‘I Lost 150 Pounds With the Help of a Natural GLP-1'

In 2021, Richmond, Virginia, resident Claire Bodtke weighed 280 pounds. She had danced growing up, and was used to having a body that moved easily and quickly. But as the weight crept up over the years, she barely recognized the body she was in. "I couldn't use my body the way I wanted to," she tells Parade. "I had danced my whole life, and when I was at my heaviest...I can't even tell you how hard it is to not be able to do the one thing you love."

She cycled through different methods for weight loss, like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, always on the lookout for the next thing. While traveling for work, however, she came across a company called Calocurb. "I'm in the supplement industry-I travel around and sell product at events," she says. "At every event, I was always trying to find the newest, latest, greatest thing in the industry. This New Zealand company showed up with samples, and I went up and talked to one of their people and asked what it was. They said it was a natural appetite suppressant made from hops."

Calocurb is a GLP-1 activator, though it wasn't marketed as such when Bodtke first discovered it. "When you take Calocurb, it raises the levels of GLP-1 already naturally occurring in your body," says Dr. Edward Walker, Ph.D.,one of the scientists who discovered and developed the active ingredient.

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Taken in pill form rather than injected, it uses a specific variety of bitter hops grown in New Zealand, and works by activating the GLP-1 your body already produces and raising it slightly throughout the day. This suppresses appetite. "When you inject a GLP-1, it spikes and doesn't go back down for a week, at which point it's time to inject it again," Dr. Walker explains.

Not knowing anything about GLP-1s at the time and loving the promise of a natural appetite suppressant, Bodtke decided to give it a try. "I went home, took the recommended dosage, and for the first time, I actually felt full," she says. "For somebody who could eat through anything-I mean, we're talking giant Jersey Mike's subs-I remember the first time I ate a regular Jersey Mike's sub and stopped. When you're full and satiated and have that feeling, I was like, 'Holy crap, this is working.' It wasn't the 'food noise' statement everyone talks about now. It was a control thing. I didn't have any self-control, and suddenly I did."

Losing the First 20 Pounds

When Bodtke first started taking Calocurb in 2021, she lost 10 pounds in about six months. She was happy to see the number moving on the scale and found that she experienced minimal side effects. "Digestively speaking, there was more...movement," she says, alluding to having more regular bowel movements. "But I didn't have major digestive issues or anything like that, and it was better than being constipated."

The next time she spoke with someone at Calocurb, they told her she could up the dose if she wanted to lose more weight. Because they were still in the early days of formulation, she had to take 10 little capsules at a time to do that-but she lost another 10 pounds. "At 20 pounds down, you feel like the hottest thing in the world," Bodtke says.

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Introducing GLP-1s

Then, when GLP-1s first started to be used for weight loss in 2022, Bodtke decided to give them a shot to see if she could drop additional weight. "I got Ozempic directly through a pharmaceutical company-not by prescription, but because I was able to access it that way. I ordered it, started it, and never felt worse in my entire life," she says. "I couldn't breathe. I actually ended up having a vagus nerve issue, which was diagnosed by my cardiologist. I was throwing up all the time, nauseous all the time-it was debilitating. It can be a great way to lose weight, but it was a terrible feeling. I couldn't do it anymore."

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So she went back to Calocurb, eating well, and working out-she even became a Zumba instructor during this time. "I also started doing more meditation, breathwork and leaning into functional medicine. Finally, my functional cardiologist said he thought microdosing GLP-1 would be right for me, and I asked if I could take Calocurb at the same time. He said absolutely-that I'd essentially be continuing to activate the GLP-1 receptor, just on a much lower dose. We went from 60 units down to five. No more nausea, no more vomiting, no more terrible side effects."

Bodtke started taking a microdose of GLP-1 at the beginning of 2023, and that was when she saw her biggest weight drop. She lost 80 pounds that year, and combined with the 70 she had lost previously between Calocurb and the higher GLP-1 dose, she lost a total of 150 pounds and finally reached her goal weight.

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What Her Life Looks Like Now

Three years after finding the right combination of a low dose of GLP-1 and Calocurb, Bodtke has managed to maintain her weight. "I actually stopped Calocurb a couple of months ago-since I was at my goal weight, I felt like I didn't need it anymore," she tells Parade. "I'm still microdosing the GLP-1, but I'll more than likely go back on Calocurb when I finish microdosing, as my ramp-down. It's more natural, has no side effects, and I've heard a lot of people use it as a transition when getting off GLP-1s to keep the weight off."

Bodtke emphasizes that she finally feels at home in her body. "Literally everything is different," she says. "Before, I couldn't even use my body. Now I feel so much more in control of my body, my choices, everything. When my stress, inflammation and cortisol came down and my sleep improved, everything started clicking together."

Another thing she wants people to know? A downside of getting on a GLP-1 is that muscle mass may account for a portion of weight lost for some people, which can be dangerous, especially for women who are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. "My body composition scans showed that my muscle mass did not shift with the microdosing GLP-1 and Calocurb combination, which I think is really important, especially for women," she explains.

Up Next:

Sources

• Dr. Edward Walker, Ph.D., researcher at The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food
• Can Ozempic Cause You To Lose Muscle?Cleveland Clinic.

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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 2:25 PM.