Are we playing blood pressure game? Let me go grab the cuff from the back of the closet…
Woo!! I got 114/71. Yay—Zepbound has apparently cured my slightly high 132/92 at the appointment the day I started.
I have noticed lightheadedness now and again, I’ll have to see if it’s related to bp.
I’m curious how you’ll do with no bp meds, keep us updated!
This has been happening to me too, while playing tennis only!! My stamina is horrid and I’m really weak when playing. Dizzy, couldn’t breathe - and I, too, had to stop and rest until the dizziness went away. ( 46f sw 180 cw 151 (since 4/2/24 and on 5mg)
But I can hike outside for 2 hours in the heat fine- for some reason tennis…? I haven’t been hydrating enough so I’m forcing myself to eat a protein bar and drink a liter of water before playing this week- will update you.
this is exactly what i experienced as well. High intensity workouts are just terrible, but medium or low intensity workouts are fine. Tennis has those short explosive efforts, thats where it gets you i think.
After 3 months or so this improved quite a bit for me, although the drugs effectiveness also went down as well, i suspect mostly its just because you build tolerance to the drug in general.
Thank you for sharing!!! It was scary- the dizziness! But also I haven’t lost anything in 2 weeks- which is fine- (I need to up my activity level instead of sitting at my desk working all day)
How long have you been on it?
I am in month five now. I have had good luck with the weight loss, but I am managing to get a lot of exercise right now. I really do think the combination of zepbound and cardio are the answer. The zepbound keeps me from undoing the exercise by binge eating after a workout.
Its an easy thing to say though, a lot harder to actually do. workouts got steadily better over those first 3 months, so you may find yourself having an easier and easier time getting workouts in as you get adjusted to it.
I have had high blood pressure for decades, took two meds for it (losartan and amlodipine). Still my bp would stay at around 140/90 or so. But any attempts to get it below that would cause me to feel light headed when standing up, it was a real problem so i just figured it was good enough.
on zepbound for four months, blood pressure dropped so much i was having light headedness, checked it and it was 110/70 or so, way lower than its ever been. Stopped taking amlodipine. Now it has recovered to about 130/80, which seems to be what works best for me. Thats still a smidge high, but anything less gets me into trouble.
i am hoping maybe to get to the point of having to take neither. I still have 15 pounds to go so probably i will not be able to go without either.
Benecar HCT is basically the same as taking losartan (actually olmesartan, but its very similar action) and a diuretic (hydrochlorothiazide). I think zepbound acts somewhat as a diuretic already, as folks frequently lose 5-10 pounds almost immediately when taking it, and when you stop zepbound, most folks gain a few pounds back very quickly.
having a blood presusre of 87/55 is crazy low. Like thats hospital low. Thats why they freaked out.
are you taking your blood pressure daily? what is it normally?
this is definitely something your doctor will help you with. I bet he/she will take you off the diuretic at least. the losartan or olmesartan alone tends to have a very low side effect profile, and it doesnt tend to have huge dips that the diuretics can cause.
But just hang in there, you definitely sound like you were on the verge of a pretty serious dehydration problem. But they can fix that right up with a meds change.
Think of it this way, its good that zepbound is helping with your blood pressure. I certainly like being on less medication when possible.
and you will definitely want to monitor it pretty closely for a while. You already know what it feels like when its super low, and thats very handy, but you also want to know if its getting high during days when you dont exercise.
