Labour should invest in weight loss medications immediately

Taking morality out of it, I wonder how long you have to take these drugs for for them to work and not regain weight? Is it the rest of your life? Or at some other point?

On matters being self inflicted, the reality is that you won’t get very excellent help with addiction on alcohol, smoking, drugs in the NHS. You may be given some drugs and referred on to a support group. The NHS isn’t that well set up for addiction and so a lot is private. Obesity as food addiction or disordered eating is the same. There is some great help out there. You have to pay. The NHS model is still about patching up and sending you out.

I think, to my shame, I was a bit smug and judgy before steroids made me temporarily pile on the pounds. It was a sobering lesson and one I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Merely taking a medication designed to save my life gave my side effects that meant men felt it ok to yell "fat cunt" at me in the street and women felt they could give me unprompted lifestyle advice.

The steroids got stopped (thank fuck) and now I am on medication that instead makes my hair fall out. Weirdly I don't get abuse and judgement now the medication makes me bald instead of fat.

Similarly people with back pain from poor posture.
Or eye strain from screen use.
or brittle bones from under eating.

It's also a weird cognitive dissonance we have as a nation where we know there are lots of medications that cause weight gain but we just won't acknowledge it because we would rather be pious.

I saw a specialist because steroids caused massive dramatic weight gain for me (among other awful side effects) and they never doubted it had been caused by be steroids and assured it would come off when I stopped them - and it did come off rapidly. I have been baffled by all the compliments I have had about my "success" in losing weight when it was purely from stopping taking the medication that made me gain it. I am not a better person now I am thin again, and I actually eat more than I did when I was on steroids. My body just really responded dramatically to them.

But noone wants to think about mental health or medication as causes because it's far more fun to sit in smug judgement

It's weird how much moral judgement there is for obesity yet when I was anorexic I used to get compliments and praise and the kind of behaviours I had when anorexic are often lauded on Mumsnet.
Yet both overeating and undereating can come from mental health issues.

It would be interesting to be able to see the lifestyles and choices made by those full of judgement on this thread. Let's look at what everybody costs vs contributes since some want to decide who does or does not have a right to nhs treatment.
And if you want to talk about taxes there are services I have never and will never use but I contribute willingly because that is how society functions. I don't get to decide who does or doesn't get part of the money I pay.
Subjective moral judgements have no place in medical care.

What about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy seen in sports people including boxers, rugby players, American footballers etc. That doesn’t usually happen because of a one off injury but because of sustained and repeated trauma. Should we refuse to treat them?

Should we refuse to treat skin cancer in anyone who used a sunbed more than a certain number of times?

What about anyone who gets a repetitive strain injury from a hobby?

These all involve “sustained time and effort with multiple opportunities to stop”.

Because the vast majority of diseases and illnesses could be said to be self inflicted by lifestyle. Because treating the obesity epidemic will save money on treating all the diseases obesity causes. because it’s not so simple as saying obesity is simply greedy fatties choosing to eat too much. If it was the injectables wouldn’t work so well.

I had to stop reading this thread after page 3 or so because the level of moral judgement and vitriol displayed towards obese people is ridiculous. And no, I myself am not obese, nor have I ever been so I don’t have personal skin in the game here.

I hope everyone on this thread that is preaching personal responsibility and saying things like “why should our taxes have to pay for people who choose to become obese” is also campaigning for the nhs to stop paying for treatment of lung cancer (since 85% of the time it’s due to smoking - literally self inflicted) or cirrhosis of the liver (mostly due to over consumption of alcohol….again, self inflicted).

Why is supporting people with obesity any different to either of these?

It’s nuts isn’t it. Yet the majority of people in the uk are overweight and it becomes more and more common as you get older. I was a size 10 until menopause. Many other women go the same way. I bet some of these fat shakers will change their tune in a few years

What are those? Vast arrays of poor health and disease is contributed to by lifestyle. There are many things you could do to prevent disease- everything from eating healthier, not smoking, exercising more, working in a less stressful job, not drinking, not going overseas, not going out in the sun, not driving a car, etc. where does it end?

its “hard but possible” to avoid many diseases. But ultimately one in three people in the uk are obese. This causes all sorts of expensive health problems. Instead of shaming them, we should treat them.

My story, which I know is shared by many people shows that it’s really not that straightfoward.

Do mean any NHS treatment or just the weight loss injections?

No one becomes obese in a one off accident or drunken incident. It takes sustained time and effort with multiple opportunities to stop.

It's not superior to be a healthy (ish) weight and not want to fund weight loss drugs.

No, it’s a waste of money which cannot be spared. Where does personal responsibility come into play?

If someone engages in a combat sport are their injuries self inflicted? Should the NHS refuse to treat them? What if a woman wearing high heels drinks a bit too much on a night out and breaks her ankle - surely that is self inflicted? Nobody made her drink or wear heels. Perhaps we should stop treating skin cancer in anyone who has ever sunbathed? No HIV treatment for anyone who had unsafe sex?
No treatment for infected piercings or tattoos as they are purely based on vanity. Same for any cosmetic procedures that go wrong.

You have to treat based on need or you find yourself in a moral minefield of subjective value judgements.

Why is it that addiction, injuries due to drunkenness or risky behaviour are seen as worthy of help but obesity regarded a moral failing? Subjective judgement and moral smugness?

I'd highly recommend the following books to gain further insights into why so many of us are overweight:

Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby

User2460177, why should the NHS fund people with self inflicted obesity and subsequent ailments ? It's time for people to start taking responsibility for their own health.!@health

That might be a better idea.

Telling people to diet when they’re only slight overweight (which is what happened to me back in the mid 90’s after pregnancy) is never going to be the answer.

Like I said, I dieted myself fat. If I could go back to when I first started and carried on eating as I had in my pre pregnancy life, I reckon I’d still be stick thin. I’m the only one in my family who has ever tried to lose weight and the only one who is fat.

They really don't.

People know that at some point in your life you ate too much. But that doesn't mean you are now, otherwise you'd be gaining more weight.

Perhaps we should focus our efforts on ensuring people don't get fat in the first place then....

Except that the science increasingly doesn’t support that view.
Once someone has been overweight for a while or through yo-yo dieting phase the natural weight maintenance mechanisms don’t always work effectively anymore. For example leptin resistance becomes an issue.
https://www.webmd.com/obesity/features/the-facts-on-leptin-faq

Consequently, people are having to battle against their own metabolism. Their brain is signalling they need to maintain or gain weight because it no longer recognises effectively that the body has fat stores. In an ideal world people wouldn’t get overweight in the first place but once they have their metabolism can be damaged to the point where losing weight is a fight with your own body. After a while, obesity behaves more like a chronic illness.

Or perhaps more helpfully, target the big industries that control the misinformation and advertising associated with UPF?