Anyone on Byetta??
Hi, everybody! I'm new to this board - I usually visit the surgery boards (I haven't had surgery YET; the byetta is my last resort b4 surgery). I wondered if any diabetics have tried byetta for wt. loss? My doctor put me on it almost 4 wks ago and I lost 21 pounds the first 3 wks, but then got sorta "stuck." People tell me it's b/c I took my caloric intake TOO low (about 700 cal a day) and my body went into starvation mode and quit buring off cals. So, I'm gonna see what happens on 800-900 cal. Just wondered if anyone else has tried byetta and if so, what their results were?? Thanks!! 
Byetta is a new class of medication for treatment of type 2 diabetes. It is a protein so it can not be taken oraly because your body would just break it down like insulin. (Byetta is not insulin or an insulin substitute.) Therefor it is injected but only just under the skin. The needle for it is similar in size to the one you use to ***** your finger for testing. It is taken before breakfast and dinner each day. You must eat within 1 hour of taking it. It works by doing 2 things. 1st it signals your pancreas to make insulin at the right time and to stop when it is no longer needed. It also works like glucophage in that it stops your liver from producing to much glucose. It can be taken with other diabetic meds as well, but the dosage of those should be monitored by your Dr because glucose levels can go too low. One of the side effects of the med is that it makes your stomache empty much slower than normal. This causes people to feel less hungry and they eat less. Most people taking it lose some wieght. This med has not been approved for the treatment of obesity. Weightloss is simply a added bonus when treating diabetes.
If I'm not mistaken, Byetta is a relatively new insulin-sensitizing drug, like Glucophage. From what I read Byetta is injected rather than taken as a pill, and it is stronger than Glucophage, or is used when people are unable to tolerate Glucophage for some reason or another.
I am insulin-resistent, but not diabetic. I'm taking Glucophage right now, but I can't tolerate the full dosage without GI problems, so I have been thinking about asking my doc about Byetta. A friend of mine who is taking Byetta said she got really, really bad nausea in the first couple of months. I'm wondering if you've had the same experience.
Peace,
Somayeh
Mark must've done some research; he described/explained the byetta very well. Although I am diabetic (barely), my sugar is very well controlled and honestly my dr. just wanted to see if I could lose wt. on the byetta. He had a woman (she started at over 400#) lose 30 pounds her first month on it, so he wanted to see what it would do for me. Of course if I weren't actually diabetic he wouldn't have been able to have subscribed it at all. So considering how good my sugar actually is, I guess being diabetic was somewhat in my favor. Although I am in no way opposed to WLS, I confess I am hoping I will be able to lose the wt. now without it. I did lose 21 pounds in the first 3 weeks, nothing in the 4th week, and now I am just waiting (not so patiently lol) to see what happens next. Oh, and btw, byetta comes from the saliva of a Japanese Gila Monster (a lizard! lol). Just so ya know!! 
I started on Byetta about 3 months ago. The first month I lost 8 pounds. The second month, nothing. This last month, he changed me from the 5 mg to the 10 mg dosage, no weight loss yet, but my blood sugar readings have gone way down. He took me off my metformin twice a day because my AC1 went down to 5.2 which is pre-diabetic. He was afraid I was going to become hypoglycemic. I would love a big weight loss, but it hasn't happened for me.
I read in a diabetic blog on the web, where some people are upping their shots to 3 times a day to jumpstart weight loss. This is not condoned by their doctors, and can be very dangerous.
My cousin, has lost about 60 pounds since he started on Byetta. He has all the side effects, so far I have been lucky and have none.
Good luck.
Valencia
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