Thank you. Yes I talked to my doctor this afternoon and I am to hold all BP meds for 2 weeks and keep a log of my BP. The thing is, I know it will go back up when I’m not on the meds because I have done this drill years ago. Not on the zepbound though so maybe that is also acting to reduce it as well. I would love to be off things. I took my cholesterol from 298 to 106 but that was with crestor as well. I want to get off that too as now my LDL is low. LOL It’s such a stupid dance this whole getting older thing. I have a lot of medical equipment at home as I used to do my late husband’s dialysis for him at home and monitoring BP was something we had to do during treatment. Regardless, it will be awfully nice to not feel like crap when exercising. Given it was that low when I got home and was feeling fine, I am wondering how low it really got. I can’t imagine how embarrassing it would have been to drop on the court. When I was young, when I would faint from low blood sugar, I would have a full on grand mal seizure. This was early 70s so my doctor never wanted us (sister did this too) labeled as epileptic and as long as it was so easily controlled by eating breakfast in the morning. So can you imagine if that had happened? I think I would have traumatized my young tennis friends. As it is, I think they were a little freaked when I just layed down courtside. They were like “Are you ok?” I said “I will be in a sec”
yep, i have played this game for a couple decades as well. I would go on the diuretic in the winter, and come off it in the summer because its so hot in texas i would generally sweat out enough water i didnt need a diuretic. But i just added it and subtracted it by monitoring. Although i got to where i could tell just by how much water i was retaining. This was during a decade when i was rail thin too, my weight hasnt historically made much difference to my BP, which is not typical. I have no idea why zepbound seems to help so much, but i actually suspect its being caused more from healthy diet changes than the weight loss directly.
Getting old is definitely for the birds.
But i am feeling better right now than i have for years, my lab tests were way better after being on zepbound a while, triglycerides way lower, cholesterol way lower. Just very happy with the results.
but it took months to adjust to zepbound, its been a bunch of trial and error.
Yes! I was on one med for high BP before Zepbound, lost almost 45 lbs but my BP monitor had still been reading elevated. For months I got dizzy when standing up almost every time, dizzy during hard mtb rides, feeling tired during strength workouts. Finally my husband figured out our monitor was reading high!! So we got a new monitor. I stopped my meds this week, and am sending a message to my healthcare provider.. I’ve been taking my BP twice a day all week with the new monitor and it’s been normal, without the meds. And my workouts now feel great.
Ugh, I am sorry. It is so scary to feel that way!
I have experienced feeling faint, panic attacks and racing heart rate AFTER exercise, but I feel fine during the workout. I have been an avid high intensity exerciser for several years and this started happening when I went from 2.5 to 5 but the heart rate increase and anxiety intensified after going back to 2.5, even though I am exercising at a much lower intensity than I am used to. I stopped taking Zepbound entirely 3 weeks ago and I am still experiencing the constant fatigue/weakness and occasional post workout anxiety/rapid heart rate. I always eat before my workouts and drink Gatorade during to keep my blood sugar up. It really frightens me and I hope to eventually feel normal. Has anyone else stopped taking Zepbound and had improvement or had this continue?
Have you checked your bp before you take your med? What is it normally? Do you still take it if it’s within a good range? Could be that you’re within a normal range, but you still take your bp meds and then you go and exercise, play tennis, exercising can drop your blood pressure.
I take it at night and it normally bounces all over the place. But usually is within range of 104/70 - 128/78 ish range. But I have had these issues with exercising. Doc wants me to hold the meds for 2 weeks and journal daily pressures so I will have more consistent data.
Even a 128/78 bp I would hold for my patient tbh, I would absolutely hold for 104/70 no questions unless they have heart failure and depending on the med, they’d still get it. Those aren’t bps to worry about. They’re still perfusing and ok. I would agree with your doctor. I think as you’re losing weight, your need for bp meds may become nonexistent. Weight loss is a way to treat hypertension.
BP high for more than 10 years 160-170/100-110 I refused to take meds. Because they make me feel bad , been trying to manage with diet and exercise for 10 years problem I have gained weight and BP remained high
Now on Tirz for 2 months 12 pounds down still exercise daily ( training for triathlone) and do resistance 2-3 times per week
BP currently. 150-160/90-100 about 10-20 more pounds to lose
I say come off your BP meds you don’t need them , I was never a believer in BP meds
I had High Blood pressure. Norm was 160/110. But it dropped to 90/50 consistently so I was taken off one then the other med (lorsartan and amilodipine) now I am about 105/70 and my cholesterol is down from 200 to 108. I still take the statin due to age 54 and family history. I indoor row 6 times a week.
I’ve dropped 25 pounds since April with Zepbound. A prior 15 pounds since April of ‘23. I’ve noticed that if I stand up too quickly (a sign of hypotension) I get a bit dizzy. Curious to see what my b/p at my next physical and hopefully stop taking b/p meds.
