Losing weight with the help of semaglutide can bring on changes that go beyond the physical. It can affect your emotions and social interactions as well. One thing you might not expect is how weight loss affects relationships. This is especially true with those who are closest to you, like a romantic partner.
How your partner reacts to your weight loss can hit particularly close to your heart. “There’s a change in the relationship’s dynamic,” says Rachel Goldberg, a therapist based in Studio City, California, who specializes in weight loss. “It can easily strain things if there aren’t ongoing conversations related to the changes.”
How does weight loss affect relationships? Here are three common challenges you and your partner might face and expert advice on how to address them.
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1. Weight loss can affect attraction and libido
Let’s jump straight to a hot button issue: intimacy. A change in physical appearance, like weight loss, may not affect your partner’s desire for you at all. But it’s also possible it boosts or lessens their attraction. And sometimes that reaction is surprising. “Some people choose their partner at least partly based on weight, and then it’s not the same anymore,” Goldberg says.
When you lose weight, you may feel more attractive, and that might boost your libido (your partners’ too). Some partners, though, may react with self-consciousness about their own physical appearance. “The partner who didn’t lose weight might feel insecure now, which can affect desire,” Goldberg says.
Rapid weight loss may affect your libido, too. “Someone who’s quickly losing weight could have hormonal shifts, which could change their libido,” says Goldberg. This hormonal effect can be highly individualized: Your libido could increase, decrease, or stay the same.
Talking about intimacy can be super uncomfortable for many people. If issues come up, Goldberg suggests mentioning that you’ve noticed a change, and that it seems like a good idea to start talking it through.
2. Your partner may envy you
When you’ve lost weight, your partner may feel envious, especially if they’ve been unsuccessful in slimming down. Frustration about their own lack of progress may pop up.
You may have changed in other ways, too. “Often, the person who has lost weight feels more confident, and that can create a dynamic of insecurity in a partner,” Goldberg says. “They see someone who is thriving—feeling better, looking better, acting differently, and taking better care of themselves, which can elicit jealousy.”
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Your partner may also be uncomfortable if you’re getting more attention since you lost weight, especially if people are suddenly flirting with you.
If you’re sensing this shift, Goldberg suggests asking about it. For instance, “You seem upset or distant when my weight loss gets attention. Can we talk about that?”
3. Your lifestyle changes can affect your partner
When a person starts eating in a healthier way and exercising while taking semaglutide to lose weight, their partner sometimes reacts or pushes back. They may feel that they’re getting less time with a partner who’s hitting the gym or walking with friends. They may miss the treats that used to be stocked at home or shared at the end of a dinner out. Some may even bring home those treats and try to entice their newly healthy partner to join in.
Semaglutide decreases your appetite by signaling to your brain that you’re full and don’t need to eat more. If many of your shared social activities with your partner have revolved around food—regularly trying out new restaurants, curling up on the couch with pizza—these may hold less appeal to you now. Goldberg points out that your partner may think, “We used to eat together, and now it’s completely different. I didn’t sign up for this. You did.”
A couple of suggestions if this comes up. Seek out more active things that you can do together. Go hiking, take a dance class, or hit the batting cages, for instance. And think about ways you can still visit restaurants, if that was a favorite activity before: Research places with food you’d both enjoy, and get a to-go box when you’re full. That’s tomorrow’s lunch!
How to overcome weight loss–related challenges
Communication and openness, especially about expectations and preferences, can help the two of you navigate these issues as you lose weight taking semaglutide.
“Be curious about how your partner feels about you using the medication, including how they might feel about you losing weight,” Goldberg says.
No one is a mind reader. Talk to your partner about how they can best support you—and how you can support them as well. If you don’t want them to comment on how your body is changing, tell them. If you want to have them cheer you on as you reach certain milestones, clue them in. If you want to be celebrated for your hard work instead of physical results, that’s good information for them to have. And keep checking in with each other.
Communication may or may not come easily to you. If you had relationship problems before your weight loss, those same problems will likely remain. If you and your partner struggle to put these challenges behind you, consider getting additional help from a couples therapist.
If you think a weight loss medication like semaglutide might be right for you, chat with a ReflexMD Wellness Advisor now. Or take our short quiz to see if you qualify.
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