To wonder what happens when you reach a healthy weight on Wegovy etc?

@Hoplolly
Yes, the cost is really tough and I'm sorry you won't be able to continue if that's what you'd prefer to do. I'm pretty confident the costs will come down in time as licences expire, generics are released and alternatives are developed so there is hope.
I'm just so exhausted by my life being dominated by weight so will sacrifice pretty much everything and anything that's non-essential to ensure I can continue. A year's supply will cost around £1800 maximum (plus factor in savings on food, etc) at today's prices so I'm very fortunate to be able to get my hands on that and if it means no 2 week holiday in Spain, I'll do that 😐

They're expensive but if you work out how much you spend on snacks and junk food, takeaways etc that you'll save

I'd love to stay on a maintenance dose @KrankyKumquat but there's no way I could afford that long term, so once I get to goal I'll be offer the MJ and relying on willpower and my new fitness regime (which I needed to do anyway, and I intended to keep up with to limit my risk of all the same risks you've mentioned, I am high risk for all of that!)

I've been on MJ for 16 weeks and lost 3st. Just 3lbs left till I hit bmi 25 but will continue until I get to bmi 22-23. After that, I intend to stay on a low maintenance dose for as long as I can. I've been dieting for 50 years now, on and off, so as far as I'm concerned no one can teach me anything about diet, exercise and lifestyle 'choices'.

Nothing has worked as well as MJ, including helping me kick a bottle of wine a day habit. I'm 58, post menopausal, and, luckily, reasonably healthy with no known chronic health conditions, but I have a family history of heart disease, high BP, T2D, stroke, dementia and poor mental health. If I have to take this or an alternative for the foreseeable future, so be it - the research showing positive benefits for all of these conditions is building rapidly and having done a risk/benefit analysis, it's the best available option for me currently and Ibelieve will save the NHS an awful lot of time and money.

Thank you both @SilenceInside and @Hoplolly

That's really helpful. I may be able to order one this month if it's nearer £100.

This website posts regular updates on prices from a variety of suppliers:

https://www.missmounjarouk.com/about-3

There is a thread on MN in the Weight Loss Injections section that collects discount/referral codes for the various suppliers.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight-loss-injections/5131241-mnhq-thread-for-referraldiscount-codes-please-dont-post-elsewhere

I get it from MedExpress, if you use a referral code (mine is J126RG) you can get £40 off your first pen which should make it about £110 for the 2.5mg pen. The 5mg pen is £150 and then they start to go up in price depending on dose.

Where is the cheapest/most cost effective place to get it from? I'm doing a lot of research but £200 a month would be a stretch for us right now, it's going to take some quite harsh cost cutting. But ultimately will be worth it.

Why, what is wrong with what I said? I don't understand.

I’m not frail and old! I have visible muscle definition in my arms and legs, and I’m working on my middle. I have loads of energy. I can run easily. I look younger.

I'll look forward to looking frail and old...

I want to lose the fat on my face. I have a fat face because I'm massively overweight, obese! I'd be a bit upset if I got to my eventual target weight and still had a fat face.

The people I know on these injections are now very slim, slimmer than they've ever been when young infact but they have lost muscle and even the fat in their face etc, and yes frail and older. Not saying this to put people off as I think that's much better than being overweight and unhealthy and unhappy. So I'm all for them.
And yes the food noise will return as before so once weight reached then will have to maintain as if lost normally.

I would say yes. I’ve been on different injections since Nov 22 started with Saxenda, Victoza, Trulicity until each went out of stock and now one of the latest.

I haven’t starved myself, barely suffered side effects and lost modest weight in a long time whilst being active. Went from top end of 19 stone down to 15.7 put a stone on in last 6 weeks as fell off the wagon.

Flabby skin in upper thighs, bingo excess skin upper arms and fluid retention in ankles. Despite remaining active for 6/7 days of week and losing weight slowly.

It use to be you had to lose a percent of body weight in such a period of time to stay on Saxenda but I notice barely a mention of this with the latest known injections and I wasn’t stopped when I admitted I’d put a stone on to the private provider after a 6 week break so the op’s query doesn’t surprise me, the other way is get roundable too.

I just don’t think I can handle the old weight loss medications my simba, orlistat and been fortunate no side effects and equally very well controlled diabetic results.

