To be concerned at the number of people lying to get weight loss jabs?

These threads always decend into chaos.

I can't imagine anyone thinks people buying fake, black market drugs to lose weight is a good idea.

Same for people lying to medical professionals to get the proper stuff. They have to go to some lengths to fake the pictures etc. Professionals run the risk of loosing their licences, so do have stringent checks in place. Some people must be very devious! Shame on them!

Everyone else? The 'real' fatties, with enough income to pay for it, and do the work along side, to see the results they need? Fair play and kudos. But these are not the people the OP is concerned about, or has started the thread about.

I just wonder why the OP specificly worries about people who lie to get WL drugs. Not worried about the ones lying to get benzos etc? Or taking shit cocaine? Just the WL ones?

Please explain why an extensively researched and reviewed, pharmaceutical grade medicine that my GP happily advocates I use, can be termed as 'crap'?

Yes, quite. If your BMI is already telling you you're definitely overweight it's ludicrous to wait until you tip over into obesity before taking a stand.

Obesity is extremely detrimental to overall health.

The drugs remove obesity and thereby remove problems caused by obesity.

See also:

Eating less and exercising more.

Seriously, you are breathtakingly naïve - and also (along with some others) are being hoodwinked and conned by big pharma. Desperate to push their weight loss drugs onto people who are desperate to lose weight.

I am actually genuinely freaked out at how many people are acting like it's perfectly normal to pump crap into your veins so you can lose weight.

WTAF?

Exactly.
The benefits of the weight loss drugs are all due to the weight loss.
Obesity is extremely detrimental to overall health. The drugs remove obesity and thereby remove problems caused by obesity.

You sound a bit miserable - you OK?

I was quoting from the article - are you saying you know better? Here's another one for you in case you struggled with the first.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/14/weight-loss-drug-semaglutide-reduce-heart-attack-risk-study

You're welcome.

For an obese person, needing to lose weight is a health issue. The weight loss these drugs facilitate leads to lower incidences of many and serious health problems. It’s the losing of the weight that makes rates of (say) heart disease drop. The drug itself doesn’t magically cure heart disease (as @mozempic was suggesting by linking that Guardian article above - classic case of seeing what you want to see rather than what’s written 🙄). I haven’t seen or read anything to suggest that the risks of these drugs outweigh the benefits for patients such as these. Bluntly, so high was their risk of death from heart disease or whatever that the known and unknown side effects of these drugs are worth it if they can get their weight down. What happens once a healthy weight is achieved I don’t know - and I don’t think anyone knows, definitively.

For a somewhat overweight person or even, god forbid, someone at a healthy weight but just not skinny enough for their liking, these drugs are a cosmetic issue rather than a health issue. This is about vanity for 99% of people (body dysmorphia is real, but exceedingly rarely diagnosed because of the conditions that have to be met).

Trouble is it’s the same drug, whatever the issue. It’s like Botox for migraines versus frown lines.

A miracle weight loss solution is second only to age-reversing drugs as the pharmaceutical holy grail. If capable adults haven’t learned by now that drugs companies are interested in only one thing - profit - well, there’s no accounting for stupid. And actually no, I won’t care. If you’re stupid enough to take drugs (not “medication” as some people euphemistically call them) for cosmetic reasons without medical supervision, that’s on you. Get the Botox, get the fillers, take the online wegovy, have the face lift, whatever. Your body, your choice. My choice to consider you a gullible and weak fool.

The drugs would not benefit you though.

Oh come on! Realistically we all know that as soon as these drugs are off licence they will be as widely prescribed as statins. Or actually very likely available over the counter. The only reason they are not officially available for under 30bmi is because the research isn't complete. And to protect the supply chain. Not because they are dangerous. They are cheap to produce, the price will come down and people want to make their own choices.

As far as I can see there's two separate topics being raised. I believe the Op was expressing a concern about the ilegal and unlicensed use of weight loss injections. Can't see any reason why anyone would disagree with that.
However, there is another discussion to be had about the ethics of prescribing medication or indeed surgery for people to lose weight. I think it must be considered the risks of obesity are high. Obesity is a metabolic disease caused by complex environmental and genetic issues, amongst many other things. It is not a disease of greed or idleness! The ill health caused by obesity is costly to the NHS and much more importantly is causing great suffering to the patients involved . Why should anyone be denied help, in whichever form is the most appropriate for them. Be this healthy lifestyle (best tried first) or failing that weight loss drugs or surgery.
For genuine need ie. Patients with BMI above 30 it should be made more widely available under strict medical supervision.

That's not what I'm referring to, people just asking questions about side effects. It's the confident un-evidenced claims that people who have no knowledge make, like taking these injections is "life-threatening", or that they increase cancer risk.

The huge demand for weight loss injections is bound to incentivize the black market supply, the unlicensed version won't be going away anytime soon.

Well, in the nicest possible way, they are allowed to believe that that is possible for some people. Lifestyle changes do work for some. If you've trued those and they don't work, then the drugs seem a good bet.

Wanting to know more about the side effects isn't misinformation.

@Milsonophonia
I agree but people have still seen fit to comment on the 'simplicity' of loosing weight without injections .

"This thread wasn't started to criticise obese people who use weight loss drugs."

And yet, predictably, that is what happens. Misinformation and prejudice pop up pretty darn quickly.

Someone cynically said to me that there was a big push for "fat is beautiful" and now there is a push to foist these injections on people, i.e. all a Big Pharma thing.

All I know is that the natural way is best of all. In a way, getting fat is TELLING YOU that you are leading an unhealthy lifestyle, so is actually a good warning system - and acting on it by leading a healthier lifestyle is surely the best way.

I would encourage everyone to get healthier/slimmer without injections, but of course each human should ultimately decide for themselves what they do with their own bodies.

This thread wasn't started to criticise obese people who use weight loss drugs.

Wow, that rattled your cage didn't it. Why so aggressive, why shouldn't the question be asked?

@BigComfyTracksuit indeed! It was more in response to the person who said they looked into it but the list of side effects put them off. I just wanted to point out that even the most 'benign' medicines often have a list of side effects that would terrify you if you read them, but no one is up in arms about those things because a) they use them freely and b) having a sore head isn't seen as shameful in the way being fat is.

As someone who lost 72 lbs pre covid through sheer hard work not to mention misery and mental torture only to regain it all plus more . I wish to bring following to the debate.

I have tried Mourjano and it really really helped to drown out the food noise and never ending dialogue in my head ..but, I found for me, the cost to be prohibitive and also the ongoing media debate and talk surrounding WL injections to be really depressing.

I discussed with my dr that I was going to buy it from an online pharmacy and she saw no reason not to.

My reason not continuing with it, apart from cost, is I'm a coward.
All my life I have believed if I'm not suffering I don't deserve any reward so
I cling to the negative press surrounding these injections and don't 'allow' myself to buy them.

The misery of being over weight consumes my every waking moment and indeed wakes me many occasions through the night.

Food has been my crutch and comfort since childhood as a 'cure' for various issues.

I suggest those who do not understand the need to help obese people,
Have never truly endured the misery of being overweight.

To say eat less move more is 100% accurate .........but not something we can all manage . Nothing is ever black and white there are complex issues at play in most cases of obesity.

It concerns me, but so does the fact that you can walk from one end of the high street and by paracetamol from every chemist/supermarket or laxatives and they aren’t regulated either, yet are used those who suicidally ideating or bulimic. My mother took 78 nylax a day and there was no controls for that either.

My concerns too...