AIBU to ask GP for weightloss jab?

The 'underlying cause' is the wide availability of food in our society.
This is a magic bullet and it should be freely available on the NHS
It really is a wonder drug
People who take it will have multiple health benefits

Gotta wonder what anyone would resent or be down on this ...

That’s not the way these weight loss injections work

it’s definitely not easy, it’s just easier in very particular ways.

I have asked more than once! So when I make a complaint and they no longer want me using their practice where do I go for my other medications, no need to answer I won't be making any complaint.

I'm sorry I know you're only trying to help but enough now, let's stop derailing FamilyFriend's thread.

Apologies to FamilyFriend, I wish I'd never said anything now lol

Insist. If they refuse again, make a complaint. If you are menopausal and suffering, and they're unable to provide any help, they have no grounds to refuse the referral.

I have asked! They said no

First, you need to ask for a referral to a menopause clinic. They are able to prescribe HRT when GP's are unable to / too scared to. Weight isn't a contraindication in transdermal HRT, as that doesn't carry the risk of blood clots like oral HRT does. But GP's are specialist in the area, so ask for that referral. Also investigate menopause clinics in your area to find the one with the shortest waiting list. Due to a non-associated health issue, my GP wouldn't prescribe HRT, and the clinic they suggested had a 14 month wait list. By checking neighbouring Trusts I found a clinic with a wating list of only 4 weeks.

If the underlying cause is leptin resistance and insulin resistance caused by yo yo dieting and/or metabolic changes that happen due to obesity then losing weight is addressing some of the underlying cause.

You, like many others commenting on this topic, don’t recognise that the steps needed to prevent obesity in the first place are not always effective in addressing obesity once it has happened.

Giving up smoking may prevent lung cancer but it doesn’t cure it.

Research is increasingly showing that being obese alters your metabolism and disrupts the feedback mechanisms your body has to balance body weight. Diet and exercise matter but if you have leptin resistance so your appetite never really switches off dietary changes are hard to sustain. The medication helps by changing your appetite both in terms of hunger levels and what you want to eat.

Thank you

Noooo sadly I couldn't get any help with my hormones, I was sterilised when I was 26 and so came off birth control/pill, then for 1 week a month the week before my period regular as clockwork I became suicidally depressed, I knew it was my hormones and I literally had no control, everytime I ended up in hospital suicide attempts, not cries for help, I should be dead after a couple of days my period would come. I begged for help, begged for the pill, the mini pill, depo. Anything but all I ever got back was "you've been sterilised the NHS won't give you birth control now so no"

I've recently gone through the menopause and now I no longer want to kill myself every 21 days, but I could rage at the world. I used to be 'tell me to jump and I'll ask how high' now I take no prisoners, tell me to jump and I'm fuck off you first, but can I get HRT or help with the hot flushes or the itching? nope!, too fat

For 30 odd years I didn't give a rats arse about myself, didn't care if I died tomorrow so why would I care about my weight. Stay fat die sooner.

My mindset has changed from all that, I look in the mirror and think 'omg what have you done to yourself' I've reached out, tried to get help, but fat chance .... oh well

OP if you are going to speak to them you might as well ask about a referral, perhaps Oviva? you might be surprised- mine were really positive!

Hi OP have a look at this - I have asked the GP to refer me and they said they would.

https://oviva.com/uk/en/

Are you under an endocrinology clinic for your hormones? If so, speak to them. I have it prescribed by my endocrine consultant.

As with any weight loss programme. Should people not try to lose the weight, if it all will go back on anyway?

The stats show a success rate higher than othe rweight loss methods (apart from surgery)

Its the best we have

Humans overeat where there is the possibility to do so. Being overweight and obese means its harder to make a dent it

The 'underlying cause' is overeating, so medication to treat this is the treatment, just like treatment for many other disorders where the primary symptom is treated.

Perhaps people may need a maintenance dose, so what?

