year before I started tirzepatide, but I can't give you an exact date. By the weeks leading up to May 10, 2024, I was probably around 220.
I was wearing XXL shirts and had about a 39-inch waist. Most of my weight was around my stomach. I had a belly and love handles, but my legs were still skinny.
Basically, I looked like an apple sitting on toothpicks.
I Knew How to Exercise. I Just Wasn't Doing It Consistently.
It's not that I had never tried to lose weight. Most of my attempts involved exercise rather than dieting. I would lift weights and do cardio on the treadmill, and I actually liked exercising.
The problem was consistency. At that point in my life, working out felt like it took a lot of time, and there was always a reason not to do it. Working nights didn't help, and drinking definitely didn't help.
If I drank the night before, I wasn't going to wake up feeling excited about getting on a treadmill. Alcohol affected what I ate too. I would almost save calories for drinking instead of thinking seriously about my nutrition, then I'd drink, get hungry, and eat whatever I wanted late at night.
At work, I sometimes ate just because I was tired and trying to stay awake. When I had free time, I was more likely to sit around watching TV or movies than exercise.
I knew what I was doing wasn't working. I just wasn't changing it.
Alcohol Had Become a Bigger Problem Than My Weight
This is the part of the story that's harder to separate from the weight. By then, I was drinking heavily. I had told myself before that I was going to cut back, more than once, and it didn't last.
There were periods when I would be at work and have a hard time functioning because I was experiencing alcohol withdrawal. My drinking was affecting my life outside of work too, and there were times it contributed to me calling in.
So when I say I wasn't happy with where I was, I don't just mean I didn't like my stomach. The weeks leading up to May 10th were dark for me. I was ashamed of how I looked, and I remember looking in the mirror and being embarrassed by what I saw.
But I also knew the bigger issue was that I wasn't really doing much with my life. I worked, drank, recovered from drinking, watched TV, and then did it again. I needed something to change.
Marcia Was the One Who Started Looking Into GLP-1s
Marcia learned about GLP-1 medications before I did. She started researching them and talking to me about what she was learning. Her sister owns a medspa, so we also had a way to talk with a nurse practitioner about treatment.
I did my own research too. I don't remember exactly when I went from hearing about it to deciding I wanted to try it, but I do remember being skeptical.
The whole thing sounded a little too good to be true. You take a shot once a week and somehow it helps you lose weight that took years to gain and that you've struggled to lose? It sounded like a magic shot.
I wasn't convinced, but I was at the point where I also knew what I was doing wasn't working.
I Was Nervous About Starting
One of the things that made me nervous was my drinking. I wasn't going into this as somebody who had already cleaned up his diet, quit drinking, started exercising every day, and then decided to add a medication. That wasn't where I was.
I was still drinking, and part of me wondered whether the medication could even work if I kept doing that. At the same time, I think I had reached the point where I wanted to be all in.
I needed to quit drinking. I needed to lose weight. I needed to start living my life again.
Having a grandchild was part of that too. It changes the way you think about what you're doing with your time and what kind of life you want to have. I didn't want to keep doing what I had been doing.
May 10, 2024
On May 10, 2024, Marcia and I took our first 2.5 mg doses of tirzepatide. We were together, and we gave each other the injections.
The details of that first shot are honestly fuzzy for me now. I remember being nervous, and I remember the drinking being part of why I was nervous. I don't remember having some huge feeling that this was the day everything was going to change.
If anything, I was still wondering whether it was actually going to work. I definitely didn't know that some of the first changes I would notice wouldn't have anything to do with the number on the scale.
I thought I was starting a weight-loss medication. Looking back, that was only part of what I was trying to change.
I wanted to lose the belly. I wanted my clothes to fit differently. I wanted to feel better about looking in the mirror. But mostly, I was tired of the way I was living.
At about 220 pounds, I didn't start tirzepatide because 220 was some unbearable number. I started because I didn't want to keep living the same life that had gotten me there.
And on May 10, 2024, I finally tried something different.
Sources
This article is a first-person Journey account based on Dan Cripe's recollection of his life and experiences before beginning tirzepatide on May 10, 2024. It does not make clinical claims about tirzepatide or establish that the medication caused subsequent changes.
Continue Dan's Journey
Starting tirzepatide was the decision. Figuring out whether it was actually doing anything came next.
Dan's first weeks weren't dramatic. His memories are fuzzy, the early side effects were minimal, and there was no single moment when he suddenly knew the medication was working.
Next: My First Weeks on Tirzepatide: I Wasn't Convinced It Would Work →
