GLP-1 Weigh In: Still Stuck in the 180s... But Something Is Changing

The Messy Middle of GLP-1 Weight Loss

If you’ve been following my weekly weigh-ins, you already know I’m not at the “before and after reveal” stage yet.

I’m still in the middle of it.

And honestly… the middle can be messy.

This week I weighed in at 185.3 pounds, which is almost exactly the same as last week’s 185.2. So technically, I maintained.

Not exciting.

But also not failure.

Because if you’ve ever tried to lose weight before, you already know this part of the journey: the part where the scale seems like it refuses to move.

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Listen instead:

GLP-1 Weigh In: Still Stuck in the 180s... But Something Is Changing

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The Viral Post That Hit a Nerve

This week something interesting happened.

One of my reels about “the messy middle” started gaining traction. Between Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok it passed hundreds of thousands of views and ended up getting shared more than 1,000 times on TikTok alone.

And the comments were all saying the same thing:

“Thank you for saying this.”
“I thought I was the only one stuck.”
“This is exactly where I am right now.”

That’s when it really hit me.

There are tons of videos online showing the beginning of a GLP-1 journey.

And there are tons showing the final results.

But the middle phase; the stalls, the plateaus, the months where nothing seems to change, doesn’t get talked about nearly as much.

But it’s very real.

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My Pattern of Plateaus

I recently exported all of my weigh-ins from the Happy Scale app.

I weigh almost every day, so there are thousands of data points in there.

When I looked at the data, something became very obvious.

Every decade of weight loss has come with a plateau.

I was stuck in the 190s for months. Maybe even close to a year.

Then eventually I broke into the 180s.

And now?

I’m doing the same thing again.

I’ve been hanging out in the 180s for a while now.

Not gaining.

But not dramatically losing either.

And based on my past pattern, that’s actually normal.

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Why the Scale Is Fluctuating Right Now

There’s another factor happening right now too.

I started going back to the gym three times per week.

For the last two weeks I’ve been doing:

• Monday: gym with a personal trainer

• Thursday: gym on my own

• Friday: gym again

• Wednesday: volleyball practice with my daughter’s team (lots of movement)

So my activity level has gone way up.

And with that, I’m seeing something interesting.

My lowest weight tends to appear on Mondays.

By mid-week my weight goes up a couple pounds, then drops again.

That’s likely happening because of water retention from sore muscles.

For example, after a hard leg workout this week, my scale almost hit 187 the next morning… then dropped back down to 185 pretty quickly.

That’s the kind of fluctuation that can make people panic if they don’t know what’s happening.

But it’s completely normal when you start exercising more.

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Falling in Love With the Gym

One of the biggest changes in my life right now is that I’m actually enjoying the gym.

That is something I never thought I would say.

I started meeting with a personal trainer on Mondays, and I love it because I don’t have to think.

She tells me exactly what to do.

She adjusts the weights.

She counts the reps.

I just show up and do the work.

For someone like me who overthinks everything, that’s incredibly helpful.

The rest of the week I go on my own and use ChatGPT to help guide my workouts.

I literally take pictures of gym machines and ask it:

“What exercise is this?”
“What muscle does it work?”
“What should I do next?”

It tracks my reps and weights and even suggests the next exercise if I’m stuck.

It’s actually been a really fun way to learn the gym.

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Eating This Week

Food this week was pretty normal for me.

The biggest win?

I didn’t order lunch at school once.

Last year around this time I was ordering fast food almost every day.

Now I bring lunch from home and eat at my desk.

We did order pizza on Friday, and I’ll probably eat leftovers again today.

But overall we ate at home the rest of the week.

My eating isn’t perfect.

It probably never will be.

But it’s improving slowly, and that’s enough for me right now.

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Why GLP-1 Changed Everything for Me

The truth is I would not be where I am today without GLP-1 medications.

Before losing weight, the gym wasn’t even an option for me.

At 250 pounds, moving my body felt miserable.

Now I can go to the gym.

I can coach my daughter’s volleyball team.

I can move without feeling completely exhausted.

The medication helped me lose enough weight that I could finally start building these habits.

Now I’m doing the work on top of that.

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The Reality of the “Messy Middle”

If you’re in a plateau right now, I want you to hear this.

The messy middle is normal.

You might stay in the same three-pound range for months.

You might feel like nothing is happening.

But behind the scenes your habits are changing.

Your body is adjusting.

And eventually, if you stay consistent, the scale usually moves again.

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If You Want the Deeper Dive

One thing I’m really excited about right now is writing more about this journey over on Substack.

The free posts here will always include my weekly weigh-ins, updates, and the real-life middle of this GLP1 journey.

But I also started a paid subscriber section where I go a lot deeper into things we talk about here.

Things like:

• what I’m learning from my personal trainer

• the actual workouts I’m doing at the gym

• deeper breakdowns of plateaus and stalls

• mindset shifts that help during the messy middle

There’s also a subscriber-only chat where we can talk more directly about what’s happening in real time.

I wanted to create a place where we could go a little deeper than what fits inside a YouTube video or Instagram caption.

If you’re someone who likes the behind-the-scenes details of how this journey is actually unfolding, that’s where I’m sharing most of it. (& rn I’m running a special!)

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Where I’m Headed Next

Right now my focus is simple:

Keep showing up.

Keep going to the gym.

Keep building the routine.

And keep sharing the journey.

Because I’m not trying to pretend this process is perfect.

I’m documenting the real middle of the story.

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If you’re on a GLP-1 journey too, I’d love to hear from you.

Are you going up, down, or maintaining right now?

Because chances are… a lot of us are in the messy middle together.