Getting skinny with weight loss pills costs a lot of money.
And Staci Rice is working twice for the small benefits.
“I’m making money to afford the semagulide,” Rice, 42, who works three jobs to afford the expensive injections, explained to her more than 14,000 TikTok fans.
Classified as a GLP-1, appetite suppressant medication, semaglutide is the active ingredient in anti-obesity drugs such as Wegovy and the diabetes drug Ozempic.
Both prescriptions can cost users over $1,200 a month without insurance.
Budget-minded people looking for cash shots have turned to the black market, as well as social media markets, hoping to score discounted versions of hot items.
But Rice, of Georgia, tells The Post that she took a less controversial route.
In May 2022, with a cold supply of $499 for three months, the married mother of one lost an impressive 64 pounds, going from 207 pounds to 140 pounds in eight months with a GLP-1 compound. It is a less expensive form of medication that is not FDA approved.
“It was awesome,” said Rice, who has struggled with unwanted bloating since elementary school. “It was the first time something actually worked.”
After her drastic weight loss, she struggled with sagging skin and the dreaded Ozempic hanging butt, leaving her newly toned body looking bare.
So to celebrate her svelte success, the millennial underwent an $18,500 mommy makeover — a multi-part cosmetic procedure that included a full tummy tuck and breast augmentation — in April 2023.
She spent her life savings on the operation, money she had spent years saving as a “rainy day” fund.
“I had a lot more confidence after that surgery,” Rice told The Post with a laugh. “It was the first time I’ve worn a two-piece bathing suit since high school.”
However, in January 2024, finances became “tight” for Rice, a life insurance specialist, and her family, making it difficult to purchase semaglutide. She had already begun to reduce her doses, cutting back on weekly injections to maintain weight, rather than lose it.
“I was miserable, almost depressed at my previous job,” Rice said. “I forgot to take the medicine. Then I eventually stopped taking it all together.”
“I would say to myself, ‘Okay, I’ll start the medicine again,'” Rice continued, crowning herself the “queen” of self-sabotage. “Then, every day would come and I wouldn’t take it.”
After a few months off medication, her “food noise” — the persistent, intrusive thoughts about wheat said to be silenced by weight-loss drugs — returned with resounding force.
Rice, a recovering sugar addict, began eating more sweets and gaining weight back.
Relapse after discontinuation is an unfortunate but common side effect of popular pharmaceuticals.
Artemis Bayandor, 41, lost 15 kilograms in six months when she started taking Wegovy in August 2021. However, once she stopped the $1,400-a-month injections, her tan came back.
“The weight started going up like never before,” Bayandor said at 246 pounds. “I was greedy. And I’ve never been like that. I was so hungry. It was crazy the way it felt.”
“It was terrible, it’s still terrible.”
Rice, who gained 26 pounds in six months, echoed those sentiments.
“I noticed I had gained weight again and I wasn’t too happy about it,” she said. So, I got a side hustle to help pay for GLP-1.”
Her new gig in digital marketing supports her addiction to weight loss pills.
“I’m looking all over again,” said Rice, now at 176 pounds. She is currently on a 10-week semgalutide regimen of $305.
“It’s going really slow, but I’m hoping to get down to 150 [pounds] with some exercise,” she said.
And to make sure her coffers stay full — and that the flow of those head-removal donations stays steady — the worker bee recently took on another job as a professional health representative.
For the post, Rice buys businesses weight loss management programs, educating company executives on the benefits of offering specialized health care options to their employees.
“Obesity is a disease and, for me, treatment is lifelong,” she said.
“[Working multiple jobs] it may not be worth it to some,” Rice added. “But for me it is.”
“You can’t put a price on your health.”
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