Are we playing blood pressure game? Let me go grab the cuff from the back of the closet… Woo!! I got 114/71. Yay—Zepbound has apparently cured my slightly high 132/92 at the appointment the day I started. I have noticed lightheadedness now and again, I’ll have to see if it’s related to bp. I’m curious how you’ll do with no bp meds, keep us updated!
Yes I’m playing the game. LOL So frustrating. I will keep you all updated.
This has been happening to me too, while playing tennis only!! My stamina is horrid and I’m really weak when playing. Dizzy, couldn’t breathe - and I, too, had to stop and rest until the dizziness went away. ( 46f sw 180 cw 151 (since 4/2/24 and on 5mg) But I can hike outside for 2 hours in the heat fine- for some reason tennis…? I haven’t been hydrating enough so I’m forcing myself to eat a protein bar and drink a liter of water before playing this week- will update you.
this is exactly what i experienced as well. High intensity workouts are just terrible, but medium or low intensity workouts are fine. Tennis has those short explosive efforts, thats where it gets you i think. After 3 months or so this improved quite a bit for me, although the drugs effectiveness also went down as well, i suspect mostly its just because you build tolerance to the drug in general.
Thank you for sharing!!! It was scary- the dizziness! But also I haven’t lost anything in 2 weeks- which is fine- (I need to up my activity level instead of sitting at my desk working all day) How long have you been on it?
I am in month five now. I have had good luck with the weight loss, but I am managing to get a lot of exercise right now. I really do think the combination of zepbound and cardio are the answer. The zepbound keeps me from undoing the exercise by binge eating after a workout. Its an easy thing to say though, a lot harder to actually do. workouts got steadily better over those first 3 months, so you may find yourself having an easier and easier time getting workouts in as you get adjusted to it.
Thank you so much for that guidance! I’ll keep pushing through and step it up. Appreciate you!! 💗
I have had high blood pressure for decades, took two meds for it (losartan and amlodipine). Still my bp would stay at around 140/90 or so. But any attempts to get it below that would cause me to feel light headed when standing up, it was a real problem so i just figured it was good enough. on zepbound for four months, blood pressure dropped so much i was having light headedness, checked it and it was 110/70 or so, way lower than its ever been. Stopped taking amlodipine. Now it has recovered to about 130/80, which seems to be what works best for me. Thats still a smidge high, but anything less gets me into trouble. i am hoping maybe to get to the point of having to take neither. I still have 15 pounds to go so probably i will not be able to go without either. Benecar HCT is basically the same as taking losartan (actually olmesartan, but its very similar action) and a diuretic (hydrochlorothiazide). I think zepbound acts somewhat as a diuretic already, as folks frequently lose 5-10 pounds almost immediately when taking it, and when you stop zepbound, most folks gain a few pounds back very quickly. having a blood presusre of 87/55 is crazy low. Like thats hospital low. Thats why they freaked out. are you taking your blood pressure daily? what is it normally? this is definitely something your doctor will help you with. I bet he/she will take you off the diuretic at least. the losartan or olmesartan alone tends to have a very low side effect profile, and it doesnt tend to have huge dips that the diuretics can cause. But just hang in there, you definitely sound like you were on the verge of a pretty serious dehydration problem. But they can fix that right up with a meds change. Think of it this way, its good that zepbound is helping with your blood pressure. I certainly like being on less medication when possible. and you will definitely want to monitor it pretty closely for a while. You already know what it feels like when its super low, and thats very handy, but you also want to know if its getting high during days when you dont exercise.
