I told him a miracle has happened in the United States. I’ve always been heavy. Six children. Fifty pounds with each one. Never lost it. This was the only program that worked. The only one.
— Suzanne · Rivas Patient
The 50-Year Fight
Six children. Fifty pounds with each one.
I’m Suzanne. I’m 74 years old, I sell real estate in Frederick with my husband Bob, and I’ve been heavy my entire adult life. I had six children, and I gained fifty to sixty pounds with each pregnancy. I never lost it. Not after one. Not after any of them.
For fifty years I fought my weight. Lose five, gain four. Lose three, gain six. That was the pattern, all the way across, my entire life. I’d send Rivas my weight chart later and you can see it: a flat line of frustration for fifty years, and then the moment I started the shots, the line just falls.
By the time I was in my early seventies, my hip had gone bad on top of the weight. Going up steps, I had to step them up one at a time, like a child. I had a walker next to my bed for the trips to the bathroom at night.
I used to drive my car from my garage to the mailbox. Because I couldn’t walk that far. At Sam’s Club and at Walmart, I had to use the mobility cart. I couldn’t get through the store on my own.
— Suzanne
That was my life. And it had been my life for so long that I’d stopped imagining anything else.
The Turning Point
Nine pounds gone in the first week.
Another real estate agent in my circle had been to Rivas. We were in a meeting together one day, and she told me what had happened to her. I could see it. I’d been thinking about doing something for a while, and her success was the icing on the cake. I made the call.
I started in September 2024. I weighed 258. I lost nine pounds in the first week. That’s when I knew.
I was disciplined. The clinical team gave me guidelines, and I went a step further. I followed a low-carb plan alongside the medication for the first six months — about 20 net carbs a day. I checked the urine strips. I stayed in ketosis. I weighed myself every day. I kept a chart. The weight just flew off.
By Christmas of 2024, three months in, I was under 200 for the first time in decades. That had been my goal. I blew past it by another 47 pounds.
For 50 years I’d been heavy. I’d lose five and gain four, lose three and gain six. Once I started the shots, I started losing. And I never went back up.
— Suzanne
The other piece of the story is the hip. In February of 2025, I had a hip replacement at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore. I went off the medication for about a month around the surgery. I’d lost enough weight by then that the surgery itself was easier than it would have been a year before. The new hip plus the weight loss was the combination that gave me my body back.
The Results
The numbers speak for themselves:
From 258 pounds down to 153. That’s 105 pounds gone, fifty years of yo-yo dieting ended, and a body that finally moves the way it should.
The walker by her bed is gone. The mobility cart at Walmart is gone. The car ride from her garage to her mailbox, gone. At age 74, Suzanne is at her gym at 7am every morning, working through the stairmaster, the elliptical, the treadmill, and the weights. She joined a gym in Florida on a three-week vacation just so she wouldn’t lose the habit.
The ripple effect kept widening. Her husband Bob walked into the same Frederick clinic three months after she did, and is now down 45 pounds himself on six-week maintenance dosing. Her sister sees the Hagerstown location. Suzanne has personally referred between seven and nine of her friends and colleagues, and tells anyone who’ll listen that this was the only program in fifty years that worked.
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The Ripple Effect
The whole family got their lives back.
About three months after I started, my husband Bob walked into Rivas himself. He’s lost 45 pounds. He’s now on six-week maintenance dosing and doing fine. My sister, who lives in Cumberland, went to the Hagerstown clinic. So three of us in the family. All at different Rivas locations.
And then there are the other people. I’ve sent seven, eight, maybe nine of my friends and colleagues to Rivas over the past year and a half. I post on Facebook. I have about two thousand friends from my real estate career. Someone sees a photo. They message me. They want to know what I did. So I tell them.
I should be your poster child. I told them: I’ll be your poster child. Just give me a free shot now and then.
— Suzanne, with a real estate agent’s pitch instinct
I do it because I want to pay it forward. The woman who told me about Rivas saved my life. I’d been the woman in the mobility cart at Walmart for years. Nobody talks to that person. Nobody tells her there’s another option. Now I do.
Suzanne’s ongoing care
- GLP-1 Medication (Maintenance)
- Every-Other-Week Dosing
- Self-Tracked Daily Weight Chart
- Daily Gym Routine
18 Months, Start to Now
How Suzanne went from 258 to 153.
Before September 2024
50 years of fighting her weight
Six pregnancies. Decades of yo-yo dieting. By her early 70s, a walker by the bed and a mobility cart at Walmart. Drives the car from her garage to her mailbox.
September 2024 · Day 1
Walks into the Frederick clinic at 258 lbs
A real estate colleague’s transformation was the trigger. Suzanne starts GLP-1 therapy and pairs it with a strict low-carb plan.
Week 1
Loses 9 pounds
“That’s when I knew this was the right place.”
Christmas 2024
Under 200 pounds for the first time in decades
Hits her original goal weight three months in. Doesn’t stop. Keeps tracking on a daily weight chart.
February 2025
Hip replacement at Mercy Hospital, Baltimore
Pauses GLP-1 for about a month around the surgery. The weight loss makes the recovery substantially smoother.
Today
153 pounds. Maintenance phase. Gym at 7am every morning.
Her husband Bob has lost 45 pounds at Rivas. Her sister sees the Hagerstown clinic. Suzanne has personally referred 7 to 9 friends and colleagues.
A Message From Suzanne
Don’t wait anymore. Go in. Yes, the shots are expensive. But you’re not eating out as much. And you can’t put a price on the years it adds onto your life. The time it gives you back with the people you love.
I’m 74. I’m at the gym at 7am. If I can do this, anyone can.
— Suzanne, Rivas patient since September 2024
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Suzanne’s first step was a conversation with a colleague who’d been through the program. Yours can be a phone call. No contracts. No commitments. Just a team that’s been doing this for 34 years.
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