The Americans skipping Ozempic to indulge at Thanksgiving

Taryn Langer is skipping her weekly dose.

“My sister-in-law usually puts out pepperoni bread, deviled eggs and cheese plate. I don’t want to have to miss that, or just be satisfied with that, and not be able to eat dinner," says Langer, of Glen Ridge, N.J., who has lost 65 pounds while taking the drug Mounjaro.

Powerful GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are changing Thanksgiving for users—and their friends and families celebrating with them.

While some patients are putting off their weekly injections to chow down, others are plotting to aid their digestion by planning the order in which they eat various foods and bringing water bottles to sip for hydration.

They also expect to fill up quickly and drink less alcohol.

“Where it’s freeing for me to be on these meds for Thanksgiving is that I know I can’t go too far," says Jamie Steinberg, 51, a former restaurant manager in San Diego who has lost 40 pounds taking GLP-1 drugs including Zepbound. “I can eat what I want, but my brain and my stomach kind of tell me that it’s enough."

Holiday menus are getting a makeover. Out are creamy and greasy sides, which many GLP-1 users don’t find as appetizing. So are saccharine dishes like the cranberry orange relish that Michael Donnelly-Boylen sweetened with long pours of sugar into a food processor.

“I was the one bringing the crazy dish" to family Thanksgivings, says Donnelly-Boylen, 52, an associate law-school dean living in Boston who has lost about 125 pounds on Mounjaro.

Now, he will cut out the maple syrup and brown sugar he added to sweet potatoes. For dessert, he will whip up a healthy pumpkin cheesecake made of high-protein muffin mix and low-fat cottage cheese.

The GLP-1 drugs work by suppressing appetite and making people feel full sooner. Many users stay away from greasy, creamy and sweet foods because they can exacerbate side effects such as nausea.

The drugs are given as weekly shots. Both their efficacy and side effects can wane as the days go by until the next shot. That knowledge has led to strategies—which GLP-1 patients have been discussing in internet chat rooms and on social-media sites—to skip or delay doses to maximize appetites for the feast.

“It’s almost like I’m training—the opposite of how an athlete would train," says Langer, 47, a founder of a public relations agency. “I’m training so that I can eat more on Thanksgiving."

It is fine for people to delay their shot for a day or two as long as they wait at least three days before taking their next scheduled shot, doctors say.

Dr. Ania Jastreboff, director of the Yale Obesity Research Center in New Haven, Conn., is advising patients who want to delay their shots to adjust their injection schedule accordingly afterward.

People who put off their shot until after Thanksgiving, however, run the risk of getting hungrier and overeating, says Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“I just tell patients to be careful if you do this and remember the hunger and food noise will come back," she says, which could lead to overeating.

One year when supply constraints made it difficult for Caley Svensson to get her Mounjaro prescription, she skipped her shots Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks.

“I was literally, actively sitting at the table, like, ‘OK, when are we putting pies out? What’s coming next?’" says Svensson, 41, an interior designer and content creator in Park Ridge, N.J. Her weight climbed during the weeks, as she couldn’t stop thinking about food. To avoid such food noise this year, she took her Zepbound as scheduled.

Similarly, Akili Martin plans to skip snacking, not doses. A clinical pharmacist from Wilmington, Del., Martin once enjoyed taking generous tastes of the potato salad and other side dishes she was preparing for her family.

Martin, who has lost 90 pounds on GLP-1s including Zepbound, curtailed the habit after starting on the GLP-1 nearly two years ago “to make sure I saved my appetite for when I sit down and eat."

At the meal, Martin plans to focus on putting protein and vegetables on her plate, usually turkey and collard greens, and avoid heavy, creamy dishes such as mashed potatoes. She also expects to drink less wine than she once did, and more water.

After dinner, she says she will be able to focus more on playing Taboo with her family than on thinking about grabbing another piece of pie.

“It’s about family, friends and spending time with those you love," says Jastreboff, the Yale doctor. “The turkey is just gravy."

Write to Peter Loftus at Peter.Loftus@wsj.com and Sara Ashley O’Brien at sara.obrien@wsj.com