People who have had success on slimming world for example, stick to the regime for life, if it works for them, thats great. No one cricitises slimming world or WW or CICO and says 'oh but if you dont do that when you're at target weight the weight will pile back on' as a reason to be dismissive of it. It doesnt make any sense

The medication is a tool, just like other weight loss and weight management tools.

So unless you sort out the underlying cause, people will still eat too much!

Stop the medication, the weight will pile on

This needs repeating, I think I might have given the calculation earlier in the thread or on another similar thread running at the moment

The calorie equivalent to put on a stone a year, is a couple of biscuits a day in excess of your requirement. That is all. Around 130/150cals a day, that is all, or lets say an excess of 50 cals a day and a few holidays as you say.

Then that is difficult to shift and the pattern continues, then its harder to be as active so you slow down more meaning those extra calories count more

Its incredibly easy, not lazy, not particularly greedy to put on a fair amount of weight and maintain that weight.

These medications just help the food regulation you consume in a country where we dont experience food scarcity.

Humans have evolved to cope with food scarcity not food abundance and certainly not sugar (or other addictive consumables) abundance. Our bodies want us to eat when food is plenty and our bodies want to store the reserves as fat. Our bodies want to keep the reserves. Because for most of human history that was necessary. But we live now and here.

People living in the UK and most of the developed world are faced with food abundance. Pimped out by a food industry that promotes its most addictive products daily and repeatedly on tv, radio, SM and anywhere else it can.

And it doesn’t take an awful lot to start laying down fat. Over eat by 100 calories, which is a slice of bread, each day and you will put on 10lbs in a year. Add in a few celebrations and that is a stone.

The underlying cause is eating too much

The medication helps people eat less

Its much easier to maintain a healthier weight than to try to get to a healthier weight by losing 5 stone.

@Lanzarotelady "Absolutely no point in having weight loss jabs if you don't address the underlying problem, which is too much in and not enough out!"

This displays a fundamental misunderstanding of what weight loss injections actually do. They change how your body responds to eating and hunger, enabling you to easily reduce portion size, stop snacking and eat more healthily. They help people to do the very thing you are exhorting them to do.

Or maybe people should be a bit more responsible for their health and exercise and stop expecting magic fixes - if you don't address the underlying cause then its pointless

I am sorry but consistency is the key, you need to track everything that goes in your mouth everything.

Minimum of 10 000 steps, strict calorie counting and portion control.
Its not an easy way of life, but you need to commit to it, absolutely no point having weight loss jabs if you don't address the underlying problem, which is too much in and not enough out!

Sorry to be blunt but that is the crux of it. Eat better, do more.

I am saying this as someone who is bordering on a 18!

I can't afford that. We spend 120-150 a week as a family of 4 on food. I have autistic duaghters who don't eat the same as each other.

We have no space in our budget at all 😭.

You won’t get it prescribed. Honestly just pay for it it’s not £200 a month more around £150ish. I’m on it and have easily saved that a month on food.

The moral thing is a red herring, there's nothing moral or immoral about it, but you need to do some mental work about seeing the scale go up sometimes regardless. Everybody's weight fluctuates within a few pounds. Overweight, underweight, normal weight, everybody. It's mostly water, and somewhat dependent on the contents of your digestive system. There is no drug on earth that will make you see a loss everytime you get on the scale. What matters is the moving average, over months really.

If they gave the jab to people with a normal BMI (and above) and prediabetes they could probably, in a single stroke, cure / delay diabetes. For prediabetes even going from a BMI of 24 to 22 can delay Diabetes. That’s where it would be most beneficial - to prevent normal people from slipping into the overweight category

I get no medical support with buying it privately, so it's up to me to do things like be vigilant about my vision, heart rate, digestion, etc. However my tier 3 clinic have said they can offer advice, but to be honest I've found the advice here on the weigh loss threads to be more helpful than the clinic.

But I agree that it is a magic bullet, and the NHS need to pull their finger out. It'll save them £££££ very quickly.

I'll also add my pre-diabetes reading has gone from 1 point away from type 2 to 1 point away from normal while I've been on Mounjaro - win win!