How Wegovy Helped Me Cut 41% of My Body Weight
Key takeaways:
An underlying health condition contributed to Kat Carollo’s difficulty managing her weight for more than a decade.
Her endocrinologist first prescribed Ozempic, and Kat later switched to Wegovy — both forms of semaglutide.
In a year after starting Wegovy, Kat lost 41% of her body weight.
Kat Carollo started 2024 with a very different health status compared with the start of 2023.
Kat, a 38-year-old medical worker from Wenonah, New Jersey, is several months into maintaining a 41% body-weight loss. She says she’s happy to have found the stable solution she’d been missing for so long.
A transplant coordinator and cardiac scrub tech at a Philadelphia hospital, Kat says her weight had bounced up and down since health challenges began in her 20s.
Save every month on GLP-1 meds with GoodRx
Save an average of $235 on FDA-approved GLP-1s like Ozempic and Zepbound.
She was a competitive dancer growing up — performing in jazz, ballet, and lyrical competitions.
But in her early 20s, Kat developed Guillain-Barré syndrome. With Guillain-Barré, immune cells attack nerves, causing tingling and weakness in the arms and legs.
She started taking medication for the disorder and stopped dancing and working out. The pounds started to accumulate. She entered a pattern of yo-yo weight losses and gains into her 30s, despite trying several programs.
“It just was always a battle,” Kat says. She also had high cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
When she finally saw an endocrinologist, it wasn’t to conquer the weight gain. It was to get answers after she and her husband, Gaspare, endured multiple miscarriages and failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts.
An underlying condition discovered
The endocrinologist found that Kat had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is marked by a hormonal imbalance that can cause irregular menstrual periods, infertility, and weight gain.
Women with PCOS are often insulin-resistant, which increases their risk for Type 2 diabetes.
Kat’s endocrinologist suggested she try Ozempic (semaglutide) to address her health issues. Semaglutide can improve the way the body responds to sugars.
Kat began injections in August 2022 but soon started to experience side effects.
“I was nauseous all the time,” she says. Months later, on New Year’s Eve, she went to the hospital after being sick for 4 days straight.
By January 2023, she had lost about 25 lbs from her start weight of 215. But because of the side effects, her endocrinologist suggested switching her to another medication, Wegovy. It had a higher dosage of the same core ingredient, semaglutide.
While Ozempic is approved to treat Type 2 diabetes, Wegovy is approved for weight loss. The idea was that by switching to Wegovy, Kat would have reduced side effects while still benefiting from the medication’s therapeutic effects.
“I immediately stopped throwing up,” she says. And she started to lose more weight.
By fall, she had lost 89 lbs to reach her goal weight of 126.
She still can get an occasional bout of nausea with Wegovy if she has too much sugar, but she is very careful to avoid that. The medication has also changed her dietary habits, she says.
“It has stopped me from snacking all the time,” she says. “My body craves meals more than snacks.”
Overeating means pain
Red meat and wine no longer agree with her, Kat says. And overeating now causes stomach pain, followed by exhaustion.
“It’s just not worth it,” she says.
Wegovy doesn’t take away her appetite, but it allows her to “get fuller faster.” She eats about one-fourth of what she ate before and feels satisfied.
She had hair breakage at the roots, and her endocrinologist said that likely is because of less protein in her diet. When she added more protein, the breakage stopped.
Maintaining protein intake levels is one tip she would give others starting Wegovy. Another is drinking plenty of water.
Also, she says, eating healthy, fresh foods can cost more, even if you eat smaller amounts of food. So, it’s important to consider that in your budget.
She says exercising more while losing weight will help tone the places where loose skin starts to hang.
Exercise is part of her day
Kat now walks a few miles a day with her husband and their puppy.
She still marvels at the differences in her life.
“I can walk up the steps without getting out of breath,” she says. “I can wear jeans. I never wore jeans, ever, when I was heavier. I can bend over and tie my shoes without getting out of breath. I can reach my shoelaces.”
Kat posted some highlights of her weight loss journey on social media. While many followers have been very supportive, some have criticized her, saying, “Anyone can take a shot and lose weight.”
Her response to that is “they’re absolutely right.” But she wants people to know that there’s often a mental aspect for people who have been overweight or obese that makes the journey anything but easy.
Self-doubt is hard to get over
The weight may have gone away, but the self-doubt lasts, Kat says.
“It doesn’t matter how much weight I’ve lost, I still can look in the mirror and find something wrong with me,” she says. “It’s just normal, especially when you’ve been looking in the mirror for so long, feeling unhealthy and not loving yourself.”
Some days, she likes what she sees and is proud of what she’s accomplished. But other days, “I’m ripping apart every single thing that I could find wrong with myself,” she says.
Kat says support for any weight loss journey is important, but the drive has to come from within.
Family members “have been very supportive,” she says. “My husband has been completely supportive. He always told me that he loved me and I was beautiful, even at my heaviest. He never made me feel like I needed to do this. I think it's really important for people to do it for themselves.”
Why trust our experts?
Was this page helpful?
Related Articles
Browse medications
View AllResearch prescriptions and over-the-counter medications from A to Z, compare drug prices, and start saving.