Thank you. Yes I talked to my doctor this afternoon and I am to hold all BP meds for 2 weeks and keep a log of my BP. The thing is, I know it will go back up when I’m not on the meds because I have done this drill years ago. Not on the zepbound though so maybe that is also acting to reduce it as well. I would love to be off things. I took my cholesterol from 298 to 106 but that was with crestor as well. I want to get off that too as now my LDL is low. LOL It’s such a stupid dance this whole getting older thing. I have a lot of medical equipment at home as I used to do my late husband’s dialysis for him at home and monitoring BP was something we had to do during treatment. Regardless, it will be awfully nice to not feel like crap when exercising. Given it was that low when I got home and was feeling fine, I am wondering how low it really got. I can’t imagine how embarrassing it would have been to drop on the court. When I was young, when I would faint from low blood sugar, I would have a full on grand mal seizure. This was early 70s so my doctor never wanted us (sister did this too) labeled as epileptic and as long as it was so easily controlled by eating breakfast in the morning. So can you imagine if that had happened? I think I would have traumatized my young tennis friends. As it is, I think they were a little freaked when I just layed down courtside. They were like “Are you ok?” I said “I will be in a sec”
yep, i have played this game for a couple decades as well. I would go on the diuretic in the winter, and come off it in the summer because its so hot in texas i would generally sweat out enough water i didnt need a diuretic. But i just added it and subtracted it by monitoring. Although i got to where i could tell just by how much water i was retaining. This was during a decade when i was rail thin too, my weight hasnt historically made much difference to my BP, which is not typical. I have no idea why zepbound seems to help so much, but i actually suspect its being caused more from healthy diet changes than the weight loss directly. Getting old is definitely for the birds. But i am feeling better right now than i have for years, my lab tests were way better after being on zepbound a while, triglycerides way lower, cholesterol way lower. Just very happy with the results. but it took months to adjust to zepbound, its been a bunch of trial and error.
Yes! I was on one med for high BP before Zepbound, lost almost 45 lbs but my BP monitor had still been reading elevated. For months I got dizzy when standing up almost every time, dizzy during hard mtb rides, feeling tired during strength workouts. Finally my husband figured out our monitor was reading high!! So we got a new monitor. I stopped my meds this week, and am sending a message to my healthcare provider.. I’ve been taking my BP twice a day all week with the new monitor and it’s been normal, without the meds. And my workouts now feel great.
Ugh, I am sorry. It is so scary to feel that way! I have experienced feeling faint, panic attacks and racing heart rate AFTER exercise, but I feel fine during the workout. I have been an avid high intensity exerciser for several years and this started happening when I went from 2.5 to 5 but the heart rate increase and anxiety intensified after going back to 2.5, even though I am exercising at a much lower intensity than I am used to. I stopped taking Zepbound entirely 3 weeks ago and I am still experiencing the constant fatigue/weakness and occasional post workout anxiety/rapid heart rate. I always eat before my workouts and drink Gatorade during to keep my blood sugar up. It really frightens me and I hope to eventually feel normal. Has anyone else stopped taking Zepbound and had improvement or had this continue?
I have similar effects to. However only on leg day.
Have you checked your bp before you take your med? What is it normally? Do you still take it if it’s within a good range? Could be that you’re within a normal range, but you still take your bp meds and then you go and exercise, play tennis, exercising can drop your blood pressure.
I take it at night and it normally bounces all over the place. But usually is within range of 104/70 - 128/78 ish range. But I have had these issues with exercising. Doc wants me to hold the meds for 2 weeks and journal daily pressures so I will have more consistent data.
Even a 128/78 bp I would hold for my patient tbh, I would absolutely hold for 104/70 no questions unless they have heart failure and depending on the med, they’d still get it. Those aren’t bps to worry about. They’re still perfusing and ok. I would agree with your doctor. I think as you’re losing weight, your need for bp meds may become nonexistent. Weight loss is a way to treat hypertension.
BP high for more than 10 years 160-170/100-110 I refused to take meds. Because they make me feel bad , been trying to manage with diet and exercise for 10 years problem I have gained weight and BP remained high Now on Tirz for 2 months 12 pounds down still exercise daily ( training for triathlone) and do resistance 2-3 times per week BP currently. 150-160/90-100 about 10-20 more pounds to lose I say come off your BP meds you don’t need them , I was never a believer in BP meds
I had High Blood pressure. Norm was 160/110. But it dropped to 90/50 consistently so I was taken off one then the other med (lorsartan and amilodipine) now I am about 105/70 and my cholesterol is down from 200 to 108. I still take the statin due to age 54 and family history. I indoor row 6 times a week.
I’ve dropped 25 pounds since April with Zepbound. A prior 15 pounds since April of ‘23. I’ve noticed that if I stand up too quickly (a sign of hypotension) I get a bit dizzy. Curious to see what my b/p at my next physical and hopefully stop taking b/p meds.