No @tiredconfusedhungry Each pen contains 4 doses (and a bonus does if you want to syringe it out!) and you take one weekly. So a £150 lasts you four weeks.

@Hoplolly thanks. That's quite a bit of money for me at the moment, but is 4 doses 4 months worth?

@tiredconfusedhungry the private prescription for Mounjaro is fairly expensive, can be from around £130 to £200 or so per pen depending on which supplier and any introductory discounts or other people using your referral code. A pen contains 4 doses, which lasts you for four weeks - you inject once per week. I find that I am spending less on my weekly food shop and much less on takeaway/fast food etc when out and about. So that helps to counterbalance.

I have heard of some cases where GPs have prescribed it but usually because of people having other conditions alongside like diabetes. But it's not common, and often GPs won't consider prescribing until you've been through more than one level of weight loss "treatment" like going to a weight loss group, exercise, dietician etc.

@tiredconfusedhungry Mounjaro (which has less side effects than Wegovy or Ozempic) is not available via GP yet unless you are diabetic, but it might be by October - however I suspect it will be very much a lottery as to whether it will be prescribed, and even then I think you have to hoop jump through the NHS Weight Loss Management service, which can take a year or two to get on in the first place. Hence so many people getting it private.

It's around £150-200 for four doses, depending on if it's 2,5mg, 5mg etc. Everyone starts on 2.5mg as the starter dose.

I would like to try it as well because I hate being hungry, it makes me as hangry as a toddler.

Thanks to those people who have posted some helpful/factual links. I've obviously seen these drugs mentioned but I'd rather naively dismissed them as a gimmick or something only celebs got. But this thread has been really interesting.

I've been obese all my life. Like a previous poster I was taken to weight watchers at 10 years old weighing 10 stone and my weight matched my age for years. I'm probably around 25 stone now, I've not weighed myself in years though. I've tried all the diets, xenical/alli which didn't work for me. My next step was to look into CBT to tackle my binge eating.

I'm wondering if this would be a better option?

My weight has never bothered me as such but now it's becoming a problem. I can't keep up with my kids, I know I wouldn't fit in a theme park ride if they asked to go and my knees are starting to hurt daily. I'm surprised I've got away with being healthy for as long as I have.

Can I ask, is it expensive? And weighing 25 stone + is there any hope of me getting my gp to prescribe it?

But my story implied that I was overweight when I was 12. What is so shocking about an adult being a (healthy) weight that is lower than when they were an obese pre-teen? Surely that’s a positive thing?

I’m not trying to pick a fight or be deliberately obtuse here; I’m autistic and I genuinely don’t understand, so would appreciate some clarity.

The loss of muscle mass is the same with any weight loss regime, which is why you/your partner in this case should eat high protein and do strength training. It's common sense.

I am one of the people who had to fib a little to get it. I was fat, just not obese.

2 months in and over 2 stone down, I am probably on my last pen. I’m on mounjaro.

I hope the fact I can eat so little and be fine will stay with me. Even without the appetite suppression, I know I do not need many calories. And I certainly don’t need my husband giving me a dinner the same size as his!

Even though I wasn’t so fat that it affected my day to day life, I feel so much better that I never want to gain weight again. I was lovely and thin my whole life until about 3 years ago, so my journey into fatness was short but horrendous and I had reached the point where I couldn’t stand to look at my reflection. No photos of me from the last 3 years exist; I’d immediately delete any my husband or kids took of me. I’m hoping to remember all of this as I go forward. All of my weight was around my belly, and I know how unhealthy this was.

I have t noticed any muscle loss, but I am a gym regular.

I'm pre diabetic and have fatty liver disease too

somethingsnappy

Yes, menopausal (50's), only 4 foot 11.

I'm 11 stone and my lowest healthy weight is 8 stone so I'm going to aim between 8 and 9.

I'm the unluckiest person on the planet when it comes to weight loss. When I was 15 stone I had to eat less than 1400 calories to lose weight (had a gastric sleeve to take off the 4 stone)

Now I'm 11 stone I have to eat so little and the only way that's possible is with this drug or I'd be starving and fainting

And I am very active - here's todays Oura ring - 21000 steps

So I have a stomach a quarter of the size of before and eat about 600 